SS Deutschland (1866)

Last updated

History
Admiralty flag of Hamburg.svg / Flag of the German Empire.svg Hamburg / Germany
NameDeutschland
Operator Norddeutscher Lloyd
Port of registry Hamburg
Builder Caird & Company, Greenock, Scotland
Launched29 May 1866
FateWrecked, 6 December 1875, Kentish Knock
General characteristics
TypePassenger cargo vessel
Tonnage2,800  gross register tons  (GRT)
Displacement2,278 tons
Length325 ft (99 m)
Beam40 ft (12 m)
PropulsionSteam, single propeller
Speed11 kn (20 km/h)
Crew90

Deutschland was an iron passenger steamship of the Norddeutscher Lloyd line, built by Caird & Company of Greenock, Scotland in 1866.

Contents

History

Deutschland was built as an emigrant passenger ship. She entered service on 7 October 1866 and arrived at New York on her maiden voyage on 28 October. [1] [2] On 8 August 1869, she collided with and sank the British schooner Mary Bottwood off Hastings, Sussex, United Kingdom, killing three of her four crew and rescuing the survivor. [3]

Loss

The wreck of the Deutschland Wreck of the Deutschland.jpg
The wreck of the Deutschland

The Deutschland sailed from Bremerhaven on 4 December 1875, commanded by Captain Eduard Brickenstein, with 123 emigrants bound for New York via Southampton. Weather conditions were very bad with heavy snowstorms, and the ship had no clear idea of her position until, at 05:00 on 6 December, she ran aground in a blizzard on the Kentish Knock, a shoal 23 mi (37 km) off Harwich and 22 mi (35 km) from Margate, 3 mi (4.8 km) from the Kentish Knock lightvessel, and out of sight from shore. [4] [5] At the time she was 30 mi (48 km) from where Captain Brickenstein estimated she was.

Shortly before grounding, an attempt was made to go astern but this failed when the stress fractured the ship's propeller. [4] [5] Driven onto the sandbank, the vessel began to take on water and as the tide rose she failed to lift off the shoal as had been expected. When the sea began to break over her, and the wind rose to gale force, the order was given to abandon ship, causing some panic. [5] One boat was launched, but was swamped, while a second boat, with the quartermaster, a sailor and a passenger aboard, went adrift and eventually reached shore on the Isle of Sheppey the next day with only the quartermaster left alive. [5] The remaining boats were later washed away or destroyed by the stormy seas. [5]

Distress rockets were seen on the morning of 6 December by the Sunk lightship, which tried through the day to attract the attention of passing shipping, without success. [4] [6] Later, rockets from that light vessel were seen by another, whose own rockets were seen at Harwich in the evening, though neither the nature nor location of the casualty were known. The paddle tug Liverpool was dispatched at daylight on 7 December, reaching the Deutschland via the sequence of light vessels, and embarked all 173 still alive on the wreck. [4]

Aftermath

Soon after the news of the disaster had broken, the wreck was raided by men from the nearby coastal towns, particularly Harwich and Ramsgate. An artist from the Illustrated London News produced an illustration of the scene which depicted the wreckers as resembling a flock of vultures. The Times also described the scene, saying that corpses had been ransacked, and their jewellery stolen.

While there were some far-fetched suggestions that the Deutschland had been deliberately wrecked, there were well-founded allegations of deliberate delay in coming to the ship's assistance, as well as some of negligence. The Times published a leader which said that the Deutschland's grounding had been known for 15 hours of the 30 hours it took for the tug Liverpool to come to her aid, and Captain Carrington, her master, was criticized for his slowness in acting.

The Board of Trade enquiry into the accident opened at Poplar, London, on 20 December. [6] It was not usual to hold such an enquiry in the case of a foreign registered vessel being wrecked outside the three-mile limit, and it may have been done to respond to the criticisms which had been raised regarding the delay in coming to the ship's aid. Charles Butt QC, who had been briefed by the German government, stated that it was surprising that "a large steamer with upwards of 200 persons aboard should have lain on a dangerous sand close to the English coast for thirty hours before any assistance came to her". [6]

The enquiry eventually exonerated everyone of any blame except Captain Brickenstein, who, it was decided, had "let his vessel get ahead in its reckoning" and "shown a very great want of care and judgement". Brickenstein asked the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck for an official German investigation, but this was ruled out.

A wreck was found in 1969 on the northwestern side of Kentish Knock near the site of the disaster. It lies at a general depth of 14 m. While it could not be definitely identified, its size, condition, and items found by the maritime archeologist Andreas Stolpe in 2005 suggest that it is that of the Deutschland. [7]

Legacy

Grave in St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cemetery of four of the nuns drowned in the wreck of the Deutschland The Wreck of the Deutschland,St Patrick's Cemetery, Leytonstone, E11.jpg
Grave in St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cemetery of four of the nuns drowned in the wreck of the Deutschland

Among the victims of the shipwreck were five Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Hearts from Salzkotten, Westphalia, in the Kingdom of Prussia, who had been emigrating to the United States. This was both to escape the anti-Catholic Falk Laws and to answer the need for nursing care in the German population of St. Louis, Missouri. Their deaths inspired Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins to compose the poem The Wreck of the Deutschland . Four of the five Sisters were buried in St. Patrick's Cemetery in Leytonstone, London, (a fifth whose body was never found is recorded on the memorial) and their deaths are commemorated every year in a memorial service held on 6 December in Wheaton, Illinois, by the Franciscan Sisters of their religious congregation now headquartered there. [8]

See also

Citations

  1. ↑ Die Entwickelung des Norddeutschen Lloyd Bremen (in German). Bremen: H M Hauschildt (reprint 2013, Maritime Press, Bremen). 1912. p. 17. ISBN   9783954273300 . Retrieved 9 February 2016.
  2. ↑ "European News". New York Times. 29 October 1866. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
  3. ↑ "Ship News". The Times. No. 26513. London. 11 August 1869. col F, p. 9.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Hocking, Charles (1969). Dictionary of Disasters at Sea, Vol 1. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. p. 186.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "The Loss of the Deutschland". The Times. No. 28494. London. 9 December 1875. p. 6.
  6. 1 2 3 "The Loss Of The Deutschland [Inquiry 1st day]". The Times. No. 28504. London. 21 December 1875. p. 8.
  7. ↑ "Deutschland". Pastscape. Historic England.
  8. ↑ "The Deutschland". Wheaton Franciscans.

Related Research Articles

SS <i>Cap Arcona</i> German ship of the 1930s and 40s

SS Cap Arcona, named after Cape Arkona on the island of Rügen, was a large German ocean liner, later a ship of the Kriegsmarine, and finally a prison ship. A flagship of the Hamburg Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft, she made her maiden voyage on 29 October 1927, carrying passengers and cargo between Germany and the east coast of South America, and for a brief period of time she was the largest and fastest ship on the route, until one month later she was surpassed on the same Europe-South America route by the Italian liner MS Augustus.

HMS <i>Captain</i> (1869) British warship

HMS Captain was a major warship built for the Royal Navy as a semi-private venture, following a dispute between the designer and the Admiralty. With wrought-iron armour, steam propulsion, and the main battery mounted in rotating armoured turrets, the ship was, at first appearance, quite innovative and formidable. However, poor design and design changes resulted in a vessel that was overweight and ultimately unstable. In terms of seaworthiness she was reported as closely comparable to the higher freeboard turret-ship HMS Monarch, but her reduced freeboard added a sense of "sluggishness". The Captain capsized in heavy seas, only five months after being commissioned, with the loss of nearly 500 lives.

HMS <i>Cobra</i> (1899) Turbine-powered destroyer of the Royal Navy.

HMS Cobra was a turbine-powered destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was built speculatively by Armstrong Whitworth and then offered for sale to the British Admiralty. She was launched on 28 June 1899, and purchased by the Navy on 8 May 1900 for £70,000.

SS <i>Europa</i> (1928) German, later French ocean liner in service 1928-1962

SS Europa, later SS Liberté IMO 5607332, was a German ocean liner built for the Norddeutsche Lloyd line (NDL) to work the transatlantic sea route. Launched in 1928, she and her sister ship, Bremen, were the two most advanced, high-speed steam turbine ocean vessels in their day, with both earning the Blue Riband.

SS <i>Atlantic</i> (1870) Transatlantic liner, sank disastrously 1873

SS Atlantic was a transatlantic ocean liner of the White Star Line, and second ship of the Oceanic-class. The ship operated between Liverpool, United Kingdom, and New York City, United States. During the ship's 19th voyage, on 1 April 1873, she struck rocks and sank off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, killing at least 535 people. It remained the deadliest civilian maritime disaster in the North Atlantic Ocean until the sinking of SS La Bourgogne on 2 July 1898 and the greatest disaster for the White Star Line prior to the sinking of the Titanic in April 1912.

SS <i>Rohilla</i>

Rohilla was a passenger steamer of the British India Steam Navigation Company which was built for service between the UK and India, and as a troopship. After becoming a hospital ship in the First World War, She ran aground in October 1914, near Whitby, with the loss of 83 lives.

SS <i>Elbe</i> (1881) Transatlantic ocean liner

SS Elbe was a transatlantic ocean liner built in the Govan Shipyard of John Elder & Company Ltd., Glasgow, in 1881 for the Norddeutscher Lloyd of Bremen. She foundered on the night of 30 January 1895 following a collision in the North Sea with the steamship Crathie, resulting in the loss of 334 lives.

German submarine <i>Deutschland</i>

Deutschland was a blockade-breaking German merchant submarine used during World War I. It was developed with private funds and operated by the North German Lloyd Line. She was the first of seven U-151-class U-boats built and one of only two used as unarmed cargo submarines.

SS <i>Gothenburg</i> British steamship wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef

SS Gothenburg was an iron-hulled sail- and steamship that was built in England in 1854 and sailed between England and Sweden until 1862. She then moved to Australia, where she operated across the Tasman Sea to and from New Zealand until 1873, when she was rebuilt. After her rebuild, she operated in the Australian coastal trade.

HMS Pendennis was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Kingdom of England built at Chatham in 1677/79. She was in the War of English Succession. She was in the Battle of Bantry Bay. She was wrecked on the Kentish Knock in October 1689.

SS <i>Donau</i> (1929) German cargo steamship sunk by Norwegian resistance in 1945

SS Donau was a Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) refrigerated cargo steamship that was built in Germany in 1929 and sunk in occupied Norway in 1945. In the 1930s she sailed mostly between Bremen and the West Coast of the United States via the Panama Canal.

SS <i>Mohegan</i> British steamship wrecked off of Cornwall in 1898

The SS Mohegan was a steamer which sank off the coast of the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall, on her second voyage. She hit The Manacles on 14 October 1898 with the loss of 106 out of 197 on board.

<i>Alf</i> (barque) Three-masted Norwegian barque

Alf was a three-masted Norwegian barque which became stranded and then wrecked on 23 November 1909 on Haisbro Sands, off the coast of Norfolk. She was originally built in 1876 as Inchgreen for Scottish owners. In the 1890s she was sold to Danish owners and renamed Adolph Harboe. Around the turn of the 20th century she was sold to Norwegian owners and renamed Alf, serving until she was wrecked off the coast of Norfolk.

SS <i>Clan Ranald</i> (1900) Turret deck steamship that sank off the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia

SS Clan Ranald is a steamship wreck off the coast of South Australia that is of unique historic importance. She is the only example in Australian waters of a turret deck ship: a type of steel-hulled cargo ship with an unusual hull shape that was built in the 1890s and 1900s.

PS <i>Avalon</i>

PS Avalon was an iron paddle passenger vessel built on the River Thames for the Great Eastern Railway in 1864 for their ferry services from Harwich to Rotterdam and Antwerp. Before the end of that year she was bought by British interests to assist with the commissioning of the Confederate iron-clad CSS Stonewall, and renamed City of Richmond. After the war she was renamed Agnes Arkle and sold in Brazil in 1865.

Sir Godfrey Webster was launched in 1799. She was a West Indiaman until 1812 when she made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC). On her return she returned to trading with the West Indies. However, she then performed two voyages transporting convicts, the first to Van Diemen's Land, and the second to New South Wales. She ran into difficulties on her way home from Singapore after the second voyage and was condemned at Mauritius.

Queen Cristina was a steam cargo ship built in 1901 by the Northumberland Shipbuilding Co of Newcastle for Thomas Dunlop & Sons of Glasgow. The ship was designed and built for general cargo trade and spent her career doing tramp trade. She was the second ship named Queen Cristina in service with the Queen Line.

SS <i>Monterey</i> (1897)

Monterey was a cargo schooner-rigged steamer built in 1897 by the Palmer's Ship Building & Iron Co of Jarrow for Elder, Dempster & Co. of Liverpool to serve on their cross-Atlantic routes.

Anglo-African was a steam cargo ship built in 1900 by the Short Brothers of Sunderland for Lawther, Latta & Co. of London with intention of operating on their Australian routes. The vessel operated mostly on South America to North America route during her career and was wrecked on one of her regular voyages in January 1909.

SS <i>Franz Fischer</i> British-built collier (1881–1916)

SS Franz Fischer was an iron-hulled collier that was built in England as Rocklands in 1881, renamed Franz Fischer in 1913, and sunk by enemy action in 1916. She was owned and registered in Britain until 1896, when she passed to German owners. In August 1914 the UK Admiralty seized her and placed her under British civilian management.

References

Wikisource-logo.svg Works related to The Wreck of the Deutschland at Wikisource

51°40′00″N01°37′00″E / 51.66667°N 1.61667°E / 51.66667; 1.61667

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.