SS Mohegan

Last updated

RMS Mesaba.png
RMS Mesaba, one of Mohegan's four sister ships.
History
Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
NameSS Mohegan
Operator
BuilderEarle's Shipbuilding and Engine Company, Hull
LaunchedApril 1898
AcquiredJuly 1898
Maiden voyage31 July 1898
Out of serviceOctober 1898
Renamed
  • Launched as Cleopatra
  • Renamed Mohegan in October 1898
FateWrecked on 14 October 1898
General characteristics
Class and typeSteam merchant ship
Tonnage6,889  GRT
Length475 feet
Beam52 feet
Propulsion
  • Single screw
  • triple expansion engines with cylinders of 32 inches, 54 inches, and 90 inches, and a stroke of 66 inches
  • Four boilers operating at 200 psi
Speed13 knots
Capacity
  • 120 first class passengers
  • 700 cattle

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. [1]

Contents

Design and construction

The ship started life as the Cleopatra, a mixed passenger liner and animal carrier. She was built alongside four others at Earle's Shipbuilding and Engine Company, Hull, for the Wilson & Furness-Leyland Line. She was rated A1 at Lloyd's of London. She was built for 'safety at sea' and was equipped with eight watertight bulkheads, failsafe lighting and pumping systems, eight lifeboats capable of carrying 59 passengers each and three compasses. She could carry 120 first class passengers, with stalls for 700 cattle.

She did not serve with the Wilson & Furness-Leyland Line, but instead was purchased by the Atlantic Transport Line, which was seeking to replace ships that had been requisitioned as troop transports by the United States government for use in the Spanish–American War. The other four ships acquired in this period were the Alexandria, Boadicea, Victoria and Winifreda, at a cost of around £140,000 per ship.

As the Cleopatra

Captain Richard Griffith, commander of the Mohegan on her last voyage SS Mohegan Captain Griffith.jpg
Captain Richard Griffith, commander of the Mohegan on her last voyage

She sailed on her maiden voyage from London to New York on 31 July 1898, arriving on 12 August 1898. A number of defects were quickly revealed, including the malfunctioning of the water system that fed the boilers, and a number of serious leaks. The blame was placed on a rushed construction, and the crew struggled to keep the ship operational. The passengers protested to the company about the poor condition of the ship, but also reported "the splendid conduct of the officers and crew." The Cleopatra returned to London, limited to half-speed the crossing took 21 days. Once she had docked an extensive programme of repairs was undertaken, which took 41 days. She then underwent trials, and was inspected by the Board of Trade. She was pronounced fit to sail, and was duly renamed Mohegan.

As the Mohegan

Bound for New York, Mohegan sailed from Tilbury Docks at 2:30pm on 13 October 1898, under the command of the 42-year-old Captain Richard Griffith. She carried 57 passengers, 97 crew, seven cattlemen, and 1,286 tons of spirits, beer, and antimony. She arrived off Dover at 7:30 that evening, dropping her pilot. A report on the progress so far from the Assistant Engineer was probably landed at this time. A few minor leaks and electrical failures were reported but otherwise no major problems had been encountered.

Mohegan then reached her maximum speed as she sailed down the English Channel. She kept close to the coast as she passed Cornwall, but took the wrong bearing. This was noticed by some of the officers and crew. They had noticed that the Eddystone Lighthouse was too far away and the coast too close. She neared the entrance of Falmouth Harbour and turned towards the entrance of the Helford River and on down The Lizard coast without slowing from 13 knots. This was noticed by the Coverack coastguard, which attempted to signal to her with warning rockets. The Mohegan either was unaware or took no notice, and maintained her course. James Hill, coxswain of the Porthoustock lifeboat, saw the ship, lights ablaze, heading at full speed towards the Manacle Rocks. With a cry of 'She's coming right in!' he called his crew.

Wrecked on the Manacles

The Mohegan wrecked on the Manacles SS Mohegan wrecked.jpg
The Mohegan wrecked on the Manacles

The crew were finally alerted now to the danger, whether by the signals from shore or by the 'old Manacle bell' from the buoy, and the engines were stopped at 6:50 PM, but too late. The Mohegan ran onto The Manacles, embedding the rudder in the rock and tearing the hull open. The ship first struck Vase Rock and then drifted onto the Maen Varses reef. Dinner was being served at the time, and many of the passengers were initially unaware of the severity of the accident. The engine room was almost immediately flooded to a depth of three feet. The steam gauges broke and the crew rushed to the deck. The ship was plunged into darkness soon afterwards. With the loss of power, the passengers made their way onto the deck, where attempts were made to launch the lifeboats.

Captain Griffith had ordered the fitting of a high second rail inboard of the lifeboats to prevent their being rushed in the event of an emergency, but this now hampered the launching of the boats. Further problems were encountered when the ship listed to port then heavily to starboard. Only two lifeboats were launched, of which one was virtually swamped and the other capsized. The ship rolled and sank 12 minutes after hitting the rocks, with the loss of 106 lives. Captain Griffith, Assistant Engineer William Kinley and all of the officers went down with the ship. Only her funnel and four masts remained above water. The Porthoustock lifeboat Charlotte was launched in 30 minutes and rescued most of the survivors from the wreck and the water; 44 people were saved. [2]

The recovered bodies are buried in a mass grave SS Mohegan burial.jpg
The recovered bodies are buried in a mass grave

Aftermath

Most of the recovered bodies of the drowned were buried in a mass grave in St Keverne churchyard, which was given a memorial stained glass window by the Atlantic Transport Line. Some bodies were sent to London for burial, whilst eight were shipped to New York on the Mohegan's sister ship Menominee. The Scottish poet William McGonagall immortalised the tragedy in his poem The Wreck of the Steamer "Mohegan" [3] Most of the cargo was salvaged, though a diver lost his life in the process. The wreck gradually disintegrated in the following years. The third officer, 30-year-old William Logan Hindmarsh, is buried in the graveyard in Coverack, with an inscription indicating that the boat company paid for his gravestone and interment.

The wreck of the Mohegan, and in the next year the stranding of the ocean liner SS Paris on Lowland point, led to the introduction of the Coverack lifeboat. The remains of the wreck are popular with divers, and artefacts such as crockery and brass portholes are occasionally recovered. A magnificent staircase salvaged from the wreck stands in Coverack youth hostel, at Parc Behan, School Hill, Coverack.

The ship's bell resides at the Bell Inn in Thetford, Norfolk.

Controversy

The sinking was the greatest disaster in the history of the Atlantic Transport Line to date, and occurred in mysterious circumstances, as the ship had steered some distance off course. The Board of Trade enquiry recorded

"that a wrong course – W. by N. – was steered after passing the Eddystone, at 4.17 pm." [4]

The loss of all of the officers in the wreck meant that no explanation could be found for the course, and it was ascribed to human error.

Related Research Articles

TEV <i>Wahine</i> Wellington–Lyttelton ferry, New Zealand

TEV Wahine was a twin-screw, turbo-electric, roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry. Ordered in 1964, the vessel was built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland for the Union Steam Ship Company's Wellington-Lyttelton Steamer Express Service in New Zealand.

RMS <i>Tayleur</i> Clipper ship sunk on maiden voyage in 1854

RMS Tayleur was a full-rigged iron clipper ship chartered by the White Star Line. She was large, fast and technically advanced. She ran aground off Lambay Island and sank, on her maiden voyage, in 1854. Of more than 650 aboard, only 280 survived. She has been described as "the first Titanic".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coverack</span> Coastal village and fishing port in south Cornwall, England

Coverack is a coastal village and fishing port in Cornwall, England. It lies in the parish of St Keverne, on the east side of the Lizard peninsula about nine miles (14 km) south of Falmouth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Manacles</span> Set of treacherous rocks off The Lizard peninsula in Cornwall

The Manacles are a set of treacherous rocks off The Lizard peninsula in Cornwall. The rocks are rich in marine wildlife and they are a popular spot for diving due to the many shipwrecks. Traditionally pronounced mean-a'klz (1808), the name derives from the Cornish meyn eglos, the top of St Keverne church spire being visible from the area.

SS <i>Valbanera</i> Spanish steam ship wrecked in Florida, US

Valbanera was a steamship operated by the Pinillos Line of Spain from 1905 until 1919, when she sank in a hurricane with the loss of all 488 crew and passengers aboard. Valbanera was a 400-foot-long (120 m) steamer capable of carrying close to 1,200 passengers. She sailed a regular route between Spain and Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Gulf Coast of the United States. The ship sank with the loss of all 488 people on board during the Florida Keys Hurricane in September 1919.

<i>Forfarshire</i> (ship) British brigantine rigged paddle steamer

Forfarshire was a paddle steamer with brigantine rigging, built in Dundee in 1834, and which struck and later foundered on one of the Farne Islands on 7 September 1838, giving rise to the rescue for which Grace Darling is famed.

SS <i>City of Paris</i> (1888) British-built passenger liner

City of Paris, was a British-built passenger liner of the Inman Line that held the Blue Riband as the fastest ship on the north Atlantic route from 1889 to 1891 and again from 1892 to 1893. A sister ship of the City of New York and a rival of the White Star Line Teutonic and Majestic, she proved to be the quickest of the pre-Campania twin-screw express liners. In 1893, she was renamed Paris and transferred to US registry when the Inman Line was merged into the American Line. She and her sister were paired with the new American built St Louis and St Paul to form one of the premier Atlantic services. Paris served the US Navy as the auxiliary cruiser USS Yale during the Spanish–American War and is remembered for slipping into the harbor at San Juan, Puerto Rico, under the Spanish guns of Morro Castle. After Paris returned to commercial service, she was seriously damaged in 1899 when she grounded on The Manacles off the British coast. Rebuilt and renamed Philadelphia, she sailed for the American Line until requisitioned again during World War I as the transport Harrisburg. After the war, she continued with the American Line until 1920 and was scrapped in 1923.

SS <i>Valencia</i> 19th and 20th-century steamship

SS Valencia was an iron-hulled passenger steamer built for the Red D Line for service between Venezuela and New York City. She was built in 1882 by William Cramp and Sons, one year after the construction of her sister ship Caracas. She was a 1,598-ton vessel, 252 feet (77 m) in length. In 1897, Valencia was deliberately attacked by the Spanish cruiser Reina Mercedes off Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The next year, she became a coastal passenger liner on the U.S. West Coast and served periodically in the Spanish–American War as a troopship to the Philippines. Valencia was wrecked off Cape Beale, which is near Clo-oose, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, on 22 January 1906. As her sinking killed 100 people, some classify the wreck of Valencia as the worst maritime disaster in the "Graveyard of the Pacific", a famously treacherous area off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island.

SS <i>Stella</i> (1890) Passenger ferry wrecked off the Casquets in 1899

Stella was a passenger ferry in service with the London and South Western Railway (LSWR). She was built in Glasgow in 1890, and wrecked in 1899 off the Casquets during a crossing from Southampton to Guernsey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Porthoustock</span> Hamlet in Cornwall, England

Porthoustock is a hamlet near St Keverne in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, on the east coast of Lizard Peninsula. Aggregates are quarried nearby and Porthoustock beach is dominated by a large concrete stone silo that was once used to store stone ready to load ships but is now disused. Coastal trading ships of up to 82 metres can dock alongside the pier along the southern edge of the beach to be loaded with stone. Fishing boats operate from the pebble beach, with lobster and crab potting, net fishing and hand lines as the principal fishing methods. The South West Coast Path passes through Porthoustock.

SS Jeddah was a British-flagged Singaporean-owned passenger steamship. It was built in 1872 in Dumbarton, Great Britain, especially for the Hajj pilgrim trade, and was owned by Singapore-based merchant Syed Mahomed Alsagoff. In 1880, the officers onboard the Jeddah abandoned it when it listed and appeared to be sinking, leaving more than 700 passengers aboard. The event later inspired the plot of Joseph Conrad's novel Lord Jim. The vessel was retrieved and continued to sail, later being renamed Diamond.

SS <i>City of Boston</i>

The SSCity of Boston was a British iron-hulled single-screw passenger steamship of the Inman Line which disappeared in the North Atlantic Ocean en route from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Liverpool in January 1870.

SS <i>London</i> (1864) British steamship that sank in 1866

SS London was a British steamship that sank in the Bay of Biscay on 11 January 1866. The ship was travelling from Gravesend, England to Melbourne, Australia, when she began taking in water on 10 January, with 239 persons aboard. The ship was overloaded with cargo, and thus unseaworthy, and only 19 survivors were able to escape the foundering ship by lifeboat, leaving a death toll of 220.

Rescue of the SS <i>Danmark</i> 1889 maritime incident in the northern Atlantic Ocean

The rescue of the SS Danmark began on April 6, 1889, when the cargo ship, SS Missouri, came to the rescue of the sinking SS Danmark and saved all of the passengers and crew of the Danmark.

SS <i>Arctic</i> disaster 1854 ship sinking

SS Arctic, an American paddle steamer owned by the Collins Line, sank on September 27, 1854, 50 miles (80 km) off the coast of Newfoundland after a collision with SS Vesta, a much smaller French vessel. Passenger and crew lists indicate that there were probably more than 400 on board; of these, only 88 survived, most of whom were members of the crew. All the women and children on board perished.

SS <i>Prinses Astrid</i>

SS Prinses Astrid was a Belgian cross-Channel ferry struck a naval mine 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) off the coast of Dunkirk, France and sank with the loss of five of her 65 crew. All 60 survivors and 218 passengers on board were rescued by SS Cap Hatid (France) and various tugs from Dunkirk.

References

  1. Myers, Peter (2012). "The Loss of the SS Mohegan". Maritime South West. 25: 34–51.
  2. Noall, Cyril; Farr, Grahame (c. 1969). Cornish Shipwrecks Illustrated. Truro: Tor Mark Press. pp. 13–15.
  3. "The Wreck of the Steamer "Mohegan"". McGonagall Online. Retrieved 24 June 2008.
  4. Board of Trade Wreck Report for 'Mohegan'. 1898. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)

50°02′41″N5°02′46″W / 50.04462°N 5.04616°W / 50.04462; -5.04616