SS Sagamore (1892)

Last updated

History
Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
NameSagamore
Namesake Sagamore
Owner
  • 1892: Sagamore SS Co Ltd
  • 1899: White Diamond SS Co Ltd
OperatorGeorge Warren & Co
Port of registry Liverpool
RouteLiverpool – Boston
Builder Harland and Wolff, Belfast
Yard number256
Launched8 September 1892
Completed30 November 1892
Identification
FateSunk by torpedo, 3 March 1917
General characteristics
Type Cargo liner
Tonnage
  • 1892: 5,036  GRT, 3,280  NRT
  • 1914: 5,197  GRT, 3,305  NRT
Length430.4 ft (131.2 m)
Beam46.3 ft (14.1 m)
Depth31.0 ft (9.4 m)
Installed power593 NHP
Propulsion Triple expansion engine
Speed13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Capacity1913: 60 second class passengers
Crew59
Notes sister ship: Sachem

SS Sagamore was a transatlantic cargo liner that was built in Ireland in 1892 for George Warren's White Diamond Steam Ship Company. In 1913 she was modified to carry passengers as well as cargo. In 1917 a German U-boat sank her, causing the death of 52 members of her crew.

Contents

Building

Harland and Wolff built Sagamore in 1892, launching her on 8 September and completing her on 30 November. She was a steel-hulled cargo ship, 430.4 ft (131.2 m) long, with a beam of 46.3 ft (14.1 m) and depth of 31.0 ft (9.4 m). As built, her tonnages were 5,036  GRT and 3,280  NRT. Sagamore had a single screw, driven by a triple expansion engine [1] that was rated at 593 NHP [2] and gave her a speed of 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph). She had one funnel and four masts.

Sagamore's UK official number was 102059 and her code letters were MVQR. [2]

In 1893 Harland and Wolff built a sister ship, Sachem, also for the White Diamond SS Co. Sachem was 15 ft (5 m) longer than Sagamore, but the two ships were otherwise similar in specification and appearance. [3]

Passenger accommodation

In 1912 George Warren sold a controlling interest in his White Diamond SS Co to Furness, Withy and Co. In 1913 the new owners had Sagamore and Sachem modified with the addition of accommodation for 60 second class passengers. [4] In Sagamore's case this increased her tonnages to 5,197  GRT and 3,305  NRT. [5]

By 1914 Sagamore carried a wireless telegraphy installation, operated by the Marconi Company. Her call sign was MPT. [6]

Service

On 17 June 1913 she ran down and sank the American fishing schooner "Olympia" off Sable Island, Nova Scotia, killing six of Olympia's. [7]

Loss

On 27 February 1917 Sagamore left Boston on her usual route to Liverpool. On 3 March she was in the Western Approaches when the German U-boat SM U-49 hit her with one torpedo amidships on her port side. She took half an hour to sink, giving her crew time to get clear in three lifeboats. But overnight a gale separated the three boats, and two of them were never seen again. [8]

On 12 March the Blue Funnel Line steamship Deucalion, outbound from the UK to South Africa, found one of Sagamore's lifeboats. By then ten men had died in the boat, only seven survivors remained and several were suffering from frostbite. On 6 April Deucalion landed them at Cape Town, where they were hospitalised. In five cases the frostbite had led to gangrene and the men's feet had to be amputated. [8]

Wreck

Sagamore's wreck lies at a depth of more than 400 m (220 fathoms), about 150 nautical miles (280 km; 170 mi) northwest of Fastnet Rock. [9] The nearest land is Dunmore Head in County Kerry.

It is in what are now the territorial waters of the Republic of Ireland. Ireland's National Monuments Service records it as wreck number W05890. [10] Being more than a century old, the wreck is automatically protected by the National Monuments (Amendment) Act, 1987, section 3, sub-section (4). [11]

Related Research Articles

SS <i>Glitra</i>

SS Glitra was a steam cargo ship that was launched in 1881 as Saxon Prince. In 1896 she was renamed Glitra. In 1914 she became the first British merchant vessel to be sunk by a U-boat in the First World War.

SS Montrose was a British merchant steamship that was built in 1897 and wrecked in 1914. She was built as a cargo liner for Elder, Dempster & Company. In 1903 the Canadian Pacific Railway bought her and had her converted into a passenger liner.

SS <i>Taormina</i> (1908) Transatlantic ocean liner

SS Taormina was a transatlantic ocean liner that was launched in Scotland in 1907 for an Italian shipping line. She was owned successively by Italia Società di Navigazione a Vapore, Lloyd Italiano and Navigazione Generale Italiana (NGI). Taormina was briefly chartered as a troop ship for the US Armed Forces in 1918. She was scrapped in 1929.

SS <i>Sagamore</i> (1893)

SS Sagamore was a steam cargo ship that was launched in 1893 and sunk in 1917. She was the only whaleback ship built in the United Kingdom, and one of only three whalebacks to operate outside the Great Lakes.

HMS Hilary was a Booth Line passenger steamship that was built in Scotland in 1908 and operated scheduled services between Liverpool and Brazil until 1914. In the First World War she was an armed merchant cruiser (AMC) until a U-boat sank her in the Atlantic Ocean in 1917.

USS <i>Oosterdijk</i> Dutch cargo ship that served in the United States Navy in 1918

USS Oosterdijk was a Holland America Line cargo steamship that was built in 1913 and sank as a result of a collision in 1918. She served in the United States Navy, with the Naval Registry Identification Number ID–2586, from March 1918 until her loss that July. Some sources anglicise her name as Oosterdyk, but Lloyd's Register registered her with the Dutch spelling Oosterdijk.

HMHS <i>Lanfranc</i>

HMHS Lanfranc was a Booth Line passenger steamship that was built in Scotland in 1907 and operated scheduled services between Liverpool and Brazil until 1914. In the First World War she was a hospital ship until a U-boat sank her in the English Channel in 1917.

SS Canonesa was a refrigerated cargo steamship that was built in Ireland in 1920 and sunk by a u-boat in the Atlantic Ocean in 1940.

SS Hatarana was a cargo steamship that was built as part of an emergency shipbuilding programme during the First World War, and sunk without loss of life in the Battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War. She was built as War Sailor, one of a batch of cargo ships that the United Kingdom ordered from Japanese shipyards. She was renamed Hatarana in 1919 when she changed owners.

SS <i>Orteric</i> (1910)

SS Orteric was a Bank Line cargo and passenger steamship that was built in Scotland in 1910–11 and sunk by a U-boat in the Mediterranean Sea in 1915. In 1911 she took 960 Spanish and 565 Portuguese migrants to Hawaii to work on the sugar plantations.

SS Verona was a transatlantic ocean liner that was built in Ireland in 1908 for an Italian shipping line. She was a troop ship in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–12 and in the First World War in 1917–18. In 1918 a German submarine sank her in the Mediterranean with great loss of life.

SS San Wilfrido was a 6,458 GRT steam-powered British tanker that was launched in February 1914 and sunk by a German mine less than six months later. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co Ltd built her on the River Tyne for the Eagle Oil Transport Co Ltd.

RMS <i>Amazon</i> (1906) British passenger ship

RMS Amazon was a transatlantic Royal Mail Ship that the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company operated on scheduled services between Southampton and South American ports including Buenos Aires. She was the second of the RMSP's fleet of "A" series liners, and was launched in 1906.

SS British Transport was a general cargo steamship that was built in England in 1910 and scrapped in Italy in 1933. In 1917 she became the first merchant ship to succeed in sinking a U-boat.

USS <i>St. Francis</i> Cargo steamship from 1914 to 1942

USS St. Francis (ID-1557) was a cargo steamship. She was built in Ireland in 1914 as San Francisco, and renamed St. Francis in 1918 when she was commissioned into the United States Navy. In 1933 she was renamed Lammot du Pont. In 1942 she was sunk by a U-boat, and 19 of her crew were lost.

<i>Rosalind</i> (1890 ship) British-built steamship that sank in 1914

Rosalind was a steam cargo liner that was launched in England in 1890 for Dampfschiffs Rhederei zu Hamburg as Tosari. In 1891 Deutsche Ost-Afrika Linie (DOAL) bought her and renamed her Admiral. In 1902 the Bowring Brothers' New York, Newfoundland & Halifax Steamship Company bought her and renamed her Rosalind. In 1912 the St Laurence Shipping Company bought her and renamed her City of Sydney. She was wrecked off the coast of Nova Scotia in 1914.

Teiryu Maru

SS Teiryu Maru was a steam cargo ship that was launched in England in 1914 as Northwestern Miller. Furness, Withy & Co managed her until 1927, when Norddeutscher Lloyd bought her and renamed her Augsburg.

SS Verdala was a cargo and passenger steamship that was built in Scotland in 1913. Several times she changed owners and was renamed: as Mongolian Prince in 1917, Istok in 1928 and finally Maycrest in 1940.

SS Potaro was a refrigerated cargo steamship that was built in Belfast in 1904, and captured and scuttled in the First World War in 1915.

SS <i>Frankenwald</i> British-built steamship

SS Frankenwald was a passenger and cargo steamship that was launched in England in 1908 for Hamburg America Line. In 1919 France seized her as part of Germany's World War I reparations. In 1920 the Compagnie de Navigation Paquet bought her and renamed her Tadla. A Turkish shipowner bought her in 1934 and renamed her Tari. She passed through a succession of Turkish owners, and was scrapped in 1967.

References

  1. ↑ "Sagamore". Shipping and Shipbuilding. Shipping and Shipbuilding Research Trust. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  2. 1 2 Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen (1893). Mercantile Navy List. Board of Trade. p. 256. Retrieved 4 February 2021– via Crew List Index Project.
  3. ↑ "Sachem". Shipping and Shipbuilding. Shipping and Shipbuilding Research Trust. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  4. ↑ Burrell 1992, p. 61.
  5. ↑ Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen (1914). Mercantile Navy List. Board of Trade. p. 497. Retrieved 4 February 2021– via Crew List Index Project.
  6. ↑ The Marconi Press Agency Ltd 1914, p. 406.
  7. ↑ "Lost at sea". gloucester-ma.gov. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  8. 1 2 Burrell 1992, p. 74.
  9. ↑ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Sagamore" . Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  10. ↑ "Sagamore (SS)". Wreck Viewer. National Monuments Service. Retrieved 4 February 2021. Insert either the name "Sagamore" or number "W05890" to zoom in on the position.
  11. ↑ "National Monuments (Amendment) Act, 1987". electronic Irish Statute Book . Oireachtas . Retrieved 4 February 2021.

Bibliography

51°50′N14°00′W / 51.833°N 14.000°W / 51.833; -14.000

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.