Afrique (ship, 1907)
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The Afrique was a passenger ship of the French shipping company Compagnie des Chargeurs Réunis , which carried passengers , freight and mail from Bordeaux to the French territories of French West Africa from 1908 to 1920 . On January 12, 1920, the generators in the engine room of the steamer failed during a storm off the French coast , which was then unable to maneuver and was hurled against a reef by the sea and the gusts of wind . The Afrique leaked and sank, of the 609 passengers and crew members only 34 survived. The accident is one of the greatest disasters in the history of French steam shipping .
The ship
The Afrique was built by the British shipyard Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson on the Tyne in North East England . The 5,404 GRT steamer was built in the Wallsend Dock and was launched there on November 21, 1907. The ship was completed in April 1908 and began its maiden voyage on July 22, 1908 .
The Afrique was 119.2 meters long, 14.6 meters wide and had a maximum draft of 6.5 meters. The double expansion steam engines developed 7200 hp and allowed a cruising speed of 17.5 knots. The ship was propelled with a double screw. The passenger accommodations were designed for 79 passengers in the first, 68 in the second and 80 in the third class.
The construction was commissioned by the Compagnie des Chargeurs Réunis, a French steamship company founded in 1872 with headquarters in Le Havre . Le Havre was also the home port of the steamer. The shipping company specialized in passenger and freight traffic from France to the French colonies in West Africa. The Afrique was also used on this route from the summer of 1908. The shipping company Compagnie Générale Transatlantique had also previously had a passenger steamer called Afrique , which had been in service between 1881 and 1901.
Downfall
On Saturday, January 10, 1920 at around 10 a.m., the Afrique left Bordeaux for her 58th crossing to West Africa. The destination was Dakar in Senegal and other ports in the French colonies. The command was the 42-year-old captain Antoine le Dû. There were 135 crew members and 474 passengers (a total of 609 people) on board. The ocean liner, which actually had space for only 227 passengers, was completely overbooked on this trip. There were a large number of children among the travelers (19 alone in first class).
Among the 106 first class passengers there were some very prominent personalities at the time, for example:
- Hyacinthe Joseph Jalabert , clergyman and missionary, Roman Catholic titular bishop and vicar of Senegambia
- Victor le Rendu Longueval, journalist and newspaper editor
- M. de Monts de Savasse, naval director, captain of the frigate Mont de Seine
- Joseph Portes, head of administration of the French army
- Edouard Mora, Head of the Dakar Naval Administration
- Colonel Louis Brurigard, Colonel in Dakar (with wife)
- Pierre and Charles Gégouin, ship owners
- Charles Poiraton, then well-known sports pilot
- Léon Blanvillain, Governor of the Sultanate of Cotonou
- Louis Paul Adenier , director of the Chemins de Fer du Dahomey railway company
In addition, there were numerous military, entrepreneurs, bankers, engineers and administrative officials - often with families - on board who had settled in French West Africa. The majority of the passengers were French, but there were also a few British and Swiss. The cargo consisted mainly of mail in the form of letters and parcels, champagne, as well as construction and supply goods for companies and firms that operated in the French colonies. It had a total value of 20 million French francs (in monetary terms at the time).
The day after departure, in the early morning hours of January 11, the Afrique got caught in an Atlantic storm 25 miles south of Les Sables-d'Olonne . At about the height of the mouth of the Gironde , the engines suddenly failed, the ship was unable to maneuver and began to drift into the Bay of Biscay . The pumps also failed. Since the ship lurched heavily in the heavy swell, it was hardly possible to carry out repairs on the boilers and generators. Captain le Dû immediately sent a radio call for help, whereupon the two tugs Cedre and Victoire set out from Rochefort to come to the aid of the Afrique . Because of the heavy seas, however, they had to break off the journey and seek shelter in the small port town of Île-d'Aix . In the meantime, the helpless passenger steamer continued to drift rudderlessly and was tossed back and forth by the troubled sea.
The strong wind and high waves carried the Afrique with them and finally pushed them around 40 miles from La Rochelle onto the reef Plateau de Rochebonne ( 46 ° 3 ′ 33.1 ″ N , 2 ° 16 ′ 43 ″ W ). There the steamer ran aground and leaked. Around 2 p.m., the Ceylan passenger steamer , owned by the same shipping company , arrived at the scene of the accident . Because of the heavy seas, however , the Ceylan could not come close to the sinking Afrique and the crew of the Ceylon could only watch as the ship rocked and almost broke apart. From the left to the water lifeboats most were thrown against the steel hull and smashed, others capsized and its occupants fell into the stormy sea.
During the night of January 12th, the situation became increasingly precarious. Only two boats managed to get out of the ship safely. The 34 people inside were the only ones who escaped directly from the sinking of the Afrique . Only six of the 474 passengers remaining on board survived, none of the children on board and only four of the women could be saved. A total of 575 passengers and crew members drowned. At 3 a.m. the Afrique finally sank. The survivors, including the captain , were rescued by the Ceylan's crew and brought ashore.
literature
- Roland Mornet: La tragédie du paquebot Afrique . La Crèche, 2006.
Web links
- Summary of the sinking of the Afrique
- Summary of the sinking of the Afrique
- Detailed information on the last voyage of the Afrique (illustrated)
- Information on the book La tragédie du paquebot Afrique by Roland Mornet
- The passenger list of the last trip ( memento of March 7, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- The shipping company of the Afrique in The Ships List