Ancona (ship, 1908)
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
.svg){kind=small}
The Ancona was a transatlantic passenger steamer put into service in 1908 by the Italian shipping company Italia Società di Navigazione a Vapore, which operated between Italy and the United States . She was sunk on November 8, 1915 south of Sardinia by a German submarine flying the Austrian flag, killing 208 passengers and crew.
The ship
The 8,188 GRT steamship Ancona was built at the Workman, Clark & Co. shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland for the Italian shipping company Italia Società di Navigazione a Vapore (commonly known as Italian Line ) and was launched on December 19, 1907. The 147-meter-long passenger and cargo ship, which was named after the city of the same name on the Italian Adriatic coast, was built for passenger traffic from Italy to the USA. The Ancona had two masts, a chimney and two propellers and was designed for a cruising speed of 16 knots. The passenger accommodation was intended for 60 passengers in first and 2,500 in third class.
She had two sister ships , which also entered service in 1908: The Taormina (8282 GRT), which was built by D. & W. Henderson & Company in Glasgow and which was in service until 1923, and the Verona (8,240 GRT), the also at Workman, Clark and which was sunk on May 11, 1918 in use as a troop ship by a German submarine , killing 880 people.
Completed in February 1908, the Ancona left Genoa on March 26, 1908 on her maiden voyage via Naples to New York and Philadelphia . From 1909 120 passengers could be carried in first class and from 1910 the passenger accommodation was designed for 60 passengers in first and 120 in second class.
Sinking
The Ancona left Naples for Messina on Saturday 6 November 1915 at 11:45 p.m. under the command of Captain Pietro Massardo with 174 crew members and 261 passengers on board, including four in first, 63 in second and 194 in third class . Most of the people on board were Italians. Messina was reached at 5 p.m. the next day, where another 61 passengers boarded, including 16 in second and 45 in third class. That same evening, the Ancona left Messina with a total of 496 people and 2,500 tons of freight for New York.
On Monday morning, November 8th, the steamer drove north of Cape Carbonara on the coast of Tunisia westward through thick fog. When the fog cleared around 12 noon and lunch was being served on board, it was noticed on board the ship that it was being followed by the German submarine U 38 under the command of Captain Max Valentiner , which was sailing under the Austrian flag (Position 38 ° 14′N 10 ° 08′E). At this point in World War I, Italy was already at war with Austria-Hungary , but not yet with the German Empire .
Shortly afterwards, U 38 opened fire on the passenger liner. The first deaths occurred there, as passenger shelters had been hit and some stairs had collapsed. Captain Massardo signaled the engine room to stop the ship to signal cooperation. The submarine also stopped and hoisted the Austrian flag. Shortly afterwards, a torpedo hit the ship and the Ancona began to sink bow first. The evacuation went chaotic because the shelling was going on, the list quickly grew and the ship continued to make easy drive, allowing multiple lifeboats capsized when placed on the water and its occupants were thrown into the sea. At around 2 p.m. the Ancona sank, leaving behind a large field of rubble, corpses and, in some cases, broken boats.
Most of the survivors were picked up by the French mine- layer Pluton and brought to Bizerte . Others reached the Tunisian island of Zembra in their boats and were picked up there by the steamer Eugenie Resal . Captain Massardo was among the survivors, as were the first officer Andrea Giacomino and the ship's doctor , Dr. Tomaso Giordano.
The numbers of survivors and fatalities, as well as American citizens on board and surviving women, vary in different sources. According to Charles Hocking's Dictionary of Disasters at Sea During the Age of Steam (1969) there were 194 deaths, including 11 Americans. According to Into the Danger Zone: Sea Crossings of the First World War (2014) by Tad Fitch and Michael Poirier, there were 208 deaths, including 9 of the 12 Americans on board. Dwight R. Messimer reports in Find and Destroy: Antisubmarine Warfare in World War I (2001) 300 dead, including 20 Americans. The number 208 is mentioned in most of the sources and is believed to be likely.
42-year-old Dr. Cecile L. Greil, a New York City general practitioner and later director of the New York branch of the Young Women's Christian Association who had previously worked for the Red Cross in Italy , was by most sources the only American citizen on board, as well as the only one surviving woman (other sources suggest several but few surviving women and children). Her affidavit, filled with graphic details, about the downfall before the American consul in Algiers , Dean Birchard Mason, on November 18, 1915, was printed in many major American newspapers and caused great consternation.
Consequences
Nine Americans were among the victims, which caused serious resentment between the USA and Austria-Hungary. An Austrian note to the US government on November 18 was considered inadequate by the US government, without any further reactions. However, the sinking of the Ancona was one of several incidents in the submarine war that contributed to the fact that the USA later finally entered the First World War. The Lusitania had already been sunk on May 7, 1915 (1,198 dead, including 128 Americans), and the French canal ferry Sussex on March 24, 1916 (approx. 50 dead).
swell
literature
- Gerald H. Davis: The “Ancona” Affair: A Case of Preventive Diplomacy . In: The Journal of Modern History , Vol. 38, No. 3 (1966), pp. 267-277 ISSN 0022-2801
- Charles Hocking: Dictionary of Disasters at Sea During the Age of Steam (1969), Lloyd's Register of Shipping
- Tad Fitch and Michael Poirier: Into the Danger Zone: Sea Crossings of the First World War (2014), The History Press