Anglo Saxon (ship, 1856)
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The Anglo Saxon was a passenger ship of the Canadian - British shipping company Allan Line which was put into service in 1856 and carried passengers , freight and mail from Liverpool to Quebec . She was the third ship that the Allan Line commissioned. On April 27, 1863, the Anglo Saxon collided with a rock in thick fog in front of Cape Race on the coast of Newfoundland and sank. 238 people were killed. The sinking of the Anglo Saxon was the worst shipping accident in the North Atlantic to date and was only exceeded ten years later by the RMS Atlantic (545 dead). In addition, the Anglo Saxon tragedy is the greatest calamity in the history of the Allan Line.
The ship
The 1,715 GRT steamship Anglo Saxon was built in 1855 by Allan Line, which was founded the previous year, at the William Denny & Brothers Ltd. shipyard . in the Scottish town of Dumbarton on the Clyde and was launched on April 8, 1856 with hull number 56. She was designed as a large and modern ocean liner . Her hull was made of steel and had four watertight doors . The ship was 86.3 meters long, 10.7 meters wide and had a maximum draft of 3.9 meters. The steam engines developed 300 hp and allowed a speed of 13 knots.
On June 4, 1856, the Anglo Saxon departed from Liverpool on her maiden voyage to Québec and Montreal with a stop in Derry (then still Londonderry ). She needed eleven and a half days for the trip and ten and a half for the return trip. In 1859 she set her biggest record when she made the trip in nine days and five hours. The Anglo Saxon did not have enough space in its six lifeboats for all passengers on board.
Downfall
On Thursday, April 16, 1863, the Anglo Saxon departed Liverpool for another crossing to Québec and Montreal. She was under the command of Captain William Burgess. The cargo included mostly steel, general cargo, and a large amount of mail destined for Canada and the United States . At 6 p.m. the following day, the ship stopped in Moville ( Northern Ireland ), where more passengers came on board. The ship then continued its voyage in the open Atlantic . In addition to 85 crew members, 360 passengers (48 first class and 312 third class), a total of 445 people, were on board.
On Saturday, April 25 at around 8:00 p.m., the Anglo Saxon reached an area full of ice floes , and also got caught in a fog bank and strong winds . Your speed was then reduced as a precaution. Two hours later the engines were completely stopped because Captain Burgess did not want to risk the risk of a collision with ice in the thick fog. From around 5:00 in the morning on April 26, the fog cleared; the sails were set again and easy voyage began. Five hours later the fog was completely gone and the view was clear again. at 2 p.m. they had finally crossed the ice. Full speed was resumed.
However, on the morning of April 27, the weather worsened again. There were strong winds from the south-southeast, the temperature dropped noticeably and the ship steamed again through thick fog. The sails were hauled in. The Anglo Saxon's course was turned in a northwest direction and it was reduced to half speed. When, from 11.10 a.m., additional waves began to beat against the starboard side of the steamer, Captain Burgess immediately had the engines reset to full power. Before the steamer could be stopped, it hit the rocks of Clam Cove, about four miles north of Cape Race, just minutes later . The ship ran aground and was stuck on the rocks . The force of the waves pushed the Anglo Saxon further and further onto the cliffs, which tore off the propeller , the rudder and parts of the stern. Since it was evident that the damaged Anglo Saxon could no longer get off the rocks, Burgess ordered the ship to be anchored to stabilize it. However, the forecastle was already flooded so that no one could reach the anchor winch . The explosion of the boiler to prevent the valves were opened and the steam discharged.
The evacuation of the ship turned out to be very difficult. The lifeboats No. 1 and 3 could not be lowered into the water because they were located directly over the rocks and would have crashed on them. Three lifeboats (# 2, 4, and 6) were successfully lowered, but # 4 and # 6 disappeared and were never seen again. A large number of passengers, including women and children, were rescued by means of a rope connection to the land. Numerous other people were washed overboard, many holding onto the rigging and sails. About an hour after the collision, the stormy seas tore the stern off the rocks, so that the Anglo Saxon capsized to port and went under very quickly. A large number of passengers and crew members were still on deck at this point.
Summary
238 people were killed by the sinking of the Anglo Saxon , including 224 passengers and 14 crew members. 187 people survived (116 passengers and 71 crew members). Captain Burgess did not survive the accident. Two of the lifeboats with a total of 90 survivors were picked up on April 28 at 9 a.m. between Cape Race and Cape Ballard by the tug Dauntless and brought ashore at Cape Race.
Three other survivors who had made it ashore reached the Cape Race telegraph station that afternoon , and news of the disaster quickly spread. A boat that belonged to the Associated Press then set out for the scene of the accident to look for other survivors. The steamer Bloodhound was sent to pick up the castaways in Cape Race.
The sinking of the Anglo Saxon was the worst shipping accident on the North Atlantic to date and it caused the greatest loss of life on a ship of the Allan Line.
Investigation by the Board of Trade
In June 1863, the investigation into the accident by the Board of Trade , chaired by Magistrate Thomas Stamford Raffles, took place at St. George's Hall in Liverpool . He was assisted by two naval experts, Henry Harris and Robert Baker, as expert advisers. The commission of inquiry was chaired by James O'Dowd, an attorney with the Merchant Shipping Department of Her Majesty's Customs. The final report was submitted on July 31, 1863.
Criticisms were mainly the behavior of the crew, which was considered inadequate, and the fact that the lifeboats had not been manned to the last seat. One of the boats, which had a capacity of 45 people, was found with only five people on board. It was also stated that the accident could have been avoided if a Daboll Air Trumpet had been installed on Cape Race. This type of foghorn , designed by the American Celadon Daboll a few years earlier, could be heard six to eleven miles in thick fog and would have signaled the proximity of the land to the Anglo Saxon .
literature
- Charles Hocking. Dictionary of Disasters at Sea During the Age of Steam: Including Sailing Ships and Ships of War 1824–1962 . Lloyd's Register of Shipping, 1969
Web links
- Anglo Saxon wreck 1863 Consolidated contemporary newspaper reports on the loss of the Anglo Saxon
- Anglo-Saxon, Allan Line The Anglo Saxon in Norway Heritage
- WRECK SITE - SS Anglo-Saxon († 1863) Summary of technical data and sinking
- Entry in the Miramar Ship Index
- TOTAL WRECK OF THE ANGLO SAXON 1863 Report in the Liverpool Mercury of May 11, 1863
- Passengers on board the Anglo Saxon on their final voyage