Canadian (ship)
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The Canadian was a transatlantic steamer of the British-Canadian shipping company Allan Line put into service in 1860, which sank the following year in the Belle Isle Strait off Newfoundland after being struck by an underwater iceberg .
The ship
The 1,926 GRT great steamship Canadian was at the shipyard Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in the Scottish port city of Greenock built and ran on 10 December 1859. Cartsburn dock from the stack . The ship was completed in March 1860 . On March 21, 1860, the Canadian made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Portland . Consisting of iron -built hull was 86.8 meters long and 10.3 meters wide. The composite steam engines were designed for a speed of twelve knots (22.2 km / h ).
The Canadian was built for the Canadian shipping company Montreal Ocean Steamship Company Ltd., founded in 1854 by Andrew and Hugh Allan , which quickly became known as Allan Line and was based in Montreal . This ship was named after the first ship of the Allan Line, the 1764 GRT Canadian commissioned in 1854, which sank near Quebec on June 1, 1857 without loss of life.
Downfall
On Saturday, June 1, 1861, the Canadian left Quebec with 301 passengers and crew on board for another crossing to Liverpool. In addition to passengers, freight and mail for Great Britain were on board again. The voyage went smoothly until Captain John Howard called Graham to a halt in front of Florin Light on Monday evening, June 3rd, because of the high ice deposits. At around 3:00 a.m. on June 4, the Canadian picked up speed again and entered Belle Isle Strait, a strait that separates the Labrador Peninsula from Newfoundland . As in every spring, there were many icebergs and floes there . Because of the heavy ice, the Canadian steamed at only five knots.
At 11:50 a.m. on June 4, the Canadian struck an iceberg just a few meters above the surface of the water. The shock was not very great and the passengers waiting for lunch thought nothing of it. However, the ship was ripped open to its full length and all three watertight compartments were immediately flooded. Captain Graham immediately gave the order to leave the ship, whereupon the lifeboats were made ready for sea.
The Canadian decreased half an hour after the collision eight nautical miles from land on the position of 51 ° 44 ' N , 55 ° 25' W . All people on board were able to leave the ship in the lifeboats in the short time, but one of the lifeboats capsized and all 35 occupants, including six first-class passengers, drowned. The remaining 266 survivors were rescued by four fishing boats and brought ashore in the port town of Quirpon. The Bark Jules brought the survivors to Saint John . Part of the mail could be saved.
Web links
- Technical data in the Miramar Ship Index
- The Canadian in the Clydebuilt Ships Database
- The Canadian in the wreck database
- Key data of the ship in Norway Heritage
- Report of the sinking of the Canadian in the Hamilton Evening Times, June 29, 1861
- Report of the sinking of the Canadian in the New York Times, June 15, 1861