City of Columbus
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The City of Columbus was a passenger ship of the US-American shipping company Ocean Steamship Company put into service in 1878 , which was sold to the Boston & Savannah Steamship Company in 1881 and was used for the transport of passengers, mail and cargo between Boston and Savannah on the east coast until 1884 the United States was deployed. The City of Columbus sank off Martha's Vineyard Island on the coast of Massachusetts on January 18, 1884 after crashing into an underwater rock in stormy weather. 29 people were rescued, while 103 drowned or frozen to death in the ice-cold water, including all women and children on board.
The ship
Consisting of iron -built passenger and cargo ship City of Columbus was in the shipyard of John Roach & Sons in Chester in the State of Pennsylvania built and ran on 19 June in 1878 on the Delaware River from the stack . It was completed the following month. The 2250 GRT steamship with hull number 182 was 83.82 m long and 11.58 m wide. The deck superstructures were made of wood . The ship had a single propeller , a single chimney and two masts with sails that were common for the time. The two composite steam engines achieved an output of 1500 hp and helped the ship to a maximum cruising speed of 12.5 knots. A total of 200 passengers could be accommodated in 42 luxury cabins and a number of simpler cabins in the tween deck. Up to 2500 tons of cargo could be stowed in the holds.
The City of Columbus was built for the Ocean Steamship Company, which was founded in 1872 and had its headquarters in Savannah and was therefore often only called the Savannah Line . The ships of this company commuted between Savannah and New York and represented one of the most important connections in passenger and freight traffic between the southern states and New England at the time. On August 28, 1878, the City of Columbus in New York made its maiden voyage to Savannah, where she arrived on September 2nd. From then on, the ship ran weekly on its regular trips.
Business was booming, so that in 1880 three new, larger ships were ordered. To finance the construction of these ships, the City of Columbus and its sister ship Gate City , which was also commissioned in 1878 , were sold to the Nickerson Company in 1881, from which the Boston & Savannah Steamship Company, based in Boston, emerged in 1882. Their ships traveled regularly from Boston, Massachusetts to Savannah, Georgia . The City of Columbus proved very popular among Boston business travelers and the New England audience in general.
Downfall
Departure from Boston
On Thursday, January 17, 1884, the City of Columbus set off at 3:30 p.m. from Nickerson's Wharf Pier in Boston for another crossing to Savannah. There were 87 passengers and a crew of 45 on board . The 42-year-old captain Schuyler E. Wright has been at sea since he was 13 and commanded his fifth ship with the City of Columbus . He was considered dutiful, had a pristine past, and knew the Massachusetts waters very well. The first officer, Edwin Fuller, also had a master's license. There were many experienced sailors among the crew.
The ship circled the Cape Cod peninsula at a speed of 12 knots and steamed into Nantucket Sound . Against 22:40 in the evening that made City of Columbus , the Straits Pollock Rip Channel behind. The weather was clear, but no country could be made out because of the haze . To 02:05 on January 18, the second officer Augustus Harding broke the first officer on the bridge from. Quartermaster Roderick McDonald was at the helm . The sea was now very rough. After dinner, many passengers gathered in the lounge or the smoking room. Most of the travelers were on board to flee the cold winter to the warmer south.
When the lighthouse Nobska Point Lighthouse near Woods Hole was passed, Captain Wright ordered a southwesterly course to be taken. He gave Harding instructions to change course again at Tarpaulin Cove Light and then withdrew to his cabin. Shortly thereafter, the lookout Edward Leary reported a signal buoy on the wrong side of the ship. Wright returned to the bridge. He realized that his ship was dangerously close to the cliffs of Devil's Bridge. This was a rocky reef that stretched deep into Nantucket Sound from the southwest tip of Martha's Vineyard Island on the Massachusetts coast. Wright immediately ordered hard port .
Seconds later, at 3:15 a.m. on the morning of January 18, the City of Columbus rammed the rocks of Devil's Bridge just outside the city gates of Gay Head (now Aquinnah ) on Martha's Vineyard at almost full speed. Attempts to get the ship off the rocks failed. Setting the sails didn't help either; the City of Columbus was stuck. The hull was slit open in several places and the stern of the steamer quickly came under water. Captain Wright ordered the lifeboats to go into water and ordered passengers to come on deck and put on life jackets. The lowering of the lifeboats was catastrophic. The first boat could safely leave the steamer. It only had seven people on board, including only two passengers. A second boat was thrown against the hull by the waves and shattered. Right after that heeled the City of Columbus difficult to port the boats is so wrong on this side torn and fell into the water. The boats on the starboard side could not be lowered because they could not be swiveled over the side of the ship due to the inclination and would have scratched the hull when they were lowered.
Again and again massive breakers rolled over the deck, tearing the hatch covers away. This allowed tons of seawater to pour into the ship's hull, flood the engine room and extinguish the fires in the boilers . Thus, the ship was rudderless and could not sound its steam whistle to attract attention. Everything on deck that was not fastened was washed into the troubled sea. The waves were so powerful that they even gradually smashed the superstructure. Some people climbed the masts and rigging to get away from the waves. But only the strongest of them managed to do this; nobody helped the women and children. Complaints were later also raised that none of the crew had taken care of the passengers. It was winter and the water was icy, so that the passengers washed off board could not survive long in it. At daybreak, only 33 people were still alive in the rigging of the two masts, including Captain Wright.
Rescue operation
Despite the proximity to the land, it took more than five hours for help to arrive at the scene of the accident. After sunrise the steamer Glaucus passed the scene. Captain Maynard Bearse watched the stranded City of Columbus through binoculars and was able to identify the ship. But he overlooked the castaways in the rigging and assumed that the passengers and crew had already been rescued. So he continued his journey without offering any help. For this he was heavily criticized by the press afterwards . The watchman on duty at the Gay Head lighthouse, Fred Poole, saw the lights of the ship on the rocks of Devil's Bridge at around 5 a.m. and was alerted. He informed the head lighthouse keeper, Horatio N. Pease, who organized a crew of six men to set out on a Massachusetts Humane Society lifeboat at 7:30 a.m. and arrive in the City of Columbus at around 10 a.m. They were able to persuade some men to jump from the ship into the water and then brought them ashore.
A second boat rescued twelve castaways and handed them over to the cutter Dexter , which, under the command of Captain Eric Gabrielson, had reached the scene of the accident at 12.30 p.m. One of the survivors died after being rescued. Two Dexter lifeboats rescued a dozen other men from the City of Columbus . Captain Wright was one of the last to jump. Everyone else in the rigging had frozen to death in the meantime. The Dexter crew also took a couple of the dead on board. During the rescue operation, there were still rough seas and strong winds.
The Customs Administration of Martha's Vineyard also sent the tractor Speedwell . But since the Dexter was already busy taking over the survivors, the Speedwell turned back and took some corpses on board during the journey . At 4.15 p.m., the Dexter lifted her anchor and set out for New Bedford with the 29 survivors (all men) and four recovered bodies . As a result of the sinking of the City of Columbus , 103 people, including all women and children on board, drowned or froze in the ice-cold water. Twelve of the 87 passengers survived, 17 of the 45 crew members, including Captain Schuyler E. Wright, the chief steward Andrew F. Pitman and the purser William C. Spaulding.
The Dexter crew and Gay Head volunteers received significant recognition and recognition for their dedication by the Connecticut state government and the United States Congress . In Newport ( Rhode Iceland ) a public thank you event took place. Captain Gabrielson and two of his men were awarded gold and silver medals by the Massachusetts Humane Society. The United States Revenue Cutter Service, of which the Dexter was a part, received high praise.
The United States Steamboat Inspection Service, led by Inspectors Burnham and Savage, investigated the accident. The first meeting was held in Boston on February 5, 1884. Captain Bearse of the Glaucus was acquitted of allegations of negligence and failure to provide assistance, but Captain Wright of the City of Columbus was given full responsibility for the disaster. Both his master's license and his pilot's license were revoked.
The wreck
The wreck of the City of Columbus was bought in 1886 for $ 600 by the Boston Towboat Company, who salvaged the boiler , shaft, and parts of the machinery from the hull. The remainder of the badly damaged ship remains at the bottom of the sea half a mile off Martha's Vineyard. In June 2000, 116 years after the sinking, the wreck of the City of Columbus was explored for the first time. It is about 15 m depth at the position 41 ° 21 '36 " N , 70 ° 50' 55" W . There are strong currents in the area.
literature
- Irving H. King. The Coast Guard Expands, 1865-1915: New Roles, New Frontiers . Naval Institute Press ( Annapolis ), 1996
Web links
- The history and fall of the City of Columbus
- Table with dates and images of the City of Columbus
- Chapter on the City of Columbus in Irving King's book The Coast Guard Expands
- Entry in the ship directory Miramar Ship Index
- The Ocean Steamship Company with a list of their ships
- THE GAY HEAD DISASTER (Reported in the New York Times, February 6, 1884)
- THE WRECKED CITY OF COLUMBUS (Reported in the New York Times, February 8, 1884)
- THE LOSS OT THE CITY OF COLUMBUS (report in the New York Times of February 22, 1884)