Elbe (ship, 1881)
 North German Lloyd's steamer Elbe
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The Elbe was the first express steamer of the North German Lloyd (NDL) and at the same time the German Empire. She was the first express steamer of the river class comprising eleven ships . It was used in the North Atlantic from 1881 to 1895 . Only in 1889/90 it was withdrawn for three round trips on the Reichspostdampferlinie to Australia . On January 30, 1895, the Elbe sank after a collision with the British steamer Crathie in the North Sea , killing at least 332 people. Only 20 people could be saved. This was the NDL's worst accident .
Technical specifications
When the Elbe on April 4, 1881 the shipyard of John Elder & Co in Glasgow by stacking ran, she was the most perfect thing you could build in terms of comfort, size, speed and security technology at the time. Their length was 127.46 m, the greatest width 13.72 m, the depth from the top deck 10.8 m. The volume of the ship was given as 4,510 gross tons . The propeller of manganese bronze having a diameter of 21 feet (about 7 m). This enabled her to reach a speed of 16 knots . The splendidly furnished cabin rooms were designed for 190 first and 120 second class guests, and the tween deck for 800 passengers . The express steamer was intended for regular service on the Bremerhaven - New York route and was particularly popular with emigrants. The Elbe also made three trips to Australia in 1889 with the approval of the Reich government , although it did not meet the guidelines for imperial mail steamers.
The sinking of the Elbe
On January 29, 1895, at 3 p.m. in the afternoon, the Elbe passenger ship began its voyage from Bremerhaven to New York under the command of Captain Kurt von Goessel in clear winter weather . Approx. 200 emigrants embarked on the steamer , whose crew consisted of around 180 men. The night's drive was smooth and uneventful. In the morning hours suddenly a violent storm set in. Although the two officers on watch on the Elbe had spotted the navigation lights of the coal liner Crathie, which was on a collision course with their ship, in good time, they took no further steps, as the Crathie was obliged to evade due to the legal situation and the distance of the ship was incorrectly estimated. On the Crathie , the officer on watch and the lookout had left their posts to have coffee in the galley. On deck there was only one seaman at the helm, who, however, was unable to see the Elbe in time due to the restricted field of view due to the ship's superstructure . Therefore , instead of bypassing the Elbe , the Crathie hit the broadside of the passenger ship with unchecked force . The collision occurred at 5:40 in the morning. The crew began immediately on the orders of the captain von Goessel with the mostly unsuccessful attempts to get the icy lifeboats afloat. However, there was no panic among the passengers, which in the later official investigation by the Bremerhaven Maritime Office was also attributed to the fact that only very few were likely to have grasped the seriousness of the situation. After only 20 minutes, the "Elbe" sank with the aft ship first in the waters of the North Sea. During this time, despite the desperate efforts of the crew, which were later expressly recognized by the Maritime Administration, only one boat could be successfully launched.
Vehicles that crossed the place where the Elbe had sunk a few hours later saw neither signs of the lost ship nor any wreckage. Only 20 people survived the disaster, 15 officers and seamen and 5 passengers, including a young woman. The remaining people, 332 in number (according to other reports 374), died in the troubled sea.
The fact that very few passengers but a number of ship's employees were rescued seemed to throw a bad light on the officers and crew of the Elbe , and allegations were made that the courage and discipline of the officers and crew were questioned. The Central News of London stated, however, on the basis of the inquiries made from each individual survivor, that such allegations were completely unfounded. About the details of the accident, the statements of the rescued sometimes differed widely. In any case, the fact is that only lifeboat No. 3 with 20 people could be recovered. Their recovery by the Wildflower , which happened to be the site of the accident under Captain William Wright, was extremely dramatic. Since the occupants were almost unable to move from the wet and cold, it was difficult for them to tie the rope that had been thrown to them on their boat. After most of the passengers had been pulled on deck, the rope suddenly broke and the lifeboat drifted out into the open sea again.
Another rope was thrown out, fastened again, and finally the last survivors were recovered. Anna Böcker, the only woman who survived the ship disaster, was only wearing a coat when she was rescued, neither a dress, nor shoes, nor socks. The shipwrecked, already half frozen, were rescued literally at the last minute. The captain of the Wildflower later stated in his report to the superior service: "I have no doubt that an hour later most of those who were rescued would have been dead, because I had 6 inches of ice on my deck."
There was general indignation at the behavior of the English captain of the little steamer Crathie , who had caused the disaster. The steamer, which was on the voyage from Rotterdam to Aberdeen , immediately turned back to the Dutch coast after the collision, without making the slightest attempt to help save the victims.
List of rescued passengers and crew members
Kajütpassagierin Anna Böcker from Bremen
Kajütpassagier Carl A. Hofmann from Grand Iceland
Kajütpassagier Eugen Schlegel from Fürth
Kajütpassagier January Vevera from Bohemia
steerage passenger Wientje Bothen of blade
English navigator William Greenham from the Isle of Wight
Weserlotse HA de Harde from Lehe
third officer Theodor Stollberg from Oldenburg
chief mechanic Albert Neußel from Bremerhaven
Paymaster Wilhelm Weser from Bremerhaven
Paymaster assistant Paul Schlutius from Berlin
Machine assistant Ernst Linkmeyer from Hamburg
Machine assistant Friedrich Sittig from Witten an der Ruhr
Head heater Hermann Fürst from Lehe
Sailor Gustav Wennig from Berlin
Sailor Paul Siebert from Jasenitz
Sailor Carl Finger from Geestemünde Ordinary seaman
Wilhelm Dresow from Stemnitz,
ordinary seaman Anton Battke from Mechilinken
Steward Emil Kobe from Bremen
Effects of Doom
In the aftermath of the accident, Friedrich Ludwig Middendorf wrote the regulations issued in 1896 by the still young See-Berufsgenossenschaft on the number and type of watertight bulkheads a ship had to have.
See also
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ See: Spruch of the Seeamts zu Bremerhaven from August 10, 1895, regarding the collision of the screw steamer "Elbe" from Bremen with the British screw steamer "Crathie" from Aberdeen, in: Decisions of the Ober-Seeamts and the Seeämter des Deutschen Reichs, vol 11, Hamburg 1897, pp. 596-627.