Geiser (ship, 1881)

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geyser
Geiser (ship) .jpg
Ship data
flag DenmarkDenmark Denmark
Ship type Passenger ship
home port Copenhagen
Shipping company Thingvalla line
Shipyard Burmeister & Wain , Copenhagen
Build number 118
Launch August 1881
Commissioning January 1, 1882
Whereabouts Sunk 14 August 1888
Ship dimensions and crew
length
98.87 m ( Lüa )
width 11.97 m
Draft Max. 6.7 m
measurement 2,831 GRT / 1,818 NRT
Machine system
machine Four-cylinder compound steam engine
Machine
performance
300 hp (221 kW)
Top
speed
11 kn (20 km / h)
propeller 1
Transport capacities
Permitted number of passengers 700

The Geiser was a passenger ship of the Danish shipping company Thingvalla Line , which carried passengers , freight and mail from Copenhagen to New York between 1882 and 1888 . On August 14, 1888, the Geiser collided 30 miles south of Sable Island in rain and fog with the passenger ship Thingvalla of the same shipping company. The Geiser sank within five minutes. 118 passengers and crew members were killed.

The ship

The 2831 BRT large passenger steamer Geiser was at the Copenhagen traditional shipyard Burmeister & Wain built and by the August 1881 stack left. The passenger and cargo ship was built of iron, had a straight bow , a propeller and three masts that were equipped with the rigging of a schooner . The four-cylinder composite steam engine from Burmeister & Wain developed 300 PS (2,000 PSi ) and helped the ship to a maximum cruising speed of eleven knots . There was space for up to 700 passengers in the passenger quarters.

The hull of the ship was divided into five watertight compartments. There was an infirmary on board with 40 beds. Eight lifeboats were available for the safety of the passengers . It was owned by the Copenhagen-based shipping company Dampskibsselskabet Thingvalla . This shipping company operated a lively transatlantic service between Northern Europe and North America between 1880 and 1898 , which was mainly used by Scandinavian emigrants .

Together with the Thingvalla (1873), the Hekla (1881) and the Iceland (1882), the Geiser served the route Copenhagen - Oslo - Kristiansand - New York, which is typical for the shipping company . Every 14th day the ships left Copenhagen. On Sunday, January 1st, 1882, the Geiser set out on her maiden voyage. On January 17, 1885, she ran aground in the Oslofjord near Kavringen and had to be towed by the icebreaker Mjølner . A week later, repairs began at their home shipyard, Burmeister & Wain.

In the same year she took the 4,800 GRT Gallia of the Cunard Line in tow, which was unable to maneuver due to a broken shaft . When the tow rope broke, parts of the Geiser railing were torn off. In April 1888, the Geiser again helped a ship in distress when she was towing the Danube of North German Lloyd to New York after it had lost its propeller . On August 3, 1888, the ship arrived in New York after its last completed voyage on a west course. Then the preparations for the return trip to Denmark began.

Downfall

On Saturday, August 11, 1888, the Geiser cast off in New York under the command of Captain Carl William Møller for another Atlantic crossing to Copenhagen. There were 149 passengers and crew on board, including 21 children. The cargo included hundreds of barrels of lard , beef , butter , lubricant and prefabricated barrel bungs as well as 1,429 sacks of flour , 47 barrels of tobacco , 500 boxes of grain seeds and 42,068 bushels of corn . Three days after casting off, the Geiser passed the island of Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia in an easterly direction. It was raining and hazy, later fog came up.

On Tuesday, August 14, 1888, at 3:30 a.m., 30 miles southwest of Sable Island, First Officer Brown called the captain and informed him that another ship was approaching and that there was a risk of collision. It was the 2,524 GRT Thingvalla , a passenger steamer that also belonged to the Thingvalla line and was on its way from Stettin to New York with 462 people on board under the command of Captain S. Lamb .

On the bridge of Geiser , who drove at full speed, the rudder was hard to starboard down and asked the machine to "full astern". The ship was twice sounded his horn before the Thingvalla to 03:40, running at full speed, the starboard side of the Geiser rammed. A tremendous shock caused the steamer to tremble. Fear and panic immediately spread among the passengers; they called for help and looked for life jackets . On the Geiser, it was immediately clear to the ship's command that there was no rescue, so they ordered the ship to be abandoned immediately. Emergency rockets were fired and the lifeboats launched . The rush to the boats prevented the crew from properly operating the boat stations. Because of the list but also had many women and children afraid to get into the boats.

Many were crushed and killed right in their cabins in the collision. Numerous others were caught in the suction and pulled down. The scene was later described by a survivor as the "Carnival of Death". The Geiser almost broke in two and sank forward five minutes after the collision with the stern. The suction caught the lifeboats and drowned them. Captain Møller jumped from the bridge, was caught in the suction and tangled in ruins. However, he managed to climb onto a capsized lifeboat, from which he was finally rescued.

Rescue attempts

Everything was done on board the Thingvalla to help the castaways. Three lifeboats were launched to pick up survivors. A total of 14 passengers and 17 members of the Geiser crew were rescued. Most of them wore nightgowns and pajamas and were very exhausted. They were provided with dry clothes and warm drinks on board the Thingvalla . The Thingvalla moved back a little from the scene to prevent people swimming in the water from getting caught in its propellers. The Thingvalla boats searched the area for a while, but could not find any more survivors. All of the remaining passengers on the Geyser had drowned.

Hilda Lind, 28, a Swede who had lived in the United States for five years , was the only woman who survived the downfall. She lost her two young children. When she arrived at her apartment in New York, she greeted her husband with the words, "Oscar, you have no children" (Oscar, you have no more children). Anders Beer Wilse , one of Norway's most important photographers , was also one of the survivors .

The passengers of both ships involved in the collision were taken over by the HAPAG steamer Wieland . The fishing boat Capio dragged the badly damaged Thingvalla two days after the accident in the Halifax Port Authority , where he moored at the pier Pickford & Black's Wharf and was admired by onlookers. The force of the collision had pushed the bow of the steamer about nine meters down to the first watertight bulkhead. Journalists described the damage “as if a sharp knife had cut through cardboard. No other ship has ever entered this port so badly damaged. How she got here is a mystery ”.

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