Hibernia (ship, 1865)
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
The Hibernia was a passenger ship of the British shipping company Anchor Line , which carried passengers and cargo on the North Atlantic from Glasgow to New York between 1865 and 1868 . On November 25, 1868, the Hibernia capsized and sank in the North Atlantic 700 miles west of Ireland after the steamer's wave broke in a storm in the middle of the night . All lifeboats were safely lowered into the water, but the storm dispersed them widely and some were lost. 78 of the 133 people on board were killed.
The ship
The 1,616-ton steamer Hibernia in 1865 on the River Clyde in Glasgow's Govan in Kelvinhaugh dock the renowned shipyard Alexander Stephen and Sons built. It ran on 27 April 1865 by stacking and stabbed on June 9 of that year under the command of Captain James Craig on his maiden voyage to sea. The ship went from Glasgow to New York and back.
The 84.73 meter long hull of the passenger and cargo steamer built for the transatlantic service was made of iron . The ship was powered by steam engines from the Glaswegian machine manufacturer Finniston Steam Works and had a single propeller forged from iron with a diameter of 4.5 m. In addition to the steam engines, the Hibernia, like most steamships of its time, had three fully rigged masts . The ship classification society Lloyd’s Register of Shipping classified the Hibernia in its highest possible category, 1A.
Downfall
On Saturday, November 14, 1868, the Hibernia cast off in New York under the command of Captain Robert D. Munro for the return journey to Glasgow. She had 54 crew members and 79 passengers on board. The sea was rough on departure, but the weather improved a short time later. On November 23, the Hibernia got caught in a hurricane , whereby massive forces acted on the propeller and the shaft of the ship. At around 2 a.m. on November 24th, when the Hibernia was about 700 miles west of Ireland, the wave no longer withstood the load and broke. Many passengers woke up to the crash of the shattering metal and went to the boat deck to find out what had happened. Captain Munro informed the passengers that there was no danger and that everything was in order. Then they went back to their cabins.
When the captain did not appear for breakfast the following morning, there was renewed restlessness among the travelers. Munro then appeared and explained in a calm tone that the passengers should prepare for the opportunity to go into the lifeboats . Around 8 o'clock the crew began to clear the lifeboats and to provide them with water and provisions. The situation worsened as more and more water penetrated the hull and the pumps could no longer handle the masses of water. At around 4 p.m. the order was given to lower the boats to deck level and embarkation began about an hour and a half later. Despite the difficult situation, the evacuation was calm and orderly. Even when the water reached the saloon, passengers and crew remained calm. All six lifeboats were launched without injuring anyone. Captain Munro and chief engineer Brown were the last to leave the sinking ship, which went down shortly afterwards.
A short time later, however, there was a fatal incident. The first officer's boat, which was going under sail, was hit by a gale and overturned. Since the other boats were barely able to maneuver in the stormy seas, it was impossible for them to come to the aid of the 33 occupants of the crashed boat. As the storm continued, the lifeboats were blown apart by the wind and waves and were left to their own devices. The captain's boat had been damaged while it was being lowered and had to be constantly exhausted. But this boat was lucky to be the first to be found. At around 7:30 p.m., the Star of Hope sailing ship took the castaways on board. The sailor's captain, Talbot, searched the area for the other lifeboats for a while, but found only one. The next day he broke off the search after some hesitation and arrived in Leith on December 10th with the Star of Hope .
A particularly unfortunate fate befell the second officer William Davies' boat, which had 28 people on board, including six or seven women and an infant. It drifted far and drifted several hundred miles in the North Atlantic for days . The supplies ran out quickly. Little by little, the occupants of the boat died of exhaustion and lack of water , some drank salt water , developed delusions and jumped overboard.
After a large wave overturned the boat, only three crew members managed to climb onto the keel, straighten the boat and set the sail. Twelve days after the sinking of the Hibernia , the boat was washed up on the coast of County Donegal, Ireland . The three men and the 52 people rescued by the Star of Hope were to remain the only survivors of the disaster. The 78 people in the missing lifeboats were never found.
confusion
On January 11, 1869, newspapers reported that 39 more survivors of the Hibernia had been found on the Atlantic and would shortly land. The report went back to Captain Gyles of the brig Hannibal , which had recently arrived in Liverpool . Gyles reported having received the message from the German Bark America , former Admiral Brommy . The America had informed him that she had 39 survivors of the Hibernia on board and asked him to take some of them because she did not have enough food herself.
The news gave the bereaved of the Hibernia new hope. But it soon turned out that it was another ship of the same name. The Canadian sailing ship Hibernia had in 1868 on November 10, Quebec with target Queenstown abandoned, had fallen into the same storm as the steamer and had lost its masts. The entire crew had been taken on by the Cuthbert , but after this ship had also reported water ingress, the crews of both ships, a total of 39 men, were taken on by the America .
Web links
- Description of the sinking of the Hibernia (including eyewitness report)
- Some technical data and a picture of the Hibernia in the Clydebuilt Ships Database
- The history of the Anchor Line with some references to the Hibernia
- Entry in the ship directory Miramar Ship Index
- THE NEW STEAMSHIP HIBERNIA (Reported in the New York Times June 29, 1865)
- SAD DISASTER OFF THE COAST OF IRELAND (report in the New York Times, December 8, 1868)
- THE LOSS OF THE HIBERNIA (Report in the New York Times, December 9, 1868)