Hilda (ship)
 The wreck of the crashed steamer Hilda
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The Hilda was a steamship of the British railroad company London and South Western Railway , which was used as a ferry on the English Channel and carried passengers and cargo from Southampton ( England ) to Saint-Malo ( France ) from 1883 to 1905 . On November 18, 1905, the Hilda sank in a blizzard on the Breton coast after it hit a reef off the island of Cézembre . Only six of the 131 passengers and crew members survived. It is the worst shipping accident to date in the Channel Islands region . The Hilda is also called the " Titanic of Brittany ".
The ship
The 802 GRT and 428 NRT large steamship Hilda was in 1882 in the shipyard Aitken & Mansel in Glasgow district Whiteinch on the Clyde built (yard number 117, registration number 86327). The iron-built ship was almost 72 m long, was propelled by two-cylinder low-pressure steam engines from John & James Thomson and Company from Glasgow and reached an average cruising speed of 13.2 knots (15.4 km / h). Up to 566 passengers could be carried on two decks. It had cost £ 33,000 in terms of monetary value at the time . The body of Hilda was by five watertight doors divided. The safety equipment included six lifeboats for a total of 308 people, 318 life jackets and 12 life buoys.
The owner was the London and South Western Railway (L & SWR), headquartered in London , which had been operating since 1838 and had an extensive rail network in southern England. The company also operated a fleet of passenger and cargo ships that sailed the English Channel, connecting French port cities and the British Channel Islands with cities on the south coast of England.
The Hilda was one of those ships. She ran in July 1882 from the stack , but was only completed in January 1883 because of a strike. On January 13, 1883 , the test drives were carried out in the Stokes Bay, a bay between Portsmouth and Lee-on-the-Solent , in which she even reached 14.5 knots. The ship was handed over to its owners on the same day. She then made her maiden voyage from Southampton to Saint-Malo via the Channel Islands.
In October 1890, the Hilda was replaced on its route by the new passenger ship Stella and now went straight to Saint-Malo without a detour. In 1894 the ship was fitted with two new steel boilers from Day, Summers and Company of the Northam Iron Works in Southampton, and with electric lights . From now on the Hilda was mainly used in the winter season.
The downfall
On Friday, November 17, 1905 at 10 p.m. the Hilda left Southampton under the command of the 56-year-old Captain William Gregory for another crossing to Saint-Malo. Captain Gregory had been with the company for 36 years. There were 103 passengers and 28 crew members on board. Among the 28 first class passengers was Isobel Daniell Cavendish-Butler, 33, wife of Henry Cavendish-Butler, 8th Earl of Lanesborough. The usual departure time of 8:15 p.m. was delayed due to thick fog . The Hilda first had to anchor at Hurst Castle on the Isle of Wight and wait.
The ship could not leave until around 6 a.m. on November 18. At around 6 p.m. Hilda had reached the Chanel de Petite Port, the entrance to the port of Saint-Malo. The city was only three nautical miles away and the lighthouse at the entrance to the harbor, Phare du Grand Jardin, was already in sight. The lights from the lighthouse were the only ones that could be made out from the ship. Due to heavy seas, hazy weather and persistent strong snow gusts , the steamer was unable to enter the port. The snowfall and the haze made the ship impossible to see, which is why it was decided on board the Hilda to wait in front of the harbor until the weather cleared up. Hilda lay in front of the rocks at the entrance to the harbor for about five hours .
The high waves and the strong current threw the ship onto the reef La Pierre des Ports off the island of Cézembre shortly before midnight . Captain Gregory fired emergency rockets and sounded the ship's horn. The first lifeboat to be lowered into the water on the starboard side was thrown against the hull by a wave and shattered. At about the same time, the front mast fell over. While the boats on the port side were being prepared for freeing, violent breakers rolled over the deck and tore people overboard. Meanwhile the ship lay more and more on its side.
The ship broke apart at around 2 a.m. on November 19. Passengers who sought refuge below deck drowned. Several people clung to the rigging but were washed away by the icy waves that crashed over the ship. Only six people could be rescued from the troubled sea, British crew member James Grinter and five male French passengers. 125 people were killed. The survivors were rescued the morning after the accident by the Ada , which also belonged to the London and South Western Railway. At low tide , the wreck , which lay in shallow waters, could be clearly seen. Much of the keel was torn open.