Hungarian (ship, 1859)

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Hungarian
Hungarian-1858.svg
Ship data
flag United KingdomUnited Kingdom (trade flag) United Kingdom
Ship type Passenger ship
home port Liverpool
Shipping company Allan Line
Shipyard William Denny and Brothers ( Dumbarton )
Build number 70
Launch September 25, 1858
Commissioning May 18, 1859
Whereabouts Sunk February 19, 1860
Ship dimensions and crew
length
90.8 m ( Lüa )
width 11.8 m
Draft Max. 8 m
measurement 2,187 GRT
Machine system
machine Tulloch & Denny steam engines
Machine
performance
350 neutral PS (NHP)
Top
speed
10 kn (19 km / h)
propeller 1
Transport capacities
Permitted number of passengers I. class: 150
II. Class: 300
Others
Registration
numbers
25297

The Hungarian was a passenger ship of the Canadian - British shipping company Allan Line , which was put into service in 1859 and carried passengers , freight and mail from Liverpool to Québec and Montreal . On February 19, 1860, bounced Hungarian at Cape Sable Iceland on the coast of Nova Scotia in a storm on underwater rocks and sank. All 205 passengers and crew were killed because the heavy seas prevented rescue ships from reaching the Hungarian . The sinking of the Hungarian represents the second largest loss of life on a ship of the Allan Line after the Anglo Saxon (238 dead).

The ship

The steel- built 2187 GRT passenger steamer was ordered and built by Allan Line in 1858 from the William Denny and Brothers shipyard in Dumbarton on the Clyde , Scotland . Lloyd's Register of Shipping categorized the Hungarian as a Class 1A ship. Their insurance value was around £ 40,000 (in monetary terms at the time ).

The Hungarian transported passengers, freight and mail from Liverpool via Derry ( Northern Ireland ) to Québec and Montreal. In the winter months, the Allan Line ships also headed for the ports of Portland in the US state of Maine and Cork in the south of Ireland . The Hungarian was a sister ship of the identical Bohemian , which sank on February 22, 1864 off Cape Elizabeth on the coast of Maine, killing 20 people.

On November 9, 1859, the rescued Hungarian crew and passengers of in distress geratenen saver John Martin . At around 8 a.m. the Hungarian sighted the sinking ship in front of the Newfoundland Bank . The John Martin struggled with heavy seas and heavy gusts. A lifeboat with seven men of the crew, including First Officer William H. Hardie, made its way to the John Martin and took its 43 passengers and crew. The following day the Hungarian arrived in St. John's , where a thank-you ceremony took place and a silver cup was presented to each of the rescuers.

Downfall

On Wednesday, February 8, 1860, the Hungarian left Liverpool for her third crossing to Montreal via Portland. She was under the command of Captain Thomas Jones and had 80 crew members and 125 passengers (45 first class, 80 between decks) on board. On February 9, there was a stopover in Queenstown on the south coast of Ireland. Among the passengers were some well-known British and Canadian businessmen such as James Baillie of the James Baillie Company and Marcus Talbot, Member of Parliament from Ontario , with his wife.

On the evening of February 19, the ship got into a snowstorm off Cape Ledge on the west coast of Cape Sable Island , which brought strong winds and a churned sea. The storm pushed the ship onto the cliffs known as the Great Rip . Because of the heavy seas and the winds, the lifeboats could not be lowered into the water. The stranded Hungarian was sighted on the shore by residents of the island, but they were unable to get to the wreck . At around 3 a.m. on February 20, lights and people were still seen on the ship, but at around 10 a.m. the ship sank in the high waves.

The storm did not end until six days later, but no survivors were found. All 205 passengers and crew members were killed. It is therefore one of the worst shipping accidents in the area, which is also known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic . A lifeboat floating down the keel was washed up a short time later in the port of the coastal community of Port La Tour. The remains of other broken boats were also found. The news of the accident spread very quickly via the telegraph station in Barrington . The accident found widespread coverage in the British and Canadian press and cast a bad light on the Allan Line, which had only recently lost its steamship Indian . The Indian sank off Cape Race on November 21, 1859 , killing 27 people.

It was reported that among the rubble washed ashore was a diary, the last entry of which was "Lizzie dies tonight" (Lizzie dies tonight). The American songwriter Stephen Foster took up this story and wrote the song Lizzie Dies Tonight in 1861 . In the US state of Pennsylvania , shortly after the fall, a textbook for Sunday school children was published with the same title. The sinking led to the construction of the Cape Sable Island lighthouse the following year.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Entry on Wrecksite
  2. Entry in TheShipsList