Lamoricière (ship)
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The Lamoricière was a passenger ship put into service in 1921 by the French shipping company Compagnie Générale Transatlantique , which carried passengers and cargo between France and Algeria . On 9 January 1942, fell Lamoricière before the Balearic island of Menorca in a heavy storm after one in distress geratenen freighter had rushed to help. Due to the heavy seas, large amounts of seawater penetrated the ship and flooded the boiler rooms. Of the 394 passengers and crew on board, only 93 survived.
The ship
The 4,712 GRT steamship Lamoricière was built in the Low Walker Dock of the Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson shipyard in Wallsend, a suburb of the northern English city of Newcastle upon Tyne . Consisting of steel made hull was 112.72 meters long and 15.24 meters wide. The Lamoricière was powered by a four-cylinder triple expansion steam engine and two turbines that developed up to 8,000 hp and allowed a speed of 18.5 knots. It had three propellers , two chimneys and two masts .
The Lamoricière ran on 20 May 1920 on the River Tyne from the stack . It was named after the French statesman Louis Juchault de Lamoricière (1806-1865). The completion took place in January 1921. In the following month the steamer set off on its maiden voyage .
The ship was owned by Compagnie Générale Transatlantique , one of the largest French shipping companies based in Paris . The Lamoricière operated as a passenger and cargo ship between its home port of Marseille and the ports of the then French colony of Algeria .
Due to the lack of fuel due to the war, the furnace was switched from oil to coal in 1940. This and the poor quality of the available coal reduced the machine's performance.
Downfall
On Tuesday, January 6, 1942, the Lamoricière left Algiers at around 5 p.m. for the crossing to Marseille. There were 122 crew members and 272 passengers on board, a total of 394 people. 88 soldiers were among the passengers. Captain Joseph Milliasseau was in command . At 10:54 p.m. on the evening of January 7th, the radio operator Lejean received the emergency call from Jumières , a cargo ship belonging to the French company Worms & Cie. It read:
“Serious accident. Can no longer hold the course. Holds under water. Position 40 ° 25N 4 ° 25E "
This position was not far from the course of the Lamoricière , so Captain Milliasseau decided to come to the aid of the freighter in distress. The Lamoricière could do nothing more for the Jumières . She had sunk with all 20 men on board before the passenger ship arrived.
Meanwhile, the Lamoricière north of the Balearic Islands was caught in a severe storm . She struggled with wind in hurricane strength and high seas . As the coal supply was running low, on the afternoon of January 8th, Captain Milliasseau decided to turn south and take the ship leeward of Menorca to wait for the storm to subside in the shelter of the island. At 3 p.m. he had the course changed, but the engine power was insufficient so that the Lamoricière crossed. Through the wind and wave pressure she got flip side , and water penetrated through the port hatches, which quickly boiler rooms reached. The pumps were unable to cope with the amount of water entering, so that after a short time the engines failed and the steamer was unable to maneuver in the sea.
At 5:10 p.m. the following radio message was sent:
On the night of Friday, January 9th, attempts were made to reduce the list by trimming the load. At 9.15 a.m., the governor Général Gueydon , which also belonged to the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, came into view. However, despite several attempts, she did not succeed in taking the Lamoricière in tow. Half an hour later, Captain Milliasseau ordered the ship to be abandoned, and the lifeboats were made ready. First, a group of 16 children who were returning home from an excursion to Algeria were put in one of the boats with their two companions. To calm the children down, the two caregivers began to sing. Before the boat reached the surface of the water, it was caught in a wave and torn loose. All the inmates fell into the sea and disappeared. As a result, the other passengers refused to go into the lifeboats.
At 12.35 p.m. the Lamoricière set at the position 40 ° 0 ' N , 4 ° 22' E, northeast of Menorca. The still raging storm made it difficult to rescue the castaways. The governor Général Gueydon , who was still nearby, saved 55 people from the troubled waters. The governor Général Chanzy , another ship of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, who had arrived in the meantime , took 25 more people. The Obstiné , a tug of the Compagnie Chambon, reached the scene of the accident around 4 p.m. and was able to save 13 survivors from a life raft . These 93 people were the only survivors of the disaster. 301 passengers and crew were killed. Polish cryptanalysts Jan Graliński , Piotr Smoleński and Jerzy Różycki were among the fatalities .
The wreck of the Lamoricière was only found in May 2008 by a Spanish-Italian diving team. It is about six nautical miles from the Cap de Favàritx at a depth of 156 meters. It is unclear what ultimately caused the Lamoricière to decline. Among other things, there were suspicions that a submarine had sighted and attacked the Lamoricière in its precarious situation. However, there is no evidence for this. Another theory is based on a leak caused by collision with an underwater object. The official investigation named as the main causes of the accident the strength of the storm, the change of course to provide aid to the Jumières and the insufficient quality and quantity of coal.
Web links
- Lamoricière photo , accessed February 11, 2019.
- Technical data and history of the Lamoricière at Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (with picture) ( Memento from June 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- Detailed description of the sinking of the Lamoricière (PDF; 1.25 MB) in a bulletin of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique ( Memento of May 30, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- The sinking of the Lamoricière on a website about shipwrecks near Menorca
