London (ship, 1864)
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The London was a passenger ship put into service in 1864 by the British shipping company Money Wigram & Sons, which was built for the transport of people and goods between Great Britain and Australia. On January 11, 1866, the London sank in a storm in the Bay of Biscay, with 220 of the 239 passengers and crew on board were killed.
The ship
The 1,652 GRT iron-built steamship London was built in 1864 at the Money Wigram & Sons shipyard in the Blackwall district of London. The 84.3 meter long and 10.9 meter wide ship had three masts, two decks, a chimney and was equipped with a compound steam engine from Humphrys, Tennant and Dykes, which developed 200 hp and allowed a speed of 9 knots. As was common in their time, it was also equipped with sails. The passenger capacity was 92 passengers in first and 225 in second class. There were also 90 crew members.
The London was built for passenger and freight traffic from England via South Africa to Australia. She was launched on July 20, 1864 (christened by Miss Wyndham), took her sea trials on September 23, 1864 and ran on October 23, 1864 under the command of Captain John Bohun Martin on her maiden voyage from London to Melbourne (Australia) . On November 21, 1864, a man went overboard who could no longer be saved. On January 8, 1865, there was an open house in Melbourne, on which the ship could be viewed.
The downfall
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On Wednesday, December 13, 1865, the London laid off again in Gravesend (England) under the command of Captain John Martin for another crossing to Melbourne. The stopover in Plymouth was delayed as she first had to anchor off Spithead near Portsmouth due to bad weather. After she was able to moor in Plymouth, she cast off on January 6, 1866 to continue.
On January 10, the London had reached the Bay of Biscay , where it got caught in a heavy storm. The situation was so dangerous that Captain Martin decided to break off the voyage and return to Plymouth. After changing course , the steamer rolled heavily in the troubled sea and seawater began to penetrate the hull. The masses of water penetrated the lower decks, eventually flooded the engine room and put out the fires in the boilers.
The chief engineer and his machinists stayed in the engine room until it became apparent that the machines were no longer performing. Captain Martin declared the ship lost and ordered passengers and crew into the lifeboats. Only one of the boats initially on board could be lowered into the water. Although it was only intended for twelve people, 16 crew members and three passengers, all men, took place in it.
Stormy waves crashed over the ship, filling it with water. Shortly after the boat cast off, the London sank. The 19 people in the boat were the only survivors of the sinking. All other people on board, including all women and children, were killed. The survivors were rescued from the Italian barque Marianople on January 12th and brought ashore in Falmouth on January 16th .
Among the fatalities were Gustavus Vaughan Brooke (1818–1866), a prominent Irish stage actor, who had excelled in plays by William Shakespeare ; John Debenham, son of William Debenham, founder of Debenhams , one of the UK's largest department stores; James and Elizabeth Bevan, parents of James Bevan, the first Welsh international rugby union captain ; John Woolley, academic and first director of the University of Sydney ; Rev. Daniel James Draper (1810–1866), high ranking member of the Methodist Church and delegate to the Australasian Conference, and Catherine Brewer Chapman, wife of New Zealand judge and politician Henry Samuel Chapman with three children. Gustavus Brooke's last words are said to have been a greeting to the people of Melbourne. At the invitation of George Coppin, he was on his way to a two-year engagement in Australia. Draper and two other clergymen prayed surrounded by passengers while they worked on the pumps.
Aftermath
The Scottish poet William McGonagall , who recorded many shipping accidents of his time such as the sinking of the Mohegan in 1898 or that of the Stella in 1899, also processed the sinking of the London in a poem with the title The Wreck of the Steamer "London" While on Her Way to Australia.
The Board of Trade investigated the sinking. There were several factors that had contributed to the accident, according to the commission of inquiry. On the one hand, the fact that Captain Martin had decided to return to Plymouth and thus did not leave the storm behind, but returned to its center. Furthermore, the overloading of the ship with 345 tons of building material for the railway construction should have played a role. In addition, 50 tons of coal stored on deck were torn loose by the storm and clogged the scuppers , preventing any overflowing water from flowing away .
literature
- The sinking of the London steamship on January 10th . In: The Gazebo . Volume 6, 1866, pp. 95-96 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).
- Ludwig Würkert : The right captain - in memory of those who died in the shipwreck of the steamer "London" . In: The Gazebo . Issue 7, 1866, pp. 111 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).
- Once again the sinking of the steamer “London” (correction) . In: The Gazebo . Issue 8, 1866, pp. 128 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).
Web links
- Contemporary newspaper article about the sinking of London
- William Topaz McGonagall: The Poem The Wreck of the Steamer 'London' While on her Way to Australia .
- The sinking of the London in a list of serious shipping accidents
- Details on the history and sinking of the ship