Lyonnais (ship)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
LYONNAIS
Technical specifications
Flag: Civil and naval ensign of France France
Ship type: Steamship
Purpose: Passenger ship
Builder : Laird Brothers ( Liverpool )
Shipping company : Company Franco-Americaine
Home port : Le Havre
Ship surveying : 1070 GRT
Length: 60.96 m
Width: 10.36 m
Drive: Compound steam engine
Power: ? PS
Speed: 12 kn (22.2 km / h )
Commissioned: 1856
Whereabouts: Ago on November 3, 1856 Nantucket dropped

The Lyonnais was a 1856 posed in service steamship of the French shipping company Compagnie Franco-Americaine, which in the same year before Nantucket after hitting a Bark went down, where 130 people were killed.

The ship

The 1,070 GRT three-mast steamer Lyonnais was built in 1856 at a shipyard leased by the shipbuilding company Laird Brothers in Liverpool for the shipping company Compagnie Franco-Americaine. This company was founded in the same year by Gauthier Freres & Compagnie with branches in Paris and Le Havre . The goal was regular passenger traffic from Le Havre to North and South America .

The shipping company's routes were Le Havre - New York , Le Havre - Brazil and Le Havre - Havana - New Orleans . The Lyonnais was planned for the first of this route. The ship was named after the historical French province of the same name . The Lyonnais was 60.96 meters long, 10.36 meters wide and was with a compound engine provided that a propeller made of iron drive and up to twelve nodes enabled.

Downfall

Collision at Nantucket

On Saturday, November 1st, 1856, the Lyonnais cast off from New York under the command of Captain de Vaix . There were 146 people on board, including 39 first class passengers and a number of between deck passengers .

On the evening of November 2, the ship sailed under steam and full sails at a speed of eleven knots. First officer Gustave Matthieu was on duty on the bridge . The ship had set the required navigation lights. 50 nautical miles southeast of the fire ship from Nantucket saw the scouts in the lookout at 23.00 to starboard a sailing ship heading straight for her.

It was the American Bark Adriatic , which was on the way from the small town of Belfast in the US state of Maine to Savannah . Immediately the ship's bell of the Lyonnais rang and the rudder was turned hard to port.

Nevertheless, there was a collision. The bow of the Adriatic penetrated the starboard side of the steamer amidships, so that her bowsprit broke. Two of the Lyonnais' six lifeboats were destroyed in the collision. Captain de Vaix came on the bridge at once.

On board the Adriatic , the lights of the Lyonnais had been seen 20 minutes earlier. It was only slightly damaged by the collision. For the captain of the barque, it looked as if the Lyonnais was staying on her course. He therefore assumed that she had not suffered any serious damage either and continued her journey. He didn't come to her aid.

Rescue attempts and demise

The Lyonnais was able to stay on course for ten minutes after the collision, until the penetrating water flooded the engine room and extinguished the fires in the boilers . The chief engineer came to the bridge and reported to the master that the ship was unable to maneuver and was sinking. The pumps were switched on, but could not counter the amount of water entering.

Crew members and passengers formed human chains, passed buckets and tried to hold back the water. At the same time the charge from starboard to port has been moved below deck to the growing list unstoppable. The captain then ordered the cargo to be thrown overboard . Attempts were also made to plug the leak on the outside with a sail and on the inside with mattresses and blankets. The attempts to postpone the downfall dragged on for several hours.

At 3 p.m. on November 3, the order to leave the ship was finally given. All passengers and crew members were evacuated in the remaining four lifeboats, which were all equipped with compasses and provisions. In the meantime, an improvised life raft had also been built, which was manned by about 40 people. The Lyonnais went down stern first.

The weather was meanwhile very stormy and the raft with all its occupants sank in the heavy seas. The other boats soon lost themselves in the thick fog and emerging snow gusts . Captain de Vaix wanted his boat to go to Montauk Point on the eastern tip of Long Island . But it never got there.

Only a lifeboat, which had among others the Second Officer Laguiere on board, was after six days of the Bremer Bark Elise found under the command of Captain Nordenbolott. Of the original 18 inmates, 16 were still alive. They were the only survivors of the tragedy. The other lifeboats were never found.

The shipping company Compagnie Franco-Americaine ceased operations in 1857.

Web links