Mackay-Bennett
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The Mackay-Bennett was a British cable layer . It was built by John Elder & Co. in Govan near Glasgow and started operating in 1884. The ship was mainly used for repair work on submarine cables in the North Atlantic . At that time, her actual home port was Halifax in Nova Scotia , and on her frequent missions in the eastern Atlantic she was stationed in Plymouth .
The Mackay-Bennett became known for her work in the rescue of the victims of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in April 1912, for which she was specially chartered by the White Star Line . She was involved in the recovery of 306 of the 333 recovered dead. On the ship were undertakers , clergy and means for embalming . The Mackay-Bennett drove on April 17, 1912 under the command of Captain Frederick Harold Larnder to the sinking site of the Titanic 1,100 km to the east and arrived there 3 days later. From the sinking area, which was littered with wreckage and corpses, 328 were rescued by Canadian ships and five more by steamships passing by on the North Atlantic Route.
In 1922 the Mackay-Bennett was decommissioned and the hull was used as a Hulk in Plymouth . During the Second World War it was sunk in a German air raid, but was later lifted again. In 1963 the Mackay-Bennett was scrapped.
The Canadian author Thomas H. Raddall worked as a radio operator on the ship for a while and relied on this experience for some of his short stories.
swell
- Mackay-Bennett in the Encyclopedia Titanica
- Mackay-Bennett on the Atlantic Cable website
- John Eaton, Charles Haas: Titanic, Triumph, and Tragedy. 4th edition. Heyne, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-453-12890-7 , p. 228 ff.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eaton, John P .; Haas, Charles A. (1995). Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy. New York: WW Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-03697-8 . P. 225