Marquette (ship)
 The identical sister ship Mohegan
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Marquette was a passenger and cargo ship put into service in 1898, which was in service for the American Atlantic Transport Line in the first few years and from 1905 was used under the Belgian flag by the Red Star Line in North Atlantic traffic. During the First World War , the ship served as a troop transport until it was sunk by a German submarine on October 23, 1915 . 167 people were killed.
The ship
The Marquette was actually commissioned for the Wilson, Furness & Leyland Line, which was created in 1896 from the merger of the Leyland Line , the Wilson Line and Furness, Withy & Co. based in West Hartlepool. The ship was built under the name Boadicea and had four roughly identical sister ships, all of which were built in 1897–1898 at different shipyards . The others were the Victoria (6,849 GRT), the Alexandria (6,919 GRT), the Cleopatra (6,889 GRT) and the Winifreda (6,833 GRT). All five ships had a chimney, a propeller and four masts .
The 7,057-ton of steel -built steamship Boadicea was at Alexander Stephen and Sons in Glasgow built and ran there on 25 November 1897 as the second to last of the five sister ships launched. It was equipped with a triple expansion steam engine that developed 770 nominal horsepower and allowed a cruising speed of 14 knots. The passenger accommodations were designed for 120 first class travelers. The ship had three decks , two single-ended and two double-ended boilers, seven watertight bulkheads and seven cargo holds in which a total of 1,100 tons of cargo could be stowed.
On January 15, 1898, the Boadicea ran from Glasgow on her maiden voyage to New York . In February 1898 she began regular trips from London to New York. Shortly thereafter, she and her sister ships were bought by the US shipping company Atlantic Transport Line , which needed replacements for their steamers used by the US government in the Spanish-American War . All five ships were renamed in this context. The Victoria became the Manitou , the Alexandria the Menominee , the Cleopatra the Mohegan ¸ the Winifreda the Mesaba (I) and the Boadicea the Marquette .
For each of the ships, the Atlantic Transport Line paid £ 140,000 (in monetary value at the time ). After the takeover, the Boadicea made a single Atlantic crossing under its original name, before being renamed Marquette on September 15, 1898 . On the departure from London's Royal Albert Dock on October 16, 1899, the actors Sir Henry Irving and Ellen Terry were among the passengers who set off on a joint tour of the USA. Between March 1898 and February 1905, the ship entered the port of New York a total of 42 times .
In February 1901 the Marquette lost two blades of her propeller during a crossing under the command of Captain Thomas F. Gates, but was able to continue the voyage on her own at an average speed of 10 knots. In May 1903 she collided with the ship Preussen in the English Channel in fog , which was also on its way to New York. Both ships called Southampton for repairs.
Red Star Line
When the new ocean liners Minneapolis and Minnehaha were put into service in 1900 , the older ships were no longer needed and some were sold. The Manitou went to the Red Star Line as early as 1902 , renamed it Poland and used it on the Antwerp - Philadelphia route until 1914 . The Marquette completed her last voyage for the Atlantic Transport Line in March 1904 and was also put on the route from Antwerp to Philadelphia in September 1905. It was also equipped with wireless telegraphy and received the callsign MNQ. In August 1914, the Marquette made her last voyage from Antwerp to Boston and Philadelphia. Between October and December 1914 she completed three crossings from London to New York for her former owner, the Atlantic Transport Line. At the time, their home port of Antwerp was already in German hands. It then served the British military as a troop transport and was painted gray for this purpose.
Sinking
On the afternoon of October 19, 1915, the Marquette, under the command of Captain John Bell Findlay, set off from Alexandria (Egypt) for a regular troop voyage to Thessaloniki (Greece). The ship was in a convoy escorted by the French destroyer Tirailleur . On board were 95 crew members and 646 passengers, including 22 officers and 588 soldiers from the 29th Division Ammunition Column of the Royal Field Artillery , 8 officers, 9 NCOs (Non-Commissioned Officers) and 77 other ranks of the New Zealand Medical Corps as well as 36 nurses from the No. . 1 New Zealand Stationary Hospital. The cargo included weapons and 541 animals, mainly horses and donkeys. The life-saving appliances included 14 lifeboats and 35 rafts with a total capacity for 1,196 people.
On the evening of October 22nd, the Tirailleur left the convoy as the destination had almost been reached. About 35 miles from Thessaloniki in the Thermaic Gulf , the Marquette, constantly moving at 9 knots , was discovered by the German submarine U 35 (Kapitänleutnant Waldemar Kophamel ) on the morning of October 23, 1915 and attacked without warning. At 09.15 pm, the steamer was from a torpedo hit and sank within 13 minutes with the bug ahead and in severe list . Rafts and life buoys were thrown overboard during the sinking. On the starboard side , a nurse-manned lifeboat tore itself off the halyard so it hung vertically, throwing its occupants into the water.
167 people were killed in the sinking, including 29 crew members, 10 nurses and 128 soldiers. The survivors were picked up by British and French patrol boats and destroyers, including the Lynn and Mortier . Some were rescued from the water after seven hours. After the accident, it was decided that medical personnel could no longer travel on board troop carriers or other military units.
The wreck of the Marquette is about 80 meters deep.