Ocean Monarch (ship)
 |
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
The Ocean Monarch was a British barque that went up in flames and burned out on August 24, 1848 off Llandudno on the Welsh coast. Four nearby ships saved 218 people, but 178 passengers and crew were killed.
The ship
The 55-meter-long Bark Ocean Monarch was built in 1848 in Donald McKay's renowned shipbuilding yard in East Boston , where the Great Republic and many other large sailing ships were built in 1853 . The owner was the Liverpool- based White Diamond Line, for which the Ocean Monarch was supposed to bring passengers and cargo from Liverpool to Boston and primarily to transport emigrants . The ship was registered in Boston and, when completed, sailed to Liverpool, from where it was to set sail for the first time with passengers.
On Thursday, August 24, 1848, the Ocean Monarch left Liverpool on her maiden voyage to Boston under the command of Captain Murdock . On board were 42 crew members and 354 passengers (32 first and second class, 322 third class). At around 8 a.m., the ship was towed out of the port into open water and then started sailing. At around noon, just a few hours after sailing, the Ocean Monarch was in Abergele Bay on the north coast of Wales , about six miles east of Great Orme's Head. A steward reported to the captain that there was heat coming from the lower deck, whereupon Murdock went downstairs and saw smoke coming from the direction of the cabins. He immediately called for water, but within five minutes the entire aft section of the ship was on fire.
Murdock had the Ocean Monarch turn over and hoist a flag as a distress signal. The fire quickly became uncontrollable and spread over the midsection and stern , causing people to flee forward. In an attempt to contain the flames, Murdock attempted to turn the Ocean Monarch upwind. After that didn't work, he lowered the anchors to stop his ship. After a short time, the crew no longer had control over the passengers, who were fleeing the strong flames and running around in panic. Many jumped overboard. Murdock had anything that could be found that was buoyant thrown overboard for people to hold on to. Later he jumped into the water himself with a piece of wood and showed those floating in the water how to swim with it. Even so, most of the passengers drowned. Two lifeboats were to Fieren made clear, but before they could be lowered into the water, the flames had already taken them.
Two ships that were in the immediate vicinity came to the aid of the Ocean Monarch immediately. It was the yacht Queen of the Ocean of the Royal Mersey Yacht Club, under the command of Captain Thomas Littledale from a regatta returned to Liverpool, and the Brazilian frigate Affonso , the senior under Captain JM Lisboa during a test drive with some dignitaries Marine and their families. On board the Affonso was Admiral John Pascoe Grenfell , a member of the Brazilian Navy and grandfather of John Grenfell Maxwell . During the rescue operation, he commanded one of the lifeboats and helped pick up the castaways .
The American mail ship New World and the steamer Prince of Wales were added later. The Queen of the Ocean was the last of the ships to leave the scene of the accident around 3 p.m. The four ships together saved 218 people. 178 passengers and crew were killed in the fire .
Aftermath
The burned-out Ocean Monarch sank the next day, August 25, 1848, in about 25 m deep water. The wreck is located at 53 ° 25 ′ 40 ″ N , 3 ° 35 ′ 37 ″ W not far from the Welsh seaside resort of Llandudno . One could only speculate about the cause of the accident. Newspaper articles reported that someone had thrown a cigarette into a wooden fan shaft and started the fire. Captain Murdock disagreed with this assumption and stated that the fans on the ship were made of iron. He believed that tween deck passengers were to blame for the fire and reported how he had confiscated pipes from some passengers shortly before departure .
But there could also have been another reason. A surviving crew member testified that he saw sailor Edward Jenkins disappear into a storage room with a burning candle in hand and come out without her 20 minutes later. The fire was discovered in a room directly above the storage room that was used to store straw and liquor .
Frederick Jerome, a British seaman living in New York and serving on board the New World , acted particularly heroically during the rescue operation . He jumped into the water, swam to the burning ship, and lifted about 15 women into a lifeboat. He received rewards for this from the British Queen Victoria and from François d'Orléans, prince de Joinville and Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale , who were on board the Affonso with their wives .
The British painter Samuel Walters (1811-1882) designed a three-part series of pictures entitled The Burning of the Ocean Monarch off Great Orme .