Ottawa (ship)
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The Ottawa was a British tanker of the Anglo-American Oil Company put into service in 1888 , which sank in the North Atlantic in 1921 for reasons not known for certain, killing the entire crew.
Technical specifications
The Ottawa was 94.31 m long and 12.29 m wide. The draft when fully loaded was 8.58 m. The tanker was measured at 2,742 GRT and could transport up to 3,500 tons of oil. Two steam boilers and a three-cylinder triple expansion machine with 1,500 PSi enabled the ship to reach a top speed of around 12.5 kn (around 23 km / h). The crew usually consisted of 34 men.
History of the ship
The tanker was originally in 1888 under the name Elbruz on the shipyard of Armstrong, Mitchell & Company in English Elswick (a district of Newcastle upon Tyne was built). The launch took place on September 27, 1888. After commissioning in October 1888, the Elbruz initially drove for seven years for the English Kerosene Company, a subsidiary of the London- based Elbruz Steamship Company, which later became part of the Anglo-Caucasian Petroleum Company . The ship mostly sailed the route between the United Kingdom and the Black Sea during this period . The tanker called at Batumi and Novorossiysk, among others .
In 1901 the Elbruz was sold to the Anglo-American Oil Company , which used the tanker under the new name Ottawa . Home port was still London. In the following years, the Ottawa shuttled between the United Kingdom , the US east coast and the oil loading ports in the Gulf of Mexico .
Rescue of a victim of the Titanic disaster
On June 6, 1912, while the Ottawa was en route from the Gulf of Mexico to Manchester , the ship's crew discovered a body floating about 950 nautical miles east-southeast of St. John's . The body, which was still in its life jacket and thus kept afloat, was recovered by the Ottawa crew . During the examination of the already badly decomposed body, a wallet with the initials WTK was found. Based on this find, the unknown dead person could be identified as William T. Kerley. Kerley was later verified as an assistant steward on the Titanic . During the nearly two months in the sea (the Titanic sank on April 15, 1912), Kerley's body had traveled about 540 nautical miles through the currents in the Atlantic. As a result of the extremely advanced state of putrefaction, the corpse was returned to the sea on the same day after a funeral ceremony on board the Ottawa in a burial at sea.
Sinking of the Ottawa
After the Ottawa the First World War was unscathed - she stood from 1914 to 1918 in the service of the British Admiralty and drove as a supply tanker - the ship returned in 1919 in the civil service back and took his rides on the route between the United Kingdom and the Ölverladehäfen in the Gulf of Mexico again.
In January 1921 the tanker was on its way to Manchester with around 3,500 tons of oil on board when it got caught in a hurricane off the US east coast , about 360 nautical miles east of Delaware , in early February 1921 . The Ottawa had briefly radio contact with the British cargo steamer on February 6, 1921 Dorington Court had (4777 BRT), but not signed up for it. No trace was ever found of either the ship or the crew.
Both the time of the sinking and the exact position of the sinking are unknown. It is also unclear what ultimately led to the downfall. It is possible that the hull of the ship, which was already over 32 years old at the time, could no longer withstand the storms and the tanker broke apart. A so-called monster wave or a machine failure , the Ottawa was only powered by a triple expansion machine that was already very outdated at the time and comparatively weak, the failure of which could have led to a ricochet and the associated capsizing , could have caused the downfall. With the ship, the entire crew of 34 men was lost.