Príncipe de Asturias (ship, 1914)
 The Príncipe de Asturias during their test drives, 1914
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The Príncipe de Asturias was a 1914 passenger ship of the Spanish shipping company Pinillos Izquierdo y Compañía, which carried passengers , freight and mail from Spain to South America . She was the largest ship in her shipping company. On March 5, 1916, the Príncipe de Asturias sank off the Brazilian coast within minutes of hitting a rock . 445 passengers and crew members were killed. It is one of the greatest tragedies in the history of Spanish steam shipping , which is why the Príncipe de Asturias is also referred to by naval historians as "the Spanish Titanic ".
The ship
The Príncipe de Asturias was the largest and most modern passenger ship of the Pinillos Izquierdo y Compañía, a steamship company founded in 1884 based in Cádiz . The shipping company was generally shortened to Pinillos Line and specialized in passenger traffic from Spain to Central and South America . She was a passenger ship of the type and was built by the Scottish shipyard Russell & Company in Port Glasgow according to the classification regulations of Lloyd's Register of Shipping . The steamer was named after the Spanish nobility title " Prince of Asturias ", the official title of the heir to the throne of Castile . Her sister ship was the Infanta Isabel (8182 GRT), which was commissioned in September 1912 , was sold in 1925 and sunk by the Americans during World War II.
The Principe de Asturias has been prepared by the 30 April 1914 stack left and completed in July of the same year. She served the route Barcelona - Cadiz - Las Palmas - Rio de Janeiro - Montevideo - Buenos Aires , for which it took 14 days. The maiden voyage took place in August 1914. The Príncipe de Asturias and the Infanta Isabel were in direct rivalry with the luxury steamers Infanta Isabel de Borbón and Reina Victoria Eugenia (both over 10,000 GRT) of the shipping company Compañía Trasatlantica Española ( Spanish Line ), which was the largest competitor of the Pinillos Line was true.
Furnishing
The Príncipe de Asturias set a new standard for Spanish passenger ships in terms of size, comfort and equipment. The expansion of the infrastructure, the growing economic development and the improvement in the quality of life in South America at the beginning of the 20th century resulted in a large wave of Spanish and Portuguese emigrants to that region. This was decisive for the success of Spanish shipping companies that maintained regular liner services to those regions. Because of this development, the ships that served this route became larger and more extravagant, a phenomenon that the writer Joseph Conrad described as "monstrous transatlantic ships".
In addition to the three usual price ranges, the Príncipe de Asturias had an intermediate deck that was specially designed for destitute emigrants and could accommodate up to 1,500 people. Most British and American liners of the time no longer had this facility, which had been standard at the beginning of steam shipping.
The lounges of the Príncipe de Asturias were in the Louis XVI style . held. The spacious first-class dining room, paneled with oak and nut, was crowned with a crystal-studded dome. The first-class smoking room was furnished with armchairs covered with Moroccan leather . An extensive on-board library was attached to the entrance hall. There was also a music salon with a concert grand specially designed for the ship . The steamer was also very modern from a technical point of view. It was powered by quadruple expansion machines from Yarrow, Schlick & Tweedy, which were particularly well suited to contain vibrations. It also had electrically operated heating and ventilation systems.
Downfall
On Wednesday, February 17, 1916, the Príncipe de Asturias left Barcelona with 588 people on board for another crossing to Buenos Aires. Captain José Lotina Abrisqueta, a long-time employee of the Pinillos Line, was in command . In addition to 193 crew members, 395 passengers (49 first class, 28 second class, 59 third class, 259 between decks) were on board on this voyage. Most of the passengers were Spanish, but there were also many Germans as well as some Mexicans, Argentines and Peruvians among them. The more prominent passengers included the American consul in Santos , Carl E. Dickman, the then well-known Catalan pianist Juan José Sola Pujol, Ramón Artagaveytia Gómez (son of the high-ranking military Ramón de Artagaveytia Urioste) and the Spanish millionaire families Pérez Gardey and de Aguirre.
The cargo consisted mainly of metals such as tin, copper and steel, asbestos, electrical wires, Portuguese wine, as well as twenty bronze statues worth 40,000 livre , which were used as components for the monument La Carta Magna y las Cuatro Regiones Argentinas in Buenos Aires to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the May Revolution . The Príncipe de Asturias reached Valencia on February 18, Cádiz on February 21 and Las Palmas on February 23. The ship then steamed south into the Atlantic Ocean. On Monday, March 6th, the steamer should reach Buenos Aires.
On the night of March 4th to 5th, 1916, the ship was steaming along the Brazilian coast and was almost at its destination when it ran into a bank of fog around midnight off Santos . Captain Lotina sounded the foghorn to inform other ships of his presence and thus prevent a collision. He also studied the nautical chart in order to determine his exact position. At 04.15 a.m., the Príncipe de Asturias unexpectedly rammed a rock in front of the promontory Punta de Pirabura on the Ilha de São Sebastião . Captain Lotina was perplexed and ordered "full power back". A minute later, SOS was radioed. Immediately afterwards, a violent boiler explosion destroyed the engine room, which caused the power to fail, the ship was unable to maneuver and assistance could no longer be called. Conditions were disastrous on the rapidly sinking ship. The ship sank in just five minutes at an angle of 70 degrees (position 23 ° 55 ′ 33.6 ″ S , 45 ° 22 ′ 30.7 ″ W ).
Of the 588 people on board, only 143 survived (86 crew members and 57 passengers, including six women and three children). 445 people were killed. Captain Lotina and the chief officer, Antonio Salazar del Campo, were also among the fatalities. Among the few surviving crew members were the ship's doctor, Dr. Francisco Zapata, the chief radio officer Francisco Cotando and the second officer Rufino Onzain y Urtiaga. The survivors were recovered by the French freighter Vega and brought to Santos.
Consequences
The sinking of the Príncipe de Asturias is one of the greatest tragedies in the history of Spanish steam shipping and therefore the ship is also known as "the Spanish Titanic ". After the Príncipe de Asturias , the Pinillos Line lost two more ships: The Pío IX sank off the Canary Islands in December 1916 (40 dead) and the Valbanera sank in a hurricane off Cuba in September 1919 , killing all 488 passengers and crew Life came. The Pinillos Line was never able to recover from this series of accidents. Her last three ships were sold to the shipping company Compañía Transoceánica in 1925.
Web links
- Overview in the Clydebuilt Ships Database
- Detailed and illustrated summary of the ship, its history and its sinking (Spanish)
- Illustrated summary of technical and historical data (Spanish)
- "The Spanish Titanic" (detailed essay about the last voyage of the Príncipe de Asturias ) (Spanish)
- Description in the Librería de Náutica, a Spanish online lexicon (Spanish)
- Passenger and crew list of the last trip (Spanish)
- LINER SINKS OFF BRAZIL, NEARLY 500 LOST ( New York Times report of March 7, 1916)
- The Pinillos Line in The Ships List
- The Príncipe de Asturias on wrecksite.eu