RMS City of Glasgow
The RMS City of Glasgow was a ship that disappeared without a trace in the North Atlantic in 1854 .
Data about the ship
The City of Glasgow , an Inman Line ship built by the Glasgow shipyard Tod and MacGregor , was launched in 1850. Its propeller was powered by two steam engines. The top speed was 12 knots .
history
Its modern design had already proven itself on the North Atlantic route for more than four years when it left Liverpool on March 1, 1854, heading for Philadelphia .
111 first class passengers and 293 third class passengers and the tween deck were looked after by 77 crew members and the crew, which was composed as follows:
- Captain Kenneth Morrison
- 4 officers
- 1 doctor
- 1 steward
- 4 machinists
- 6 firefighters
- 5 heaters
- 10 stewards
- 9 waiters
- 1 stewardess
- 4 quartermasters
- 30 fully qualified sailors
In total, there were 481 people on board the City of Glasgow .
On average, an Atlantic crossing took about 12 days under favorable conditions. Whether a voyage was safe could not be found out until the ship in question returned to its port of departure - in the case of the City of Glasgow, Liverpool. It was not until 12 years later, in 1866, that the first functioning telegraph cables were laid.
When it became known that the City of Glasgow had still not arrived in Philadelphia on April 9th, fear spread. The owners then told the Times that they suspected the ship would be stuck in the ice off Newfoundland . This assumption was based on the testimony of passengers on the City of Manchester , the sister ship of the City of Glasgow , which arrived in Liverpool on March 17th. They had seen unusually large icebergs that had advanced further south than usual that year .
To this day one never heard from the City of Glasgow again. She wasn't even looked for. Only on May 12, 1854, Lloyd’s was quoted in the Glasgow Herald as saying that "the worst" should be assumed.