Saale (ship, 1886)
|
Saale |
||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Ship data | ||
| Flags: |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
|
|
| Ship type : | Steamship | |
| Use: | ||
| Home port : | Bremen | |
| Launch | April 21, 1886 | |
| Maiden voyage : | August 18, 1886 | |
| Builder : | Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company ( Glasgow ) | |
| Shipping company | North German Lloyd | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Build number: | 312 | |
| Volume: | 4,967 GRT | |
| Length over all: | 133.99 m | |
| Width over everything: | 14.66 m | |
| Max. Draft : | 10.97 m | |
| machine | ||
| Drive: | Triple expansion steam engines | |
| Machine power: | 8000 hp | |
| Top speed: | 17 knots (31.5 km / h ) | |
| Propeller : | 1 | |
| Chimneys: | 2 | |
| Masts : | 4th | |
| Others | ||
| Number of passengers | 150 First class 90 Second class 1000 Third class |
|
| Number of crew : | 170 | |
The hall was a Schnelldampfer the rivers class of the North German Lloyd , who on Atlantic passenger service on the Atlantic Ocean wrong and from 1886 to 1900 passengers , cargo and mail from Bremen to New York promoted.
On June 30, 1900, the Saale burned down in the port of Hoboken , New Jersey during a major fire in which three other Lloyd ships were affected and between 200 and 400 people died (sources differ). On the Saale alone , 99 passengers and crew were killed because they could not pull themselves through the portholes that were too small. It was the biggest accident of the shipping company since the sinking of the Elbe in the English Channel in 1895 (332 dead) and that of the Salier off northern Spain in 1896 (279 dead).
The ship was later salvaged and sold to the United States as a freighter , renamed a total of three times and finally scrapped in Italy in 1924 .
At the North German Lloyd
The Saale steamship was built in 1886 at the renowned Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in the Govan district of Glasgow on the River Clyde . After being launched on April 21, 1886, it was completed in July of the same year and left for its maiden voyage on August 18. The ship was primarily used on the Bremen - Southampton - New York route.
The almost 5000 GRT ship was able to carry a total of 1240 passengers (150 first class, 90 second class, 1000 third class) and was mainly designed for the transport of European emigrants .
The Saale's triple expansion steam engines, which achieved up to 8,000 hp, were the largest that had ever been installed on a ship. The hull was divided into nine compartments by watertight iron and steel bulkheads . Fire hoses were attached to 26 places on board.
The Hoboken fire
On Saturday afternoon, June 30, 1900, a major fire broke out in the port of Hoboken in the US state of New Jersey , in which four ocean liners belonging to North German Lloyd, several warehouses and the entire berths between Second and Fourth Street were either damaged or completely destroyed . Hundreds of people died.
For some unknown reason, a pile of cotton bales caught fire on Pier 3 . The fire was first seen at 3:55 p.m. at Pier 3 by security guard William Northmaid, who promptly reported it to the Hoboken Fire Department , which was just two blocks away. The flames immediately spread to nearby barrels of oil , turpentine and whiskey , which immediately began to burn and exploded. The fire, fanned by the strong wind, spread rapidly to the neighboring piers 2 and 1. Within nine minutes, all of the wooden buildings on the site were blazing. The size and force of the fire were so great that parts of the adjacent HAPAG landing stage were torn down to prevent the flames from spreading further. The immense clouds of smoke partially darkened the sky over Hoboken and neighboring New York. The fire brigade and police did not have the fire under control until 9:30 p.m.
On the piers of the North German Lloyd lay next to the Saale from south to north, Bremen (Bj. 1897), the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse (Bj. 1897) and the still new Main (Bj. 1900). In the same port basin as the Saale , the Aller (built in 1886) had been lying shortly before , but left for Naples at 11 a.m. on the day of the accident . Pier 1, which had only been built in 1897, was the only one with a steel frame, all the others were made of wood.
Every effort was immediately made to pull the ships into the harbor basin and away from the fire. But only the Kaiser Wilhelm der Große could be pulled away from the pier sufficiently quickly by tugs so that she could only escape the danger area with minor damage and without loss of human life.
The Saale was supposed to leave for Southampton the following morning and already had a large number of people on board. After a short time it was on fire. The lines were cut loose so that the ship drifted out onto the Hudson River. After the ship drifted into Upper New York Bay , it was pulled by tugs to a sandbar near Communipaw Flats , where it burned out completely and sank onto the sandbar. The people on deck were able to save themselves by jumping into the Hudson River , but some drowned. Those who were below deck in their cabins had no chance. The portholes in the halls were not big enough for a person to pass through. Many were suffocated in the smoke or burned in the flames. Many eyewitnesses later reported that the face of a man or a woman could be seen in numerous portholes on the ship. After the ship was made buoyant again, the charred remains of 99 people had to be salvaged from the hull. The captain of the Saale , August Johann Mirow (born October 21, 1854 in Lenthe ), was among the fatalities.
The Bremen , on which about a hundred visitors were being led through the ship, was also in full fire after a short time. She was also rocked by an explosion . But her lines could be loosened, so that she drifted out burning into the Hudson River . The wind caught the ship and drove it against the banks of Manhattan , causing parts of a pier to catch fire before tugs took her to the Wheehawken Flats, where she sank on her side in the mud of the river bed.
The Main , which had around 150 people on board, went up in flames at the pier because the lines could not be loosened. After the fire, she was taken to the Wheehawken Flats , where the Bremen was already located. The fire on the two ships could finally be extinguished.
Many people who jumped into the water from the ships were rescued by tugs and barges . The tugboat Nettie Tice alone took 104 people from the Bremen .
Cause, damage, consequences
The cause of the fire could never be determined. Since it had been a hot, dry summer's day preceded by many weeks with no rain, many believed that the cotton piled in large quantities on the pier would spontaneously ignite . The theory of a carelessly thrown away cigarette also emerged. Furthermore, arson has not been ruled out, but nothing has ever been proven.
Four steamers burned down, three more were badly damaged. In addition, a total of 27 tugs, ferries, barges and other smaller ships were damaged or destroyed in the port of Hoboken. Three moorings of the North German Lloyd fell victim to the fire, as did a pier on the Danish Thingvalla Line , which bordered north to that of the North German Lloyd. Railroad tracks , vehicles and warehouses such as the Campbell's Store, which was built for 1.5 million US dollars, or the Hoboken Warehouse burned down completely. Even New York City was affected, as Bremen, which was on fire, had drifted to the other side of the Hudson River and set Pier 18 on fire.
The exact number of deaths could never be precisely determined, as many victims were burned beyond recognition and others could never be found. In the various sources and reports, the number of victims ranges from 173 to 400. Crew members, passengers, visitors and dock workers were equally affected. Dozens of injured people were taken to Hoboken hospitals. According to various sources, the property damage was between five and ten million US dollars.
At Flower Hill Cemetery in the nearby city of Union City , a large number of the victims of the tragedy were buried in a mass grave as part of a major funeral service . The police chief of Hoboken Charles A. Donovan, Mayor Lawrence Fagan, the German Vice-Consul, representatives of North German Lloyd, 20 survivors of the Saale and the captains of the Main and Bremen took part. The funeral procession passed the scene of the accident. The Archdeacon of Jersey City , Rev. Dr. William R. Jenvey, held the funeral service.
In the days following the fire, which made a great lasting impression and was one of the greatest calamities in the history of the city of Hoboken, the national newspapers were full of headlines, articles, sketches and photos of the accident. One consequence of the catastrophe was that the portholes of ships had to be big enough for a person in the future. The Hoboken harbor fire in 1900 was the worst and most lossy major fire in the United States that year.
The hall after the fire
The wreck of the Saale was lifted after the fire, restored and equipped with new machinery. In 1901 the New York-based Luckenbach Transportation & Wrecking Company bought the ship, renamed it JL Luckenbach and used it as a cargo ship .
During the First World War , on October 19, 1917, the JL Luckenbach was attacked 160 miles west of the island of Ouessant in the Bay of Biscay by the German submarine U 62 and fired at for three hours. Their cargo went up in flames. The American destroyer Nicholson came to the aid of JL Luckenbach , drove the submarine to flight and helped extinguish the fire. Both ships reached the port of Le Havre safely on October 21 . There were nine wounded but no dead.
In 1919 the ship changed hands again when it became the property of the Luckenbach Steamship Company Inc. in New York. In 1922 it was renamed Princess . The following year Archibald M. Ostrom bought the Princess and renamed her Madison . In 1924 the 38-year-old ship was finally scrapped in Genoa .
Web links
- Overview of technical and historical data as well as the course of the accident in the Clydebuilt Ships Database
- Website about the Hoboken Harbor Fire of June 30, 1900 with contemporary photos and headlines about the disaster
- Entry in the ship directory Miramar Ship Index
- The attack on JL Luckenbach in the First World War
- Excerpt from the Saale's travel plan 1886–1892
- Report of the accident in The New York Times of July 1, 1900
Footnotes
- ↑ Maggie Blanck: Hoboken Pier Fire, June 30, 1900 (English)
- ^ Norman Brouwer: The tug HELEN McALLISTER, ex-ADMIRAL DEWEY and The Great Hoboken Pier Fire
- ↑ a b The German-American World Historical Society: The 1900 Tragedy and Fire of the North German Lloyd Ships in Hoboken, New Jersey ( Memento of the original from February 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ^ New York Times, July 1, 1900: Over 200 Perish in Burning Liners , section The rescue from the Main
Map with all coordinates: