Stella (ship)
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The Stella was a steamer of the British railway company London and South Western Railway (L & SWR). The 1890 in service ferry transported between Southampton and the British Channel Islands next passengers and cargo and mail . On March 30, 1899, in thick fog and at full speed , the ship rammed into a reef belonging to the Casquets rock group 15 miles from Saint Peter Port and sank within eight minutes. Of the 217 people on board, 105 were killed. The sinking of the Stella is still one of the worst shipping accidents off the Channel Islands.
The ship
The 1059 GRT steamship Stella was built in 1890 at the J. & G. Thomson shipyard. The slender iron hull was designed to achieve high speeds. The ship was propelled by two three-cylinder compound steam engines and two fixed propellers and reached a speed of up to 19.5 knots (36.1 km / h). The engine output was 5700 PSi (360 nhp). Completion took place in October 1890.
The owner was the London and South Western Railway (L & SWR), headquartered in London , which had been operating since 1838 and had an extensive rail network in southern England. The company also operated a fleet of passenger and cargo ships that sailed the English Channel, connecting French port cities and the British Channel Islands with cities on the south coast of England.
The Stella and her sister ships Frederica and Lydia were the first ships on the London and South Western Railway to be fitted with twin propellers. They were the most modern ships in the L & SWR fleet, where great attention was paid to comfort and speed. All three ships were equipped with electric lights, separate washrooms for women as well as a smoking salon and a ladies salon. The godmother when it was launched in September 1890 was a Miss Chisholm. The ship had cost £ 62,000 to build with only £ 30,000 insured. In November 1890 the Stella was put into service. It ran on a regular service from Southampton on the Hampshire coast to Guernsey and Jersey , the two largest of the British Channel Islands.
The Stella was equipped with five lifeboats and two folding boats from the Berthon Boat Company and also had an assortment of 754 life jackets and 36 life buoys . Although the ship could take up to 712 travelers on board, there was only room for 148 people in the lifeboats.
The last ride
beginning of the journey
On Thursday, March 30, 1899 at 11:25 a.m., the Stella left Eastern Dock No. 4 in Southampton under the command of Captain William Reeks. 174 passengers and 43 crew members were on board. It was the first trip of the new season and also the day before Good Friday , so that there were many Easter holidaymakers on the ship who wanted to spend the holidays on the Channel Islands . The company had offered a special Easter excursion.
At around 2 p.m. it got hazy at first. Shortly afterwards the ship steamed into a thick bank of fog. Almost the entire route was covered in thick fog . The speed was reduced several times, but soon increased again. The Stella was approaching Guernsey at full speed, despite the persistent fog, because Captain Reeks wanted to reach Guernsey punctually at 5:30 p.m. and Jersey at 7:30 p.m. Although he sounded the ship's horn at regular intervals, no other precautionary measures were taken.
Shortly before 4 p.m. the lookout could make out rocks directly ahead and hear the foghorn of the nearby Casquets lighthouse. Immediately after the rudder of the Stella had been set hard to port and the engines had been set back to “full throttle”, grounding occurred.
Collision and sinking
Fifteen miles from Saint Peter Port and eight miles west of Alderney , the Stella rammed into the thick fog at a speed of 18 knots the submerged granite boulder Black Rock , which belonged to the dangerous rock group of the Casquets . After the first impact, the ship detached itself from the rocks and hit it again. The hull was torn open halfway, so that large amounts of seawater quickly seeped into the hull. During the sinking, the steam boiler exploded .
Four of the five lifeboats were successfully launched. On the port side, however, a completely overcrowded lifeboat capsized immediately after touching the water. The situation on board was disciplined and orderly according to the circumstances. Although there were also signs of fear and panic among the passengers, many survivors later mainly reported heroic scenes and the exemplary behavior of the crew. The men held back and let women and children go first. However, there was not enough time to completely evacuate the ship. Eight minutes after the collision , the Stella capsized and sank.
Two of the lifeboats were found around 8:00 a.m. on March 31 by the Vera , also owned by the London and South Western Railway, and taken to Saint Helier on the island of Jersey. The occupants of the other two boats were on the Lynx of the Great Western Railway rescued, they sat in Saint Peter Port in Guernsey on land. The capsized lifeboat, which had straightened the sea again, was sighted 27 hours after the sinking by the French tug Marsouin . There were eight survivors in it.
86 passengers, including at least 18 women and four children, and 19 crew members, including the two stewardesses, died as a result of the disaster (105 people in total). Captain Reeks, first officer RB Wade and chief engineer Love were also killed. 88 passengers and 24 crew members survived. Although the residents of the 17 miles distant Channel Island Sark could hear the kettle explosions muffled, those on duty at the Casquets lighthouse were initially completely unaware of the tragedy. This only changed when the steamer Honfleur arrived to look for more survivors.
Aftermath
The sinking of the Stella is next to that of the Hilda in 1905 with 125 deaths one of the largest steam accidents in the Channel Islands. The event made headlines and discussions. This was followed by an investigation by the Board of Trade , which was held from April 27, 1899 under the chairmanship of RHB Marsham in the Middlesex Guildhall in Westminster . It was denounced that the London and South Western Railway and its greatest rival, the Great Western Railway, competed for the favor of the paying clientele and thereby exposed their ships to possible risks. The fact that there were too few places in lifeboats was also criticized.
44-year-old stewardess Mary Rogers was hailed as the heroine of the disaster. She led passengers on deck, surrendered her life jacket and refused a seat on one of the boats for fear of overcrowding it. She went down with the ship praying. In 1908, a stained glass window was installed in the Ladys Chapel of Liverpool Cathedral in her honor, showing her portrait. There are also other memorials for Rogers. For example, it is immortalized in the Memorial of Heroic Deeds in Postman's Park in London, built in 1900 by George Frederic Watts .
Two survivors, the executive director of American Line's London branch , James Parton, and British singer Greta Williams, released their eyewitness accounts. Survivor Marie Bailey captured her memories of the tragedy in her book A Terrible Experience , published in London by Riddle, Taylor & Smith.
The British poets and writers William McGonagall and Alfred Austin processed the misfortune in poetry. The Royal Pier in Southampton, opened by Queen Victoria in 1833, is now home to a memorial initiated and co- funded by Irish journalist, feminist and animal rights activist Frances Power Cobbe . In 1999 commemorative stamps were published on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the downfall.
The wreck
The wreck of the Stella was only found in June 1973 a mile west of the Casquets by the two divers Richard Keen from the island of Guernsey and Fred Shaw from the island of Alderney. ( 49 ° 43 ′ 15.3 ″ N , 2 ° 23 ′ 59.5 ″ W ) The two men had actually been after the wreck wanted the Victory , a ship of the line of the Royal Navy that went down in 1744 with 1,100 people on board off the Casquets.
The wreck of the Stella lies at a depth of 49 m and is at a different point than was originally assumed. The ship lies upright on the keel and is largely intact. In order to avoid looting the remains, the Stella was placed under a preservation order in the early 1990s and is the responsibility of the Maritime Trust of Alderney research center.
John Ovenden, an amateur diver from the island of Jersey, filmed the wreck extensively in the summer of 1992. The video material became part of the TV documentary The Wreck of the Stella , which was broadcast by the BBC in Great Britain, the Discovery Channel in the USA and NDR in Germany. In 1999 Ovenden also published a reference book of the same name on the Stella .
literature
- John Ovenden and David Shayer: The Wreck of the Stella. Titanic of the Channel Islands. Guernsey Museums and Galleries, Saint Peter Port 1999
- David Couling: Wrecked on the Channel Islands . Stanford Maritime, London 1982
- Richard Mayne: Mailships of the Channel Island, 1771-1971 . Picton Publishing, Chippenham 1971
- Kenneth C. Barnaby: Some Ship Disasters and the Causes . Hutchinson, London 1968
- Alfred H. Miles: The Bravest Deed I Ever Saw. Stories of Personal Experience . Hutchinson, London 1905
Web links
- Stella website with data, reports, lists of names and pictures (English)
- Illustrated summary of the history and sinking of the Stella (English; PDF file; 1.20 MB)
- The Stella in Clydebuilt Ships Database (English)
- Report of the New York Times of April 1, 1899 (english)
- Entry in the ship directory Miramar Ship Index (English)