Sud America (ship)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
The Sud America (I) was a passenger ship put into service in 1872 by the Italian shipping company La Veloce Navigazione Italiana a Vapore, which was used for passenger traffic between Italy and South America . On September 13, 1888, the Sud America sank near Gran Canaria after colliding with a French passenger ship. 79 people were killed.
The ship
The 1,258 GRT steamship Sud America was one of three sister ships of the Italian shipping company Società di Navigazione a Vapore Fratelli Lavarello, based in Genoa, founded in 1864 . The other two were North America (I) (1872) and Europa (1873). All three ships were built in Great Britain at the Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson shipyard and had an iron hull , two masts , two funnels and a propeller . The passenger capacity was 75 passengers in the first, 52 in the second and 750 in the third class. It was launched on June 12, 1872 and completed in October 1872. With her sister ships she served the route Genoa - Rio de Janeiro - Santos - Montevideo - Buenos Aires - Rosario .
When the shipping company was liquidated in 1883 due to financial bottlenecks , its fleet went to the M. Bruzzo Company, also based in Genoa. In the following year, the Sud America and her sister ships went to the newly founded La Veloce Navigazione Italiana a Vapore and from then on went from Genoa via Naples , Palermo and Las Palmas to South America.
On August 30, 1888, the Sud America cast off in Rio de Janeiro under the command of Captain Carlo Bertora with 260 passengers, 69 crew members and 700 tons of cargo for the return journey to Italy. On the morning of September 13, she reached the Canary Islands and drove into the Bay of Las Palmas to anchor there. It steamed south past the ships that were already anchored .
6am rammed it with her tail the port side of La France , a 4,575-ton passenger ship of the French shipping company Societe Generale de Transport Maritime (SGTM), under Captain Raymon Verd with more than 1,300 people on board from the Río de la Plata came . The La France was also busy with a mooring maneuver.
The damage to La France was all above the surface of the water, but the Sud America was so badly damaged that she sank in 15 meters of water about 600 meters from land within 25 minutes. 79 passengers and crew members were killed in the accident. The Las Palmas Naval Tribunal gave the captain of La France responsibility for the accident. In October 1888, a Genoese insurance company sent a representative to Las Palmas. He determined that the wreck of the Sud America could not be salvaged.