Volturno (ship, 1906)
 |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
The Volturno (II) was a passenger ship of the British shipping company Uranium Steamship Company that was put into service in 1906. It was built for transatlantic traffic and carried passengers, freight and mail from Rotterdam via Halifax to New York . On October 9, 1913, a fire in the middle of the North Atlantic destroyed the ship, killing 136 passengers and crew. It was the most devastating and most published shipwreck since the Titanic sank 18 months earlier. The fire on the Volturno is also one of the largest ship tragedies caused by fire.
The ship
The Volturno had an eventful history. She was built by the Scottish shipyard Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company in Glasgow on the River Clyde for the Italian shipping company Navigazione Italo-Americano with hull number 448. It was launched on September 5, 1906 and was completed the following October. The construction cost 80,000 pounds sterling (in today's money value approximately 8,600,000 ₤). She was originally planned as a pure cargo ship . The shipping company named the ship after the Italian river of the same name , which flows into the Tyrrhenian Sea at Gaeta .
On November 11, 1906, the ship was bought by the Volturno Steamship Company, a subdivision of the British trading group DG Pinkney & Company based in Sunderland . She kept the name of the ship. In March 1908, the Volturno was chartered for two crossings by the New York & Continental Line founded the year before. In February 1909 she was chartered by the Northwest Transport Line for passenger traffic from New York to Rotterdam.
On March 30, 1909, the Toronto- based shipping company Canadian Northern Steamship Company bought the ship, which it placed in the service of its newly founded subsidiary Uranium Steamship Company ( Uranium Line for short ) on April 4 of the same year . For this company, the steamer continued to operate on the Rotterdam – Halifax – New York route. The Volturno remained in service with the Uranium Line until its end.
The last ride
The fire
On Thursday, October 2, 1913, the Volturno left Rotterdam for a crossing to New York. The ship was under the command of the 36-year-old Captain Francis James Daniel Inch. On board were 564 passengers (24 first class, 540 third class) and 93 crew members; a total of 657 people. Among the passengers were many Eastern European Jews who wanted to emigrate to America, but also British, German and French business people, honeymooners and vacationers. The passenger list for this trip recorded a large number of children. The cargo included many easily inflammable goods such as chemicals , oil , peat , carpets, straw and large quantities of wine and spirits . On the third day of the voyage, Saturday, October 4th, fire and boat exercises took place on board. The Volturno was equipped with 19 lifeboats , 1,511 life jackets and 23 lifebuoys and was therefore considered a safe ship.
.jpg)
One week after sailing, on Thursday morning, October 9, 1913, the ocean liner was in the middle of an Atlantic storm. It was raining heavily and high waves crashed against the hull . Preparations for breakfast had begun in the dining rooms. At 5:50 a.m., a fire broke out, the cause of which is unclear. Presumably it was triggered by a discarded cigarette of an intermediate deck passenger. When a steward approached, the man is said to have thrown the cigarette through a slot in the floor in order not to have to pay a fine. The cigarette landed in a hold and set the luggage stored there on fire. This has never been clearly proven, but has often been cited as the cause.
The fire spread at breakneck speed in the holds and quickly reached the boiler rooms . A violent explosion rocked the ship as the boilers blew up . Four crew members were killed as a result. The fire then spread to the upper passenger decks. The fire alarm was triggered at 6 a.m. The explosion had awakened the passengers, who were now panicking about looking for life jackets . Dozens jumped overboard.
Captain Inch immediately ordered fire fighting measures. After it had been determined that the fire could no longer be brought under control, Inch sent SOS radio from around 8 a.m. and ordered the lifeboats to be lowered . This turned out to be very risky and difficult because of the heavy seas. The first two boats manned with women and children were thrown against the hull by the waves, threw their occupants into the sea and sank. One was crushed by the sinking stern of the Volturno . None of the inmates survived. Inch then stopped the disembarkation. Two more severe explosions shook the ship, destroyed the engines and the compass, and made the lights go out. The Volturno was now unable to maneuver in the storm.
Salvation and destruction
A total of eleven ships in the vicinity responded to the Volturno's call for help , which made their way to the scene of the accident and which arrived one after the other over the next 24 hours. The first ship was the passenger steamer RMS Carmania of the Cunard Line under Captain James Clayton Barr, which arrived around noon. Barr took over the management of the rescue operation and directed the other ships, which gradually formed a circle around the burning Volturno and pulled swimmers out of the water.
Other rescue ships included the Czar of the Russian American Line (102 rescued), the Devonian of the Leyland Line (39 rescued), the La Touraine of the French CGT (40 rescued), the Kroonland of the Red Star Line (90 rescued) as well as the two NDL steamers Grosser Kurfürst (105 rescued) and Seydlitz (46 rescued). Some ships launched their own lifeboats, but the strong winds and the waves made these rescue attempts null and void.
"The first radio operator on board the largest ship, the 'Großer Kurfürst', immediately took control of the situation, and he knew how to use his authority to an excellent extent until the rescue operation was completed."
The evacuation operation dragged on into the morning hours of October 11th. The tanker Narrangansett of the Standard Shipping Company from New York distributed oil as wave calming oil at the scene of the accident to smooth out the still rough seas. That way it was easier to get to the Volturno with the lifeboats . Captain Inch was the last to leave the ship. At around 9 a.m. the Volturno was evacuated and all boats had been picked up. A total of 521 survivors were recovered. 136 people were killed in the disaster, many of them by the crashed lifeboats.
“That so many human lives could be saved is mainly due to the almost superhuman achievements of the radio telegraphists on all ships who operated their devices for 50 hours without interruption. The on-board telegraph operator [the Volturno ] received special recognition from the seaman's office for his prudence and efficiency. "
The eleven rescue ships then resumed their original courses and brought the survivors ashore. The wreck of the burned and abandoned Volturno was allowed to drift. On the evening of October 17th, the Dutch tanker Charlois discovered the unmanned wreck, which was still smoking. Captain Schmidt did not know what had happened and had a boat transferred to the Volturno to check whether anyone was on board and needed help. Since he found no survivors and the drifting wreck represented a danger to other ships, he had it sunk on the morning of October 18th.
examination
The incident was investigated by a British Board of Trade investigative committee chaired by British Wreck Commissioner Hamilton Cuffe, 5th Earl of Desart . The committee presented its final report on January 17, 1914. The results were surprisingly positive, the team of Volturno and especially the captain were praised for their behavior. Everything had been tried to contain the fire, get help and save the passengers. Everyone did what he could and thereby fulfilled his duty. Nobody was convicted or criticized. The Board of Trade also awarded numerous crew members of the rescue ships for their work with the Board of Trade Medal for Saving Life at Sea (usually abbreviated as the Sea Gallantry Medal ).
literature
- Arthur Spurgeon: The Burning of the Volturno . Cassell and Co., London 1913.
- RL Hadfield: Sea-Toll of Our Time: A Chronicle of Maritime Disaster . HF & G. Witherby, 1930.
- Adolph A. Hoehling: They Sailed Into Oblivion . Yseloff, New York 1959.
- Warren Armstrong: Fire Down Below. True Stories of the Most Disastrous Fires Aboard Ship . John Day, 1968.
- Hal Butler: Abandon Ship! . Henry Regnery Company, 1974.
Web links
- Further links, for example to the passenger list etc., compiled by Jan Daamen
- The Volturno in the Clydebuilt Database ( Memento of November 8, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
- Technical details and summary of the accident in the wreck database
- Report in the New York Times, October 12, 1913
- Report in the New York Times of October 13, 1913
- The Uranium Steamship Company in The Ships List
- Entry in the Miramar Ship Index
Coordinates: 49 ° 7 '12 " N , 34 ° 30' 36" W.