The Comet collides with the Comet

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The Comet was a German fish steamer that collided with the Swedish Bark Cometen near Skagen in the North Sea on November 16, 1906 , causing it to sink. The crew of the Comets were able to save themselves on the Comet .

Technical specifications

the accident

The Comet left Altona on November 14, 1906. On November 16, 01:40 am, Captain Schröder woke helmsman Hühn to monitor the deployment of the nets . Schröder kept watch on the bridge with binoculars ; the weather was hazy with fine rain . On the port side , Schröder saw the lights of other fishing boats.

Suddenly the green light of a vehicle appeared on the port side, which was already in threatening proximity. He ordered the rudder to be placed on the port side in order to get past the vehicle, but then saw the sails of the strange vehicle and knew that a collision was inevitable. He then immediately reversed the engine at full speed. The collision took place at 2:05 am.

The Comet met the Comets starboard amidships near the mainmast . When the ships broke free from each other, Schröder maneuvered near the barque in order to be able to take in shipwrecked people if necessary . The crew of the Comets got on board the fishing steamer, the wreck of the sailor sank at 2.30 a.m.

The comets

The Cometen was a wooden barque of 498 GRT built in 1874 and managed by the shipping company AP Andersson in Landskrona . Your guide was Captain O. Jönsson. She had left Newcastle on November 12, 1906 with a load of coal for Helsingborg .

After the collision, Jönsson immediately launched a dinghy , but it was immediately smashed. When the Comet had maneuvered close to the barque, the crew jumped over. All ship papers and effects (possessions) of the crew went down with the ship.

Probable cause of the accident

The entire crew was used to fish and slaughter .

“There was no special lookout on the fish steamer, as is not usual on such steamer. Once the space is back in fairly bad weather from the Ausgucksmann not comply, on the other hand, the weakness of the crew is here in question, since only two sailors at each station, of which the rudder is, and even if at For this work the second watch is brought on deck, who all have to help other people clear the nets. "

- Decision of the Hamburg Sea Office : ruling of December 12, 1906

The actual cause of the late sighting of the barque was now assumed to be the acetylene lamps switched on on board the fish steamer to deploy the nets . These would have decisively impaired the eyesight of the captain on watch and he would therefore not have seen the green side light of the sailor.

In its ruling, the Maritime Administration came to the conclusion that it was advisable not to drive at full speed while operating the acetylene lamps, but to leave the steamer at a standstill. Captain Schröder was not accused of having acted culpably.

literature

  • Chapter: Altona "Comet" fish steamer. Collision with the Swedish barque "Cometen". Seeamt Hamburg, December 12, 1906 , in: Reichsamt des Innern (ed.): Decisions of the Ober-Seeamt and the Maritime Offices of the German Reich , Vol. 17, Hamburg 1908, pp. 532-537.