The sinking of SS Tubantia

 

SS Tubantia was a luxury liner built for the Dutch in 1913. She was designed for speed and luxury, particularly for service between the Netherlands and South America.

Tubantia was state-of-the-art in that electricity was used for all on-board facilities, even down to personal cigar lighters in every stateroom. Being brightly lit was regarded as a safety feature, in that being easily seen as a civilian ship belonging to a neutral country during wartime would be an additional safety feature.

However, this did not prove to be the case on 16th March 1916, when SS Tubantia was at anchor 58 miles from the Dutch coast and was hit by a torpedo fired by UB-13, a German U-boat. Fortunately, three nearby ships immediately came to her rescue and there were no casualties.

One reason why nobody died as a result of the sinking was that the ship had very few passengers at the time. Despite all the claims of being a safe ship, not many people were willing to take the risk of a voyage at a time when U-boat wolf packs were known to be patrolling in the region.

At first, the German government denied responsibility for the sinking, coming up with the strange claim that Tubantia must have encountered a stray torpedo that had been fired weeks before. However, few people believed this story and eventually Germany did pay reparations to the Netherlands.

The story might have ended there, were it not for the fact that many people started to take particular interest in what might have been on board the ship when it sank. A number of multinational dive teams made repeated dives to the wreck in the years that followed, clearly in the belief that it would be worth their while to do so.

However, all that was found in the way of cargo was a hold full of Dutch cheese. Rumours began that the cheese was hiding a consignment of gold bullion, but there was never any confirmation that this was the case. Needless to say, the cheese was soon well past its sell-by date and not worth the bother of rescuing it.

© John Welford

The sinking of Vice-Admiral Tryon

Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon died on 22^nd June 1893, at sea in the eastern Mediterranean. As he acknowledged shortly before going under, it was entirely his own fault.

Born in January 1832 into a wealthy Northamptonshire family who owned a country estate, George Tryon was educated at Eton and entered the Navy at the age of 16. His promotion through the ranks was rapid, although much of his experience was away from the sea. He became a Vice-Admiral (following a failed bid to enter Parliament and a post that gave him responsibility for coastguard buildings) in 1889.

As a Vice-Admiral during peacetime, his main responsibility was to direct “naval manoeuvres”, which in layman’s terms means “war games”. It was during one such operation in 1893 that disaster struck.

Tryon had a reputation for keeping his captains on their toes by issuing orders at the last minute and seeing how responsive they were. His aim, as he saw it, was to encourage initiative and quick thinking. It was unfortunate that these were qualities that he did not always demonstrate himself.

On the day in question, Vice-Admiral Tryon was aboard his flagship HMS Victoria at the head of a double column of eight battleships and three light cruisers. They were steaming in two rows about 1,200 yards apart.

Tryon gave orders that the two rows were to turn inwards towards each other in a complete 180 degree manoeuvre, after which they would steam in the opposite direction before turning at 90 degrees and coming to anchor.

There was one huge problem with this idea, which was that the turning circle of a battleship was at least 800 yards. This was pointed out to the Vice-Admiral by some of his officers, and he agreed to increase the distance between the columns to 1,600 yards, which would just be sufficient if the ships continued at their current speed.

However, not long after the new formation had been adopted, Sir George went back to Plan A. Just for good measure, he ordered the ships to increase their speed. It would now be impossible for the manoeuvre to be made safely. All the senior officers knew this, with the sole exception of Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon.

He then raised a signal flag to order the ships to make the 180 degree turns. Rear-Admiral Albert Hastings Markham, who was in charge of HMS Camperdown at the head of the opposite column, had serious doubts about the order – which he knew to be unsafe – and he hesitated to obey it. Sir George sent a tetchy signal that was visible to all the other captains, to the effect of “what are you waiting for?”

So the turn was made. Knowing Vice-Admiral Tryon’s reputation for pulling rabbits out of hats, it might have been the case that everyone was expecting another order to come that would have saved the situation. But that was not the case.

HMS Camperdown hit HMS Victoria and tore a large hole below the waterline, causing Sir George’s flagship to sink in 13 minutes. Fortunately, none of the other ships in the column had followed the order as quickly as the two at the front and there were no other collisions.

Vice-Admiral Tryon went to the bottom along with 358 members of his crew. One of the 357 survivors was John Jellicoe, an officer who would later become Admiral of the Fleet and take charge at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

So why did the disaster happen? There was an enquiry, at which various explanations were put forward. One was that Sir George made a simple arithmetical mistake. Another was that the intention had been for the columns to cross each other as they turned, with one ship passing behind its opposite number. 

However, what was going on in Vice-Admiral Tryon’s head will never be known.

© John Welford

The wreck of the Torrey Canyon, 1967

The wreck of the Torrey Canyon on 18^th March 1967, off the coast of Cornwall, brought home to the British public the risks that are involved in the transport of huge quantities of oil by sea in giant supertankers.

The Torrey Canyon

Although the Torrey Canyon, at 120,000 tonnes capacity, was one of the largest crude oil carriers afloat at the time, it would be dwarfed by some of the monsters around today. Nonetheless, in 1967 it was the largest ship ever to be wrecked, and the loss of its cargo led to a serious environmental disaster that stretched the resources of the UK authorities and gave rise to lessons that have proved beneficial in later similar incidents.

Fully laden, the Torrey Canyon had set sail from Kuwait on 19^th February, her destination being the massive oil refinery at Milford Haven, South Wales. However, a navigational error (not helped by the ship’s cook being the man on watch at the time) led to her running aground on the Seven Stones Reef, ten miles to the north-east of the Scilly Isles. Attempts to refloat the ship failed, and a member of the Dutch salvage team that made the attempt was killed.

Dealing with the cargo

With the oil tanks ruptured, huge amounts of oil began to pour into the sea and a major pollution threat was unleashed. Not only was wildlife at risk, so were the valuable fisheries of the area and the tourist beaches of Cornwall (and, as it turned out, Brittany in France and Guernsey in the Channel Islands).

Great Britain was unprepared for such an event and plans to counter such a threat were rudimentary. The first idea was to use huge quantities of detergent to break up the oil. Some 10,000 tons were sprayed from Royal Navy vessels and more were used on the coast when the oil slick reached land. They were clearly ineffective in containing the spillage and their toxic effects proved to be just as harmful to marine life as the oil.

As more tanks ruptured and the spill increased in volume, the decision was taken to use the Royal Air Force to bomb the ship with a view to setting fire to the oil before it could leak out. In all, 62,000 pounds of bombs were dropped, plus thousands of gallons of petrol that it was hoped would be ignited by the bombs. Napalm was also used. However, when fires were started they were soon put out as the sea washed over the wreck. Many of the bombs missed their target and those that did hit the ship had the effect of sinking it, thus taking the remaining oil below the surface where it was out of reach but still liable to leak as the ship broke up.

The effect on Cornwall

Nothing could stop much of the oil reaching the coast of Cornwall a few days later, and that of Guernsey (the most westerly of the Channel Islands) 19 days after the wreck. In Cornwall, the cliffs and beaches affected by the oil turned black and up to 25,000 seabirds perished. The smell of the oil drifted inland until it was noticeable far inland throughout the county.

As mentioned above, the use of chemical detergents to clean the beaches was widespread but unwise. The Cornish coast is subject to storms and high seas that constantly batter the rocks and beaches, and six months after the spill many of the places that had not been treated were clear of oil. However, the treated beaches had become a disaster area of their own, with all signs of life wiped out.

The effect on Guernsey

On Guernsey, where tourism is the major industry, efforts to clean the beaches were given the highest priority. Teams of people scraped up the oil which was then dumped in a disused quarry. This saved the beaches but created another pollution hazard in the quarry, which could not be dredged clear because of the presence of unexploded World War II bombs. Much of the oil is still there, although modern methods that use oil-eating bacteria are currently proving effective.

The lessons learned

Divers to the wreck of the Torrey Canyon 44 years later reported that there was no sign of the oil and that marine life in the vicinity had returned to normal.

Many lessons were learned from the Torrey Canyon incident, not least concerning the proper course to follow in such events. Panic measures are clearly not the answer, neither is the use of toxic industrial-strength detergents that do more harm than good. Appreciating the risks posed by supertankers, which must approach British shores in order to discharge their cargoes and therefore be subject to the forces of nature, the government now has proper plans in place to deal with any future emergency of this kind.

Likewise, progress has been made on devising methods that avoid the worst environmental consequences when major oil spills occur. Of these, the most hopeful involve the use of biological remedies, as mentioned above in the Guernsey context, and the ability of natural forces to provide their own clean-up operations.

Although the Torrey Canyon wreck was indeed a pollution disaster, it did have some positive outcomes that have proved helpful down to the present day.

© John Welford

The sinking of the Lusitania

The sinking of RMS Lusitania on 7^th May 1915 – the victim of a torpedo fired from a German U-boat - has long been regarded as a major war crime and a prime cause of the United States entering World War I. However, there are questions that are still unanswered.

Lusitania was launched on 7^th June 1906 at John Brown’s shipyard on the Clyde, Glasgow. She was a massive ocean liner, 790 feet long with four enormous funnels. At the time she was the fastest and most luxurious liner afloat and was expected to make huge profits for the Cunard Line as she plied her trade on the Atlantic between the United States and Europe.

Lusitania entered service in 1907 and soon fulfilled the promises made for her. Her maiden voyage won the coveted Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic crossing, at an average speed of 23.99 knots, and she bettered that record in 1909 with a speed of 25.85 knots.

She was clearly a more fortunate ship than the Titanic, in that she crossed the Atlantic more than 200 times.

However, her luck ran out after the start of World War I, when Germany declared that they regarded all the seas around the British Isles as a war zone. Any ship, military or civilian, would be seen as a legitimate target.

The sinking

On 1^st May 1915 Lusitania left New York with 1,201 passengers and 702 crew members. Most of the passengers were British but 188 of them were American. At the time, the United States was in a state of neutrality in what it regarded as a purely European war. It was generally thought that a ship that had nothing to do with the war, and which was carrying a substantial number of Americans, would have been protected from attack on the grounds of this neutrality.

However, the German view, as mentioned above, was different. A U-boat, captained by Walter Schwieger, was waiting in the waters off the coast of Ireland. When Lusitania, moving slowly because of fog, came into range in the early afternoon of 7^th May she was hit by a single torpedo. To everyone’s further surprise the ship was immediately rocked by a second huge explosion.

Panic ensued on board as the passengers rushed for the 48 lifeboats, many of which could not be launched due to the listing of the ship to one side. Other boats tipped their passengers into the sea as Lusitania lurched downwards. Only six lifeboats were launched successfully.

Captain Turner of the Lusitania only abandoned ship when the water reached the bridge. He clung to a floating chair and was eventually rescued. However, the sinking claimed a total of 1,198 lives, including 63 children and 128 Americans.

The fact that there were more than 700 survivors, despite the rapid sinking of the ship in 18 minutes and the chaos involving the lifeboats, was due in large part to the relative closeness of the ship to the Irish coast, so that rescue vessels were able to reach the scene in time to pull many people from the water before they drowned or froze to death. This situation was somewhat different to the plight of the victims of Titanic in the ice-strewn open ocean three years previously.

Explosives on board?

The German government sought to justify the attack by claiming that Lusitania was a legitimate target because she was carrying a large quantity of explosives destined for the British Army. This, they said, was the cause of the second explosion that followed that resulting from the torpedo impact. Had this been true, it would of course have called into question the supposed neutrality of the United States.

However, there were other possible causes of the second explosion, including the ship’s boilers blowing up and the ignition of coal dust in the fuel hold.

The wreck of Lusitania lies in relatively shallow water at a depth of around 300 feet. This has allowed the wreck to be explored, and large quantities of rifle ammunition have been discovered. It is also believed that the ship was carrying material that would have contributed to the manufacture of explosives, even if ready-made explosive items were not on board. These discoveries lend some weight to the original German claim, even if the second blast was not due to the direct explosion of war material.

The aftermath

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the matter, public opinion was swayed on both sides of the Atlantic and it cannot be doubted that the sinking of the Lusitania played a role in changing American minds. That said, another two years would pass before the United States entered the war.

There were even suggestions that the British government had engineered the tragedy as a means of getting America to enter the war on the side of the Allies. Knowing that German U-boats were in the area, why was such a large target as the Lusitania not offered any protection from the Royal Navy?

It is hardly to be wondered at that conspiracy theories abound on this incident as on so many others. Whether the whole truth will ever be known is another matter altogether.

© John Welford

The sinking of the Andrea Doria, 1956

Collisions at sea between two ocean liners are very rare events, especially when one of them sinks. Such an event occurred on 25^th July 1956, when world events were dominated by the Suez crisis, and President Eisenhower was seeking re-election. This was also the first tragedy of its kind to be accessible to the world via television, the use of which had become widespread in the United States and Canada, and was also spreading in Europe.

SS Andrea Doria

The SS Andrea Doria was an Italian North Atlantic liner that represented Italy’s resurgence after World War II. Its keel was laid on 9^th February 1950, at the Sestri Ponente shipyard, Genoa. This was the port from which had come not only Christopher Columbus but also Admiral Andrea Doria (1466-1560), after whom the liner was named. The admiral had been one of the most powerful men of his time, and even fought against pirates when in his 80s. His name had previously been honoured by the naming of an Italian battleship that served in both world wars and was indeed still afloat during the lifetime of the luxury liner of the same name.

Progress on the building of SS Andrea Doria was slower than was hoped, with various delays along the way. She was launched on 16^th June 1951 but fitting out was not completed until 6^th November 1952 when she began her sea trials. Her maiden voyage was on 14^th January 1953. Despite all the hype and the hope surrounding this national icon, there were also fears that this could be an unlucky ship, because of many accidents that occurred in the shipyard, and a bizarre incident when her steam whistle stuck open.

The pride of Italy, and particularly of Genoa, was invested in the SS Andrea Doria, with the aim of competing with the great maritime nations, not so much on size or speed, but on luxury and comfort. She was therefore only 700 feet long and of 29,000 tons (the comparable figures for the SS United States were 990 feet and 53,330 tons, and for the RMS Queen Elizabeth 1,000 feet and 83,670 tons). That said, Andrea Doria was no slouch, with an average cruising speed of 23 knots, as compared with 28.5 knots for the Queen Elizabeth and 30 knots for the United States.

In the years following the Titantic disaster of 1912, all new liners had to take safety concerns very seriously. The Andrea Doria was no exception, having a double-hulled construction with eleven watertight compartments, any two of which could be flooded without endangering the ship. There was lifeboat accommodation for everyone on board.

The total passenger complement was 1241, with 218 of these being in first class and 320 in cabin class. There were 563 officers and crew. Passengers had access to a total of ten decks, comprising cabins, dining rooms, bars, games rooms, swimming pools, a gymnasium, a children’s play area, an observation lounge, a cinema, a chapel, a reading room, and open and enclosed promenade decks. The furnishings and fittings were of the highest class, with over $1 million having been spent on décor and artworks. This was almost certainly the most luxurious liner afloat at the time.

As the ship set off on her maiden voyage, the whole city of Genoa came to a standstill, as this marked a real turning-point in the fortunes of the city and the country. However, the voyage was not entirely smooth, with strong winds and heavy seas being encountered as Andrea Doria neared New York. It was noted that one particularly bad wave off Nantucket caused the ship to list by 28 degrees. Nevertheless, she made good time and was nearly on schedule when she docked. She was to make another 100 Atlantic crossings, full to capacity nearly every time.

Final voyage

Her final voyage left Genoa on 17^th July 1956, under the command of Captain Pietro Calamai, who was due to transfer to another ship of the Italian Line when SS Andrea Doria completed the return trip. More passengers came on board at Naples and Gibraltar before the ship headed out into the Atlantic. The weather was calm for the whole crossing, but the ship ran into fog on the last full day, Wednesday 25^th July. The passengers had already packed their bags and left them outside their cabins for collection by the crew, as they expected to dock at 9.00am the following day.

However, at 11.10pm, 60 miles off Nantucket Island, the SS Andrea Doria collided with the liner “Stockholm”, of the Swedish-American Line, which was heading in the opposite direction. The bows of the Stockholm, which had been reinforced for cruising in ice-covered waters, struck the starboard side of the Andrea Doria, at a near 90 degree angle, and it was this impact that caused all the 52 deaths that occurred as the bows penetrated nearly 40 feet into the side of the Andrea Doria. Five crewmen aboard the Stockholm also perished.

The impact soon led to the Andrea Doria listing 18 degrees to starboard. As stated earlier, the ship was built to withstand the breaching of two of its watertight compartments, but a bulkhead door was missing in the engine room, and the starboard fuel tanks were flooded whilst the port tanks were empty and had not been re-ballasted, thus adding to the instability. It was soon clear that the ship would sink.

The Andrea Doria was more fortunate than the Titanic, which sank in the Atlantic (some 1,000 miles to the north-east) 44 years previously. For one thing, the Andrea Doria hit another ship, and not an iceberg. The Stockholm, although badly damaged, was not holed and was able to play a major part in the rescue operation. Other ships, including the “Ile de France” were also soon on the scene and were able to launch their own lifeboats, which made up for the fact that the growing list of the Andrea Doria made it impossible for half of her boats to be used. US Navy vessels were also prominent in the rescue operation. Captain John Shea, commander of the USNS Pvt. William H. Thomas, directed operations and commented on how smoothly they went.

By 6.00am, all the survivors had been rescued, four hours before SS Andrea slipped beneath the waves, with the news cameras rolling, to lie on the seabed 225 feet below. The rescue was aided by the fog lifting before daybreak, and the excellent work done by the rescue crews. The fact that the accident happened in July was also a factor in preventing hypothermia becoming a problem – another contrast with the fate of the Titanic passengers. Those passengers who went into the sea did not stay there long before being picked up.

Aftermath

An inquiry was held into why the collision took place, but came to no definite conclusion. There were suggestions that the crew of the Andrea Doria had misread their radar screen, and that they should have turned to port, rather than starboard, when the other ship appeared to be on a collision course. It is also possible that the two ships were moving at very different speeds, as the fog was intermittent and the Stockholm had only just encountered it.

There was some criticism of the Andrea Doria’s crew in the aftermath of the collision, such as a statement that the first boats to reach the Stockholm were filled with crew members rather than passengers, but other reports praised the crew for keeping calm and guiding people to safety.

The wreck of the Andrea Doria has been dived several times, and items recovered have included the life-size statue of Admiral Doria that graced the first class saloon. In 1984, the strongroom safe was opened live on television, but nothing of great value was revealed, probably because the passengers had already retrieved their belongings prior to their expected disembarkation.

In Italy, there were moves to replace the Andrea Doria with an identical ship, but this was never done. Captain Calamai never commanded another ship. The Stockholm was repaired and still sails today as MV Astoria (registered in Portugal).

© John Welford

The wreck of the White Ship, 1120

The background to the story

There are some interesting parallels between the wreck of the White Ship in 1120 and that of the Titanic in 1912. Granted, the two ships could hardly have been more different in terms of their size and means of propulsion, but the ways in which they were lost had some uncanny similarities. As far as the consequences of the two disasters were concerned, it could be argued that those of the 12^th century tragedy were more far-reaching than those of the 20^th century near-equivalent.

King Henry I of England was the youngest son of William the Conqueror, the Norman warlord who had added England to his domains in 1066. Henry came to the throne in 1100 on the death (by accident or design has never been proved) of his brother William, who is known to history by his nickname of Rufus.

Henry was 32 at the time of his accession. He lost no time in acquiring a queen, this being Edith (also known as Matilda) who was the daughter of King Malcolm of Scotland. Edith bore him two children, Matilda and William, although Henry also fathered many more children with various mistresses, both before and after his marriage.

William was therefore Henry’s heir and had been given the honorary title of “Aetheling” which was an Anglo-Saxon term that meant “throne worthy”. By November 1120 he was 17 years old, healthy and strong, and well placed to succeed his father when the time came.

Henry was both King of England and Duke of Normandy, having defeated his brother Robert who had held the latter title while William Rufus was King of England. This dual rule meant that Henry and his court made frequent trips across the English Channel in ships that were not unlike Viking longboats. These were powered both by oars and sail and carried a team of 50 oarsmen who would row the ship out of harbour until a good wind was found to fill the sail.

The unfolding of the tragedy

On the night of 25^th November the royal party was preparing to sail from Barfleur in Normandy to England. Henry had his own ship, and had originally expected that his son William would join him on board. However, Henry was approached by a sea captain, named Thomas FitzStephen, who had just acquired a brand new vessel which he called the White Ship. He invited Henry to be the first voyager, thus giving FitzStephen the kudos of having had royal patronage on the ship’s maiden voyage, but Henry thought that this privilege might be something that young William would enjoy, so the two set sail on different ships.

William was joined on the White Ship by most of the “young set” of the royal court. These included a half-brother and half-sister, plus many courtiers and their attendants. The total complement of passengers and crew was around 300. There was evidently a party spirit on board, with plenty of wine being drunk before the ship set off.

Henry’s ship left first, and had cleared the harbour before the White Ship loosed its moorings, but William’s group then decided that they wanted to see what this new ship was capable of in terms of speed. They therefore challenged the captain to see if he could overtake the king’s ship. The oarsmen gave everything they could to speed the White Ship on its way.

Unfortunately, the wine had the effect of making the captain forget that a particularly nasty shipping hazard lay just outside the harbour mouth, namely a large rock that was submerged at high tide. The White Ship hit this rock at speed and capsized almost immediately, throwing all 300 people into the cold water.

The cries of the drowning people were mistaken for the shouts of merriment that had been heard up to this point, and the king’s ship continued on its way without anyone realising what had happened.

There was only one survivor of the tragedy, this being a local butcher who had gone on board to try to get a debt paid. He survived because he was wearing a thick coat that protected him against the freezing temperature of the sea.

The consequences of the tragedy

The loss of his only male heir hit Henry hard and he suffered from nightmares for the rest of his life. He tried to get the English barons to accept his daughter Matilda as his heir but the idea of a woman monarch was not something they could accept. When Henry died in 1135 the throne was seized by his nephew Stephen and civil war ensued as Matilda fought for her claim.

So – a maiden voyage, a night sinking after hitting an object at sea, the suggestion that the ship was being handled recklessly due to a quest for speed – the parallels between the White Ship and the Titanic are there for all to see. However, the loss of the Titanic did not lead to a civil war.

© John Welford