“The Loss of the Atlantic (I)”
Description
"The loss of the Atlantic upon the ocean wave Where fully seven hundred souls met with a watery grave." Bound for New York, the captain "changed his course for Halifax which proved our overthrow.... she ran upon a rock"
Notes
"The Atlantic was a famous four-masted iron vessel of the White Star fleet wrecked off the coast of Nova Scotia on March 31 and April 1 of 1873....[T]he records show a loss of 535" (Peacock). The Northern Shipwrecks database says the passengers were immigrants and 981 people were on board. - BS
Lincoln P. Paine's _Ships of the World_ notes that the _Atlantic_ was still quite new at the time of her disaster (completed 1871). She was originally intended to sail to Chile, but the new White Star Line abandoned the idea quickly, and she never sailed that route. The fatal voyage was only her nineteenth.
The _Atlantic_, according to John Malcolm Brinnin, _The Sway of the Grand Saloon: A Social History of the North Atlantic_ (1986), p. 249, sailed from Liverpool to New York (via Queenstown) on March 20, 1873. He reports 942 people aboard (as we shall see, this figure is subject to question) and enough coal to last 15 days. She also reportedly had a "disorderly and infamous" crew and many officers who were not attentive to their tasks (Brinnin, p. 250). After 11 days of storms, her coal was almost used up, and she was an estimated 400 miles from New York. The distance to Halifax was less than half that.
According to Paine, Captain John A. Williams's decision to make for Halifax conformed to company regulations: The ship had burned too much coal to continue her run. But her navigation was imperfect. Instead of reaching Halifax, she hit the coast some 20 miles from that port.
The ship went aground around 3:00 a.m. on Marr's Island (Meagher's Head, on Point Prospect) east of Halifax. Apparently her boilers blew up, causing her to sink unusually quickly. About 250 people were saved -- all male and all but one an adult. The losses are somewhat uncertain; Paine lists as the extremes 454 lost out of 981 aboard to 560 of 931 aboard; Brinnin's figure is that 481 died. Diana Preston, in _Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy_ (Walker, 2002; I use the 2003 Berkeley edition), p. 56, says that over 500 were lost in this first great tragedy of the steam liner trade.
Preston quotes a contemporary account: "A large mass of something drifted past the ship on the top of the waves, and then it was lost to view in the trough of the sea. As it passed by a moan -- it must have been a shriek but the tempest dulled the sound -- seemed to surge up from the mass, which extended over fifty yards of water: it was the women. The sea swept them out of the steerage, and with their children, to the number of 200 or 300, they drifted thus into eternity."
Captain Williams -- who had been asleep at the time of the wreck; he had given orders to be awakened, but the orders were not obeyed (Brinnin, p. 251) -- was found guilty of negligence, but his license was suspended for only two years based on his gallant conduct during the rescue operations (Brinnin, p. 253).
Incidentally, the _Atlantic_ of 1873 should not be confused with another _Atlantic_, the Collins Line steamer launched in 1849. This ship had a major mechanical breakdown in 1851, and was for a time thought to have vanished, but made it home under sail after much delay (Brinnin, pp. 182-184. The second _Atlantic_ was not exactly a replacement for the first, but the decommissioning of the earlier ship after the American Civil War made the name "available" for the new liner.
There was also a paddleboat named _Atlantic_ which collided with the _Ogdensburg_ on Lake Erie in 1852, and sank with the loss of some 250 lives (she was crowded with immigrants, and no one knows exactly how many died; for background, see Mark Bourrie, _Many a Midnight Ship_, University of Michigan Press, 2005, pp. 77-83).
Despite this tragedy, the period after the sinking of the _Atlantic_ was the glory time for the transatlantic steamers, and it was also a relatively safe period. There would not be another disaster for almost forty years, when a certain ship called the _Titanic_ set out on her maiden run. She too, we note, was a White Star liner. - RBW
For two different 1873 broadsides on the same subject see:
Bodleian, Harding B 13(234), "Verses on the Wreck of the Atlantic" ("Oh, pray give attention and listen to me "), unknown, 1873 [text refers to the wreck as having occurred after "the steamer Atlantic ... left Liverpool upon the 20th ult"].
Bodleian, Firth c.26(289), "Lines on the loss of the 'Atlantic'" ("Oh! listen you wives and mothers"), unknown, 1873 [text refers to a "List of the passengers, from the Manchester Courier, April 4th, 1873"] - BS
Note that Roud lumps all the _Atlantic_ songs, but their form shows that they are distinct. - RBW
Historical references
- Mar 31/Apr 1, 1873 - wreck of the Atlantic
Cross references
- cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (II)
- cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (III)
- cf. "The Loss of the Atlantic" (IV)
- cf. "Never Go Back on the Poor"
References
- Peacock, pp. 931-932, "The Loss of the Atlantic" (1 text, 1 tune)
- Roud #3822
- BI, Pea931