Deutschland (1866)
Encyclopedia
Deutschland was an iron passenger steamship of the Norddeutscher Lloyd
line, built by Caird & Company
of Greenock
, Scotland
in 1866.
to New York
via Southampton
.
on 4 December 1875, commanded by Captain Eduard Brickenstein, with 123 emigrants bound for New York
via Southampton. Weather conditions were very bad, and the ship had no clear idea of her position until, at 05:00 on 5 December, she ran aground in a blizzard
on the Kentish Knock
, a shoal
25 mi (40.2 km) off Harwich
. At the time she was 30 mi (48.3 km) from where Captain Brickenstein estimated she was.
An attempt to go astern was made but failed when the stress fractured her propeller. The vessel began to take on water and as the tide rose she failed to lift off the shoal as had been expected. The sea began to break over her and the wind rose to gale force. By 10:00 the next morning the order had been given to abandon ship, and the crew and passengers panicked. While distress rockets were fired and numerous ships passed by, none took any notice.
One boat was launched, but was swamped, while a second boat with the quartermaster, a sailor, and a passenger aboard, eventually drifted ashore on the Isle of Sheppey
the next day with only the quartermaster left alive. This alerted people to the accident, and help eventually reached the wreck in the form of the steam paddle tug
Liverpool which reached it on 7 December, 135 persons being saved out of a total of 213.
. An artist from the Illustrated London News
produced an illustration of the scene which depicted the wreckers as resembling a flock of vultures. The Times
also described the scene, saying that corpses had been ransacked, and their jewellery stolen.
While there were some far-fetched suggestions that the Deutschland had been deliberately wrecked, there were well-founded allegations of deliberate delay in coming to the ship's assistance, as well as some of negligence. The Times published a leader which said that the Deutschlands grounding had been known for 15 hours of the 30 hours it took for the tug Liverpool to come to her aid, and Captain Carrington, her master, was criticized for his slowness to act.
The Board of Trade
enquiry into the accident opened at Poplar, London
on 20 December. It was not usual to hold such an enquiry in the case of a foreign registered vessel being wrecked outside the three-mile limit
, and it may have been done to respond to the criticisms which had been raised regarding the delay in coming to the ship's aid. Charles Butt QC
, who had been briefed by the German government, stated that it was surprising that "a large steamer with upwards of 200 persons aboard should have lain on a dangerous sand close to the English coast for thirty hours before any assistance came to her".
The enquiry eventually exonerated everyone of any blame except Captain Brickenstein, who, it was decided, had "let his vessel get ahead in its reckoning" and "shown a very great want of care and judgement". Brickenstein asked the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck
for an official German investigation, but this was ruled out.
nuns from Salzkotten
, Westphalia
who had been emigrating to escape the anti-Catholic Falk Laws
. Their death inspired Catholic
poet Gerard Manley Hopkins
to compose the poem, "The Wreck of the Deutschland
". Four of the five nuns were buried in St. Patrick's Cemetery in Leytonstone
, London (a fifth who was never found is recorded on the memorial) and their deaths are commemorated every year in a memorial service held on 6 December by the Wheaton Franciscan Sisters of Wheaton, Illinois
- the destination of the five Sisters.
Norddeutscher Lloyd
Norddeutsche Lloyd was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on February 20, 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was instrumental in the economic...
line, built by Caird & Company
Caird & Company
Caird & Company was a Scottish shipbuilding and engineering firm based in Greenock. The company was established in 1828 by John Caird when he received an order to re-engine Clyde paddle-tugs....
of Greenock
Greenock
Greenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in United Kingdom, and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
in 1866.
History
Constructed as an emigrant passenger ship, the Deutschlands maiden voyage was made on 14 October 1866, from BremenBremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
via Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
.
Loss
The Deutschland sailed from BremerhavenBremerhaven
Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...
on 4 December 1875, commanded by Captain Eduard Brickenstein, with 123 emigrants bound for New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
via Southampton. Weather conditions were very bad, and the ship had no clear idea of her position until, at 05:00 on 5 December, she ran aground in a blizzard
Blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or...
on the Kentish Knock
Kentish Knock
Kentish Knock may refer to:* Kentish Knock, an area off the coast of Kent and Essex in England* Battle of the Kentish Knock, fought in October 1652* London Array, a wind farm near the Kentish Knock....
, a shoal
Shoal
Shoal, shoals or shoaling may mean:* Shoal, a sandbank or reef creating shallow water, especially where it forms a hazard to shipping* Shoal draught , of a boat with shallow draught which can pass over some shoals: see Draft...
25 mi (40.2 km) off Harwich
Harwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...
. At the time she was 30 mi (48.3 km) from where Captain Brickenstein estimated she was.
An attempt to go astern was made but failed when the stress fractured her propeller. The vessel began to take on water and as the tide rose she failed to lift off the shoal as had been expected. The sea began to break over her and the wind rose to gale force. By 10:00 the next morning the order had been given to abandon ship, and the crew and passengers panicked. While distress rockets were fired and numerous ships passed by, none took any notice.
One boat was launched, but was swamped, while a second boat with the quartermaster, a sailor, and a passenger aboard, eventually drifted ashore on the Isle of Sheppey
Isle of Sheppey
The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England in the Thames Estuary, some to the east of London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale...
the next day with only the quartermaster left alive. This alerted people to the accident, and help eventually reached the wreck in the form of the steam paddle tug
Tug
Tuğ is a village in the Khojavend Rayon of Azerbaijan....
Liverpool which reached it on 7 December, 135 persons being saved out of a total of 213.
Aftermath
Soon after the news of the disaster had broken, the wreck was raided by men from the nearby coastal towns, particularly Harwich and RamsgateRamsgate
Ramsgate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century and is a member of the ancient confederation of Cinque Ports. It has a population of around 40,000. Ramsgate's main attraction is its coastline and its main...
. An artist from the Illustrated London News
Illustrated London News
The Illustrated London News was the world's first illustrated weekly newspaper; the first issue appeared on Saturday 14 May 1842. It was published weekly until 1971 and then increasingly less frequently until publication ceased in 2003.-History:...
produced an illustration of the scene which depicted the wreckers as resembling a flock of vultures. The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
also described the scene, saying that corpses had been ransacked, and their jewellery stolen.
While there were some far-fetched suggestions that the Deutschland had been deliberately wrecked, there were well-founded allegations of deliberate delay in coming to the ship's assistance, as well as some of negligence. The Times published a leader which said that the Deutschlands grounding had been known for 15 hours of the 30 hours it took for the tug Liverpool to come to her aid, and Captain Carrington, her master, was criticized for his slowness to act.
The Board of Trade
Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...
enquiry into the accident opened at Poplar, London
Poplar, London
Poplar is a historic, mainly residential area of the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is about east of Charing Cross. Historically a hamlet in the parish of Stepney, Middlesex, in 1817 Poplar became a civil parish. In 1855 the Poplar District of the Metropolis was...
on 20 December. It was not usual to hold such an enquiry in the case of a foreign registered vessel being wrecked outside the three-mile limit
Three-mile limit
The three-mile limit refers to a traditional and now largely obsolete conception of the international law of the seas which defined a country's territorial waters, for the purposes of trade regulation and exclusivity, as extending as far as the reach of cannons fired from land.In Mare clausum John...
, and it may have been done to respond to the criticisms which had been raised regarding the delay in coming to the ship's aid. Charles Butt QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
, who had been briefed by the German government, stated that it was surprising that "a large steamer with upwards of 200 persons aboard should have lain on a dangerous sand close to the English coast for thirty hours before any assistance came to her".
The enquiry eventually exonerated everyone of any blame except Captain Brickenstein, who, it was decided, had "let his vessel get ahead in its reckoning" and "shown a very great want of care and judgement". Brickenstein asked the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck
Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a Prussian-German statesman whose actions unified Germany, made it a major player in world affairs, and created a balance of power that kept Europe at peace after 1871.As Minister President of...
for an official German investigation, but this was ruled out.
Legacy
Among the victims were five FranciscanFranciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
nuns from Salzkotten
Salzkotten
Salzkotten is a town in the district of Paderborn, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The name Salzkotten is based on the former salt production, which gave Salzkotten its raison d'être...
, Westphalia
Westphalia
Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...
who had been emigrating to escape the anti-Catholic Falk Laws
Falk Laws
The May Laws of 1873 were legislative bills enacted during the Kulturkampf that gave responsibility for the training and appointment of clergy to the state, which resulted in the closing of nearly half of the seminaries in Prussia by 1878...
. Their death inspired Catholic
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
poet Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th-century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets...
to compose the poem, "The Wreck of the Deutschland
The Wreck of the Deutschland
The Wreck of the Deutschland is a long poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins with Christian themes, composed in 1875 and 1876, though not published until 1918. The poem depicts the shipwreck of the SS Deutschland...
". Four of the five nuns were buried in St. Patrick's Cemetery in Leytonstone
Leytonstone
Leytonstone is an area of east London and part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is a high density suburban area, located seven miles north east of Charing Cross in the ceremonial county of Greater London and the historic county of Essex...
, London (a fifth who was never found is recorded on the memorial) and their deaths are commemorated every year in a memorial service held on 6 December by the Wheaton Franciscan Sisters of Wheaton, Illinois
Wheaton, Illinois
Wheaton is an affluent community located in DuPage County, Illinois, approximately west of Chicago and Lake Michigan. Wheaton is the county seat of DuPage County...
- the destination of the five Sisters.
External links
- The Wreck of the Deutschland — the poem online