SS Utopia
![]() Sketch of the sinking of Utopia by a witness, Ms. Georgina Smith
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Name | SS Utopia |
Operator | Anchor Line |
Route | Transatlantic |
Builder | Robert Duncan & Co., Glasgow |
Launched | 14 February 1874 |
Maiden voyage | 23 May 1874 |
Refit | 1890–91 |
Fate | Sank in Gibraltar on 17 March 1891. Scrapped in 1900. |
General characteristics | |
Tonnage | 2,371 GRT[1] |
Length | 350 ft (110 m)[1] |
Beam | 35 ft (11 m)[1] |
Propulsion | Triple expansion steam engine |
Speed | 13 knots (24 km/h)[1] |
SS Utopia was a
On 17 March 1891 Utopia accidentally collided with the moored battleship HMS Anson in the Bay of Gibraltar. Utopia sank within 20 minutes; with a loss of 562[2] of 880 passengers and crew of Utopia and two rescuers from HMS Immortalité died in the accident. The sinking of Utopia was blamed on "grave error of judgement" of her captain John McKeague, who survived the accident.
Anchor Liner
Utopia was built by Robert Duncan of
In 1882 she was transferred to the Mediterranean, and regularly carried Italian immigrants to the United States.[1] In 1890–91 she was refitted with a triple expansion steam engine.[1] To maximize revenue on the Italian route her first class accommodation was reduced to 45 passengers, second class was removed altogether, and steerage capacity was increased to 900 bunks.[6]
Sinking
On 25 February 1891 Utopia sailed out from the port of Trieste for New York City, with stopovers at Naples, Genoa and Gibraltar. She carried a total of 880 people: 59 crew (most of them stewards),[7] 3 first class passengers, 815 third class passengers, and 3 stowaways. There were 85 women and 67 children.[8] According to Captain John McKeague's signed statement, Utopia normally carried seven lifeboats that could accommodate up to "460 people in moderate weather" but on the night of the catastrophe one of these boats was missing.[9]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/04/HMSAnsonCirca1897.jpg/220px-HMSAnsonCirca1897.jpg)
Utopia reached Gibraltar in the afternoon of 17 March. Captain McKeague navigated Utopia to her usual anchorage in the inner harbour, but then realized that it was occupied by two battleships, HMS Anson and HMS Rodney. McKeague later said that he had been temporarily dazzled by Anson's searchlight. When McKeague's eyesight recovered he "suddenly discovered that the inside anchorage was full of ships".[10] McKeague, according to his statement, thought that Anson was "further off than she really was" and attempted to steer Utopia ahead of Anson's bow. Suddenly, a "strong gale combined with current swept the vessel across the bows of the Anson, and in a moment her hull was pierced and cut by the ram of the ironclad".[11] According to third mate Francis Wadsworth, the impact occurred at 6:36 p.m.[12] Anson's ram tore a hole 5 metres (16 ft) wide below Utopia's waterline, and her holds quickly flooded.
McKeague at first considered beaching the ship, but Utopia almost instantly lost engine power: The engineers had shut down the engines to prevent a steam explosion.[9] McKeague ordered the lowering of the lifeboats and to abandon ship, but Utopia suddenly listed 70 degrees, crushing and sinking the boats. The survivors clung to the starboard of Utopia while hundreds were trapped inside steerage holds. 20 minutes after the impact Utopia sank to a depth of 17 metres (56 ft). Her masts, protruding above the waves, became the last refuge for survivors.[11]
Anson, the Swedish Navy corvette Freja, and other nearby ships immediately sent rescue crews to the site, but rough weather and a strong current made it difficult for them to approach the wreck. "Rescuers, blinded by the wind and rain, saw nothing but a confused, struggling mass of human beings entangled with wreckage."[11] Two sailors from HMS Immortalité, James Croton and George Hales, drowned attempting to rescue survivors[2] when their boat drifted on the rocks.[11] Search and rescue continued until 11 p.m.[11] Out of 880 passengers and crew of Utopia, there were 318 survivors: 290 steerage passengers, 2 first class passengers, 3 Italian interpreters, and 23 crew.[2] The remaining 562 passengers and crew of Utopia were dead or missing.[2]
Aftermath
Croton and Hales were buried with military honours on 19 March.[2] The first group of Utopia victims, 28 adults and 3 children, were buried in a trench in Gibraltar on 20 March. Divers sent to examine the wreck reported that the inner spaces of Utopia "were closely packed with the bodies ... who had become wedged into an almost solid mass";[2] and that "the bodies of many of the drowned were found so firmly clasped together that it was difficult to separate them."[13] Hundreds of bodies remained trapped in the steerage holds of the sunken ship.[14]
Captain McKeague was arrested and released on the same day for a bail of £480.
After the accident the port authority of Gibraltar obliged Anchor Line to light up the remains of Utopia.
The wreck of Utopia was raised in July 1892[19] and brought back to Scotland. Her owners gave up plans of reviving the ship and left her to rust in the River Clyde. The hulk was scrapped in 1900.
See also
- The sinking of HMS Victoria
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Bonsor, p. 154.
- ^ a b c d e f "The Dead of the Utopia". The New York Times, 20 March 1891.
- ^ Bonsor, p. 142.
- ^ Bonsor, p. 143.
- ^ "A Vessel Run Down at Sea". Glasgow Herald. No. 12094. Glasgow. 26 September 1878.
- ^ Bonsor, p. 145: "passengers on the southern route consisted almost entirely of steerage."
- A.B.'s, 4 quartermasters, a boatswain, an apprentice and a boy, 6 firemen, 2 coal trimmers, 3 officers, 3 engineers, and 1 doctor." – Board of Trade Wreck Report, page 2.
- ^ Board of Trade Wreck Report, page 1: "with a crew of 59 hands all told, and 815 emigrants, 3 saloon passengers, and 3 stowaways, on a voyage from Genoa and Naples".
- ^ a b Board of Trade Wreck Report, page 2.
- ^ a b Board of Trade Wreck Report, page 1.
- ^ a b c d e "Lost in Gibraltar Bay". The New York Times, 19 March 1891.
- ^ Board of Trade Wreck Report, page 3.
- ^ a b "The Utopia Victims". The New York Times, 21 March 1891.
- ^ After the shipwreck was raised in July 1892 the remains of 33 victiums were recovered and buried in the middle of the Straits. See Raising of the Utopia .p.52
- ^ Board of Trade Wreck Report, p. 4.
- ^ "Report of the investigation into the shipwreck of the steamship "Utopia" (PDF). Retrieved 24 September 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g Mandaraka-Sheppard 2007, pp. 567–568.
- ^ a b Gault, pp. 119–120.
- ^ Fry, p. 188.
References
- Board of Trade (1891). Board of Trade Wreck Report for 'Utopia' and 'Anson (HMS)'[usurped]. No. 4276, pp. 1–5.
- Bonsor, NPR (1955). North Atlantic Seaway: An Illustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World with the New, Volume 1. T. Stephenson.
- Fry, Henry (1896). The History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation. S. Low, Marston. Reprint: ISBN 1-4455-6487-4.
- Gault, Simon; Marsden, RG et al. (2003). Marsden on Collisions at Sea. Sweet & Maxwell. ISBN 0-421-68400-3.
- Mandaraka-Sheppard, Aleka (2007). Modern Maritime Law and Risk Management. Routledge. ISBN 1-85941-895-3.
Further reading
- The Raising of the Utopia. The Strand Magazine, 1892, vol. 4. (July to December 1892), pp. 48–52.
- Valentini, Marino (2013). Il naufragio dell'Utopia (The shipwreck of Utopia). Tabula fati. ISBN 978-88-7475-321-5.