SS Naronic: White Star Line's Greatest Mystery

our ship is sinking fast beneath the waves it's  such a storm that we cannot live in small boats   one boat has already gone below with our human  cargo god let us all live through this we struck   an iceberg in a blinding snowstorm and floated  two hours now it's 3 20 am by my watch and the   great ship is dead level with the sea goodbye all  at 2 am on march 4th 1893 the british steamer ss   coventry came upon an overturned lifeboat in the  north atlantic later that day they would find a   second floating upright almost completely swamped  but in good condition with its sail and mass   still intact the two derelict boats were from the  white star line livestock carrier the ss neuronic   they were found only a few miles from where  the titanic would sink less than 20 years later   the two lifeboats were the only verified trace  of the ss neuronic that would ever be found   at the time the incident was a confounding  mystery that sparked a small media sensation   now the lost ship is just a nearly forgotten  historical footnote what happened to the brand   new steam ship and the 74 souls on board remains  one of the great mysteries of the white star line by the early 1890s the white star line  still under the supervision of thomas   ismae had well established itself as  an innovative atlantic shipping line   their latest passenger liners the teutonic  and the majestic both launched in 1889   took turns capturing the blue band for  the fastest atlantic crossing in 1891.   they were the first white star liners to  be constructed without square ribbed sails   and they garnered international acclaim  particularly impressing kaiser wilhelm ii of   germany his country would soon begin construction  on the kaiser class of four funnel liners that   would spark a period of fierce competition for  atlantic dominance between the european powers   the white star lines interests extended  well beyond their premier passenger liners   and included a fleet of lesser-known vessels that  service the lucrative atlantic livestock trade the   ss neuronic like most white star line ships was  constructed at heartland wolf in belfast ireland   she was launched may 26 1892 and completed on  july 11th she was a well-equipped and modern   vessel for the time designed to also accommodate  a small number of passengers to maximize profits   she was powered by twin reciprocating engines that  drove twin propellers to achieve a cruising speed   of 13 knots she was 470 feet long and 6 594 tons  for comparison the teutonic built only a few years   before at harland and wolf was one of the largest  most advanced ships of the time she came in   at 582 feet and 99 tons so while the neuronic was  certainly not a record breaker she was a fairly   large ship for the time her maiden voyage took  place on july 15 1892 sailing from liverpool to   new york she sailed without incident for the first  few months of her career the ss neuronic departed   liverpool for her final voyage on february 11  1893 she was commanded by captain william roberts   a veteran of the white star line with 20 years of  experience serving the company she had a total of   74 men on board made up of 50 crewmen 14 cattlemen  and 10 horse traders the voyage was a routine one   she carried 3572 tons of general cargo and 1017  tons of welsh coal after dropping off her harbor   pilot at point linus wales the ss neuronic  was never seen again it was somewhat normal   at the time for cargo ships to arrive behind  schedule but after a few days worry began to grow   the story first broke in the new york times on  march 2nd 19 days after the ship left liverpool   her longest trip at this point had been 11  days and her sister's ship the slower ss bovick   had arrived in new york that day after leaving  liverpool six days after the neuronic departed   ships on the same route reported  heavy seas gale force winds and snow   when the ss coventry arrived in port later that  month with the news of the abandoned lifeboats   it was clear the ship had probably been lost  there was intense media speculation at the   time over the fate of the missing freighter with  stories of potential boiler explosions getting   carried off course and wives driven mad by grief  seriously but then the bottles began to appear   on march 3rd in bay ridge new york a bottle was  found with a message inside it read february 19th   1893 neuronic sinking all hand praying god have  mercy on us the message was signed el winsl then   on march 30th in ocean view virginia another  message washed ashore in a champagne bottle   it was the most detailed reading 3 10  a.m february 19th ss neuronic at sea   to who picks this up report when you find this to  our agents if not heard of before that our ship is   sinking fast beneath the waves it's such a storm  that we can never live in the small boats one boat   has already gone with our human cargo below god  let all of us live through this we were struck by   an iceberg in a blinding snowstorm and floated two  hours now at 3 20 a.m by my watch and the great   ship is dead level with the sea report to the  agents at broadway new york in kersey and company   goodbye all it was signed john olson cattlemen  the next message was found in the irish channel on   june of that year it read struck iceberg sinking  fast neuronic this message was signed young the   final message was found september 18th floating  in the mercy river it contained two strips of   wool and red all hands lost neuronic no time to  say more the message was signed with just a t an inquiry was held by the british board of trade  at st george's hall in liverpool the ship's design   and cargo manifest were reviewed and it was  quickly determined that a sudden shift in cargo   wasn't to blame for the disaster the harbor pilot  was interviewed and reported nothing out of the   ordinary while he was briefly on board the ship  beyond that the board had little to work with   there was speculation from the captain of  another white star line ship the runic that   it was possible that the ship's engines  could suffer a catastrophic malfunction   that would result in one of her pistons shooting  down through the hole causing her to sink almost   immediately real company man right here the board  of trade was quick to dismiss the bottle messages   and iceberg theory they claimed that there  was no ice present despite reports from other   ships in the area that they had encountered  ice near where the incident likely occurred   there is however reason to question the  authenticity of the bottle messages for one   none of the signed names l winsell john olson  or young appear on the crew or passenger lists   once the story first appeared in the  papers the missing ship was a big story   so it's suspicious that the first message was  found in new york only one day after the story   first broke in the new york times the white star  line also dismissed the second bottle as a hoax   because they felt it was impossible for the  bottle to reach the spot where it was found   but debris from ships in the area have been found  along the eastern seaboard of the united states   throughout the years even if it's unlikely it's  not impossible while there's reason to doubt the   bottles there's also reason to believe they could  be authentic the names don't match the manifest   but it was very common at the time for passenger  lists to be pretty inaccurate even the titanic   20 years later had 33 mistakes on her passenger  lists so it's not inconceivable that someone gave   a different name joined the crew last minute or  simply made a mistake the first two bottles also   lists the exact same date february 19th based  on the neuronic speed and date of departure she   would likely have been in the area where her  lifeboats were found at around the same date   the second bottle also listed several other  specific details and even correctly named   the white starline agent in new york so if it was  a fake the pranksters really did their homework   but if the bottles were hoaxes and the ship  didn't strike an iceberg in a snowstorm   what happened to her and if they're real why were  no bodies or debris found after survivors from   the titanic disaster were rescued from collapsible  egg the lifeboat was set adrift with three bodies   after drifting for a month the boat was recovered  by the ims oceanic the three bodies were still on   board the small boat in fact the last bodies  recovered from the titanic were discovered   a full six weeks after the tragedy so why were  none found from the neuronic the last theory and   definitely the craziest one came a decade later  in 1903 a bomb was planted on the q node lines   rms umbria by a political terrorist who went by  the name guess where so the bomb plot failed and   when he was arrested newspapers claimed that a  slip of paper was found in his room that read   the destruction of the neuronic was complete  rousseau is completely forgotten now but he was   somewhat notorious at the time and known to target  british ships but aside from being pretty bad at   making bombs that actually worked rousseau was  in america at the time of the neuronic disaster   which would make it pretty hard for him to board  the ship in liverpool the story is likely a case   of media's sensationalism they even spell neuronic  wrong in the headline which is kind of fun the thing that strikes me about the neuronic  mystery is not so much trying to figure out   how it happened we can gather that something  went terribly wrong that caused the ship to   sink with all on board that's not all that  mysterious the thing that i get caught up on   is the lonely terror of the situation knowing that  your ship is sinking in the middle of the night   miles from anyone who can help how it must have  felt for the relatives of the 74 men on board   it's one thing to lose a loved one it's another  to always wonder what actually happened to them   no one even sent a search party after the ship  went missing the white star line altered the   teutonics roots slightly after the incident  to sail through the area where the neuronic   was thought to have been lost but that was it  they just asked another ship to keep an eye out   it's hard to imagine such a difference today but  after all the 74 men weren't paying passengers   they were just replaceable employees the neuronic  disaster happened five years before the marconi   company began producing systems like the one  installed on the titanic in that time if you ran   into trouble your only hope was signaling a nearby  ship or survive in a tiny lifeboat which in heavy   seas would be almost completely impossible  one of my favorite stories from the titanic   disaster is what happened on saturday april  13 1912 the day before she struck the iceberg   that evening while chief telegraph operator  john phillips was at work sending messages the   marconi machine suddenly stopped working it was  standard procedure at the time that if something   went wrong with the equipment the operators were  not supposed to try and fix it they were to wait   until the ship reached shore where a company  technician could properly service the equipment   phillips and his assistant harold bride ignored  the rules and spent five hours working late into   the night to fix the equipment on their own it's  terrifying to imagine what would have happened   if they hadn't fixed the machine when they did  the titanic sank in two hours and 40 minutes   what if when the massive liner went down  the carpathia wasn't racing to the scene   what if no one knew she was in trouble that's  exactly what happened to the crew of the ss   neuronic when whatever went wrong with the ship  whether it was a sudden engine malfunction or a   collision with an iceberg and a blinding snowstorm  all they could do was wait for their ship to sink   beneath them leaving them alone in the churning  icy waters no one would know what happened to them   no one would know their state of mind in those  final moments they were just gone without a trace you

Channel: Big Old Boats

Views: 480,689

Keywords: SS Naronic, Naronic, Naronic Ship, White Star Line, Ghost Ship, Lost at Sea, Mystery at Sea, Lost Ship, RMS Titanic, Titanic, Titanic Disaster, Ships Sunk by Iceberg, RMS Teutonic, RMS Majestic, Ocean Mysteries, Strange History, Sinking Ship, Ocean Liners, Atlantic Ocean, How SS Naronic Sank, What Happened to the Naronic, Disappearance of the SS Naronic, White Star Line Ships, Titanic Sinking, White Star, Vanished at Sea, SS Atlantic, SS Neronic, Neronic

Id: Jsd9EX7GGY4

Length: 12min 37sec (757 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 16 2021