The Wreck of the SS ATLANTIC - Halifax, NS 1873

this is Mars Island off the town of lower prospect near Halifax Nova Scotia it's a small island with no year-round residents only a few small rental cottages dot one side of the island in the 1870s it was the home of the Clancy family most notably however it's the site of the wreck of the steamship Atlantic now there have been plenty of ships named the Atlantic but this one was the first major disaster for the White Star Line I've been wanting to find a way to get out to the actual site of the wreck since I first heard the story about a year ago it's not easy to get to you can't get to an overland even though I tried and it's certainly not a recommended swim one day I was lucky enough to be offered a boat ride around this site the boat ride was pretty special not just because of where we were going but because of who was in our group Bob Hawke brought us out there on his boat Bob is a diver and one of the lead figures of the SS Atlantic Heritage Park a museum and interpretation Center devoted to telling the story of the disaster it's located in the town near the wreck site he's also the co-author of the book SS Atlantic the White Star Line's first disaster at sea also in our boat is D Ryan Meister the president of the Titanic society of Atlantic Canada though Titanic is in their name the Society focuses on all things related to the white star and Q nard lines and there are many connections to Atlantic Canadian history including the Halifax Explosion of 1917 and the wreck of the SS Atlantic then there was my girlfriend Emma and me I was currently directing a video game project that digitally recreates the story of the Titanic and my team often branched out into other shipping disasters such as the HMHS Britannic and now we'd be working on the Atlantic the weather could not have been better as we got on the little boat and made our way through Terence Bay moving south where we passed the mass graves of the Protestant victims of the disaster and the Heritage Center as well the Heritage Center truly is a neglected gem of Nova Scotia and I don't mean that with any exaggeration I must have gone there a dozen times so far there are so many artifacts to look at and learn about and these artifacts truly capture the feeling better than any book or documentary can and bring visitors back to this truly revolutionary ocean liner in the early days of the newly resurrected White Star Line [Music] in the mid-1800s immigration from Europe to the new world was booming up until this point as the designs of steam ships were still being perfected they were designed like sailing ships the shape of ships really hadn't been reconsidered and with the new advent of screw driven steam propulsion and hulls of iron a redesign was long overdue Thomas Ismay and his newly purchased White Star Line under the parent company the oceanic Steam Navigation Company picked up on this shipbuilders Harland and Wolff of Belfast Ireland with whom the White Star Line had an exclusive contract designed for Ismay a new class of ships that was to revolutionize the shipbuilding industry the oceanic class named for the oceanic Steam Navigation Company was originally only one ship the steamship oceanic launched in 1870 this ship was so cutting-edge and profitable that three more ships were quickly ordered and after that another two these six ships formed the legendary oceanic class the very first ships ordered by the new White Star Line all six ships were built between 1870 and 1872 and the class consisted of the oceanic or the first oceanic if you know more of White Star Line history as other ships with the same name would come up later ship number two would be the Atlantic the ship we'll be focusing on in this video ship 3 would be the Baltic which was sold to the Holland America Line around 1890 and lost in a collision in 1898 the fourth ship the steamship Republic launched on July 4th and named after the American Republic in honor of Independence Day in the United States she would be the only ship to survive into the 20th century being scrapped in 1910 ship number five is the Adriatic noted for being involved in many collisions but none of which did her in ship number six would be the Celtic she was originally to be called the Arctic but she was renamed after consideration was given to the paddlewheel steamer of the same name lost in 1854 it was on the Celtic that Edward John Smith the future captain of the Titanic would begin his career with the White Star Line as her fourth officer some of these ship names would be used a few decades later on another class of ships by the White Star Line known as the big four but make no mistake these are very different ships the oceanic class broke new ground in countless ways with the steamship Atlantic being a perfect example of the class's innovations they were revolutionary ships in some ways considered by many to be the beginning of modern ship design getting away from the old steamers which were designed like sailing ships and had side paddles the Atlantic had a propeller single propeller driven by two two cylinder compound steam engines while the engines were indeed innovative Mariners and passengers alike still preferred the security of having a full complement of sails should the engines break down or the ship run out of coal thus the oceanic class retained the full sail rigging popular at the time in addition to the design of their engines the oceanic class was one of the first classes that had steam powered steering making it easier for the quartermaster at the helm to turn the ship next to the man at the helm was another innovation the SS Atlantic was one of the first ships to have Telegraph indicators on the bridge for quick communication with the engineers below her crew were not the only ones benefiting from the creative geniuses at Harland and Wolff the passengers were the ones to reap the most from the architects artwork special areas were set aside for passengers to stroll the decks known as the promenade which were partially enclosed to protect them from the elements on previous ships crew and passengers shared the deck space and they often got in each other's way some times with dangerous consequences the cabin class sometimes called saloon class passengers and called first class passengers on later ships would be some of the first people to use the convenience of electricity at sea although not for lighting of any kind no the ship was still lit with oil lamps but electrical call bells were installed in cabins and inconvenient places throughout the ship where a passenger could quickly summon a steward when needed the oceanic class boasted the largest room on the sea the grand saloon for cabin class passengers adorned with a piano and two marble fireplaces we know they were marble because of the fragments of marble mantel pieces pulled from the wreck but as I previously said Ismay knew the value of the immigrant class and special consideration was given for their comfort as well ventilation was improved for the lower decks rather than the stuffy dark quarters seen on other ships the Atlantic now provided a comfortable interior for immigrants passengers staying below some of the first indoor toilets on passenger liners were available to both classes which was something unheard of for immigrant ships like this while those onboard traveled in relative comfort and convenience the ships themselves had the ability to surge ahead of the competition better than any other ship thanks to the designs of her hull while most ships had a length to width ratio of 6 to 1 the oceanic class increased that ratio to 10 to 1 allowing her to carry more people on board without increasing the water resistance on her hull with this streamlined hull improved engines and more efficient controls over the ship both the Adriatic and the Baltic managed to capture the blue ribbon to fill a white star line the blue ribbon of course being the award for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic the oceanic class were the fastest and safest ships in the world and if you exclude the laid-up Great Eastern rotting on the Mersey River at the time they were also the largest at the time of the Atlantic's fateful voyage in 1873 these six ships as well as two additional cargo ships named the Gallic and the Belgic made up Harland and Wolff's entire contribution to the White Star Line's fleet up to this point yard number 74 at the Harland and Wolff shipyard would become the steamship Atlantic she was laid down in 1870 and cranked out quickly and efficiently the city of Belfast was pouring their heart into their newly prospering shipbuilding industry and all their effort was put into turning these new vessels for their new clients the White Star Line into something they would be truly proud of she was finished on June 3rd of 1871 and her maiden voyage was less than a week later her first 18 voyages were relatively uneventful although she did suffer issues due to the experimental designs of her propeller which was swapped out and replaced multiple times the ship was laid out with the engines in the centre as with most other passenger ships of the day however also in the center were the dining saloons the arrangement of passenger accommodations were censored around these rooms the cabin class passengers were quartered in the deck house on the boat deck and the steerage in the ship's hull steerage however who were at times unruly and rambunctious on other steamers were divided for their own safety because the engines needed to be directly connected to the propeller shaft the boilers needed to be forward of them as a result the firemen and other engineers were quartered forward of there as well because these were always men the single men in steerage were quartered in the bow in close proximity to the engineering staff they were segregated from the single women or mothers and children traveling without a father who were quartered in the farce turn in the opposite direction of these single men this was a precaution to prevent any sort of harassment or unwanted interactions families and married couples were quartered in the midsection between them with the idea that the husband's fathers and family sons would act as a buffer should the single men become difficult to manage the groups were certainly welcome to mingle on deck and in the saloons but when the stewards order lights out for the passengers at 11:00 p.m. this sleeping arrangement was strictly enforced the 19th voyage began like any other the ships sat in the Mersey river in Liverpool England as the ship was inspected and re-inspected when passengers climbed up the gangways one of the first things they saw onboard the ship was a nameplate mounted onto the side of the deck house this nameplate is called the quarter board that shows the ship's name it's 11 feet long and it's pretty neat because it hung over a woman's fireplace in her cottage for 50 years and she donated it to us two years ago another special piece of identification that the steamer Atlantic proudly flew was the White Star Line flag we have the flag the flag was donated to us by the captain's great-grandson he's an American it's purported to be the flag from the Atlantic but there's no way of proving that the flag itself has a long history it has travelled across North America several times and being in displays as far away as California in Florida it's pretty raggedy so it may well be off the Atlantic the passengers of the Atlantic were permitted to board the ship the night before the voyage and stay on board as the last of the cargo was loaded into her holds in her hold the Atlantic would carry several crates of Hotel China pocketknives costumes and costume jewelry and many other goods in addition to these almost 1000 tons of coal are loaded into the ship's coal bunkers the chief engineer was confident that this would be enough coal to bring the ship from Liverpool to New York City it always had been chief engineer John Fox Lee had been with the Atlantic nearly since the beginning of the ships career he'd been with the ship for all but three of her voyages and he likely knew the ship better than anyone else onboard Fox Lee reported directly to the ship's captain a Welshman named James Williams Williams was with the White Star Line since 1871 and had worked his way up from second officer on the Republic he held the highest degree of certification from the British Board of Trade but he wasn't without his flaws he was allegedly fired from the Gion line for drunkenness on duty though the director of the Gion line would continue to defend him even after his termination unlike later steam ships where chief and first officer were to separate positions on many of the old ships including the Atlantic the chief officer was the first officer chief officer John Firth was new to the White Star Line this was only his second voyage with the company he had been a captain before for ships in the Mediterranean but he dropped in rank in order to sign up for the new White Star Line hoping to rise to captain once more second officer Henry Metcalf has had a rocky career for years prior he was in command of the SS Explorer when it ran down the SS Prytania Metcalf was charged with neglect and had his certification suspended at the time of the Atlantic he had just gotten his certification reinstated he would soon be on duty at the time of yet another sea disaster third officer Cornelius Brady and fourth officer John Brown may have been the lowest ranked officers but they were well equipped to operate a steamer and had a collective 30 years of experience as commanders the Atlantic didn't carry any celebrities or individuals to command their own influence on history like some of those aboard the Titanic or Lusitania but that doesn't mean that there weren't people on board with interesting backgrounds or stories worth mentioning musician Albert Sumner was travelling in cabin class Sumner was a church organist and for people who enjoy hymns they may recognize his work Lauriston Davidson was the widow of Captain Alexander Davidson of New Zealand most of her family had passed away so she and her 17 year old daughter are traveling to the United States to seek out her brother in Telegraph City California many of the ships passengers even the ones traveling in the upper class are immigrating to the United States the mass migration from Europe is only just beginning and crossing the Atlantic is still seen as a dangerous and arduous undertaking in some cases the man of the family would travel ahead of the rest of his family and seek his fortunes and then he'd call on his family to come and meet him once he settled in other cases entire families would travel together on the Atlantic there was a mixture of all of us there were men traveling ahead of their families to make their way to the American frontiers there were women and children traveling to meet their men and there were entire families traveling as a group on March 20th the Atlantic weighs anchor and makes her way towards the Irish Sea [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] because of continued famines and hardships in Ireland a mass exodus was occurring among the Irish people shipping companies were ready to capitalize on this and chose the small fishing town of Queenstown on the outskirts of Cork to be the launching point for these emigrants by March 21st the Atlantic arrives in Queenstown where she is inspected once more and a lifeboat drill is carried out with 175 additional passengers taken aboard the Atlantic departs Europe one final time to make for North America the first few days of the voyage produced great weather and favorable winds the Atlantic made excellent time even impressing her own captain and crew on Sunday the 23rd of March a prayer service was held and an additional lifeboat drill was held the captain asked chief engineer Foxley to report on the ship's coal reserves he calculated their consumption and did the math it was standard practice of engineers to underestimate the amount of coal when reporting to the captain which encouraged captain's to be more cautious about consumption by that evening the winds began to pick up and the sky darkened the ship began to rock a bit more as it plowed through the unpredictable North Atlantic by Tuesday the ship was now sailing head-on against gale force winds and conditions were continuing to deteriorate passengers remained indoors to avoid the blistering cold and bone-chilling spray of the high seas the ship trembled with every wave as the bow slammed into walls of water at this point the food was reduced to mere basics in order to prevent further sea sickness by March 26th the floors inside the ship were slippery with vomits and the air was humid and pungent but it didn't stop there on the 27th the ship seemed to bear the worst of the winds the ship was thrown nearly on to her side on several occasions threatening to never write herself again on this day a rogue wave broke over her bow smashing starboard like the number four to pieces with only small fragments hanging from the flailing Falls of the davits the captain ordered the engineers and stewards to keep a close eye out for injuries among passengers being tossed around or fires resulting from breaking oil lamps despite the fear that those on board certainly felt the Atlantic was not in any direct danger from the high seas she was well designed to take on the harsh waves of her namesake she had a proven design only four months prior her sister ship the Baltic heroically rescued crew and passengers from a ship called the Assyria which had succumbed to the sees that the oceanic class had mastered in fact the etching I had previously shown you of the Atlantic pushing through the rough seas is actually of the Baltic rescuing those from the Assyria the Atlantic was not in any real danger on the contrary life seems to have been prospering onboard during the voyage two babies were born on top of that fourteen stowaways were uncovered increasing the number on board by sixteen the ship was however making very little progress in her crossing as the strong winds blew against her on what was likely a daily basis captain Williams asked engineer Fox Lee to report on the coal supply Fox Lee would expertly calculate the amount and then subtract a little from that to err on the side of caution an entire week had passed since the storms had begun and they were not letting up yet for seven days the ship was sailing headlong into a gale reducing her speed to less than half of what she was normally capable of at times she seemed to only be inching along the captain grew concerned about their coal consumption because of overexertion of the engines and lack of progress he ordered the galley to conserve their use of coal in the stove's on March 31st the officers had their first opportunity in quite some time to calculate their location they were 450 miles east of Sandy Hook New York it would take the Atlantic two days to sail the remaining distance did the Atlantic have enough coal to make steam those final two days once again engineer Fox Lee was ordered to assess the reserves given the numbers Fox Lee had previously reported captain Williams had serious concern about running out of coal before arrival he was not aware of Fox Lee's habit of under estimating Fox Lee calculates that there are a hundred and sixty tons of coal on board which is more than enough to reach New York however if he reports 160 tons it would be obvious to the captain that he was previously under estimating the coal supply as a hundred and sixty tons was at odds with the consumption rate he had previously reported Fox Lee decides to underestimate the coal reserves once more and reports a hundred and twenty seven tons remaining captain Williams calculates that it would take 130 tons to reach New York even in favorable conditions which they did not have if he continued on the Atlantic would certainly run out of fuel before arrival so what happens when a steamer runs out of coal well she loses the ability to continue ahead under steam power as well as the ability to operate any additional steam machinery such as the helm and the winches under most circumstances a ship like the Atlantic would simply unfurl her sails and come in under wind power but the wind was dead against them the Atlantic was simply drift in the current until rescued it will be approximately 30 years before wireless Telegraph's were installed on ships so the only way to Hale other ships at this point is by signal flags or rockets to lose control of your vessel and drift around uncontrollably is not only dangerous but a massive embarrassment for shipping company and a career ruining humiliation for her captain so what is the alternative captain Williams is under the impression that the Atlantic does not have enough coal to reach New York however he knows she certainly does have enough coal to reach halifax nova scotia where the ship can resupply on coal as well as food and other provisions while other ships have done it plenty of times diverting to Halifax to resupply is a sign of a ship being mismanaged and would still be an embarrassment for Williams in the White Star Line no White Star liner had ever had to divert for resupplying after discussing it with chief engineer Fox Lee and chief officer Firth Williams plots out a new heading for the Atlantic she is slumping her head in shame and diverting for Halifax the safety of those on board is more important than his own reputation now that fuel consumption is no longer a concern her captain orders full steam ahead for Halifax in an effort to make up for the inevitable lost time the approach to Halifax Harbour is a dangerous one though the harbor is wide there are countless reefs and rocky islands as well as strong steady currents complicating the approach for any Mariner not with the waters to assist the approaching vessels the Nova Scotia government set up the sambro Island lighthouse in the 1750s 130 years later it still stands at the time of the Atlantic even today it stands as the oldest surviving lighthouse in North America but to further complicate the situation most of the officers of the Atlantic had never been to Halifax before and are unaware of the dangers of the approach the seas swell as the winds whip across the deck of the steamship Atlantic on her approach to how effects on the evening of March 31st 1873 a new breath of life sweeps over the passengers knowing that they would soon see their first sight of North American by morning for 12 year-old steerage passengers on hanley of Aston England this was an opportunity for adventure traveling on both the Atlantic with my parents and older brother Michael we were given banks in the midsection of the ship with all the other families while my brother Michael was forced to sleep in the bow with all the other single men I spoke with my parents that evening and got permission to stay at the front of the ship for my brother Michael it was exciting to be among the other men and to be treated as an adult by the crew of the ship I joined my brother up front and got ready for bed at midnight the second officer Metcalf and fourth officer Brown relieved chief officer Firth and third officer Brady on the bridge at 12:20 a.m. April 1st captain Williams comes onto the bridge he calculates that sambro island light should be visible on their portside by 3:00 a.m. once the light is spotted the ship would drop anchor and wait offshore for day lights before navigating into the harbour the captain then informs the officers that he will take a brief nap in the chart room he orders officer Metcalf the officer in command of the watch to wake him no later than 3:00 a.m. or when they first see the light whichever comes first he also leaves a separate order with his steward to wake him at 2:40 he retires to the chart room but is meant by a cabin class passenger a journalist who sits down with him to do an interview for an article around 12:45 captain Williams finally retires the Atlantic is coming up from the south towards Halifax Harbour and expects to see [ __ ] Island light on its port or left side however unknown to her crew the current has pushed the ship 12 miles to the west sambro Island is now on the starboard side while the crew continued to focus their attention to the portside at 2:40 the captain's steward arrives on the bridge with a cup of hot cocoa but is stopped before he enters the chart room officer Metcalf is unaware of the captain's orders to the steward and Metcalf tells him not to disturb the captain and to let him sleep the steward leaves 3 a.m. comes and goes with no sign of sambro lights the Atlantic is steaming dangerously close to the shore at full speed but the crew was completely unaware Metcalfe should have already woken the captain up but without seeing the light yet Metcalfe disregards the order an officer Metcalfe's mind if they haven't seen [ __ ] island light yet well then there's still a safe distance offshore so either as a misguided gesture of kindness towards the captain or as an act of stubbornly overconfident defiance Metcalf lets the captain sleep longer confidence in his own control of the ship quartermaster Robert Thomas is at the helm unlike the officers Thomas has actually been to Halifax before he knows the dangers and insists that they are getting close to the shore but Metcalf disregards his comments the clock that hung in the wheelhouse still exists in the SS Atlantic Museum this is the clock that Metcalf would have looked at on several occasions wondering when best to wake the captain so it still works we have the key for it as well that wins it and the gentlemen who who donated it I told us that he first saw it when he was three or four years old his mother took him into her bedroom one day opened the bottom drawer of her dresser and moved some things aside and there was the clock and she told him that it was off the wreck of the SS Atlantic and he was never to tell anybody it was there or to touch it but when she would go I would every now and then he would sneak in and have a little look at it a quarter of an hour had tick passed on this clock since the time Metcalfe was supposed to wake captain Williams and he still had not done so nor did any one spot sambro island light then came a shouts right good uh-huh Metcalfe went cold in that moment he knew that his defiance was a mistake the lookouts had spotted the rocky shores of Mars island & lower prospect Nova Scotia Metcalf gives the orders hard starboard and to reverse the engines The Breakers were seen on the starboard side so why do they shout hard to starboard you see this with the Titanic as well and it's not a mistake the steamships of the day we're using what's called tiller commands as most of the ships of the time still used tillers to push a tiller hard to the starboard side would turn the ship in the port direction therefore the proper order of the day was hard to starboard in order to go to the port it sounds confusing for us from a modern perspective but the crew of the Atlantic knew exactly what they were doing the bow began to swing supports but not fast enough she rides over submerged rock pilings off of Mars Island and her keel rips out this wakes some of the passengers who hear the sound of the keel peeling back but mistake it for the anchor chain being let out they believe that they have already arrived in Halifax but seconds later the ship crashes hard into a large partially submerged rock called Golden Rock everyone including the captain is thrown awake the ship having been traveling at nearly twelve months slams to a sudden halt as it lodges itself onto an underwater part of the rock the sudden stopping causes all of the air inside the ship to suddenly shift due to its own momentum snuffing out every single oil lamp on board the ship is now plunged into darkness the captain rushes on to the bridge but he does not even have a moment to collect his thoughts the ship is being buffeted hard by the pounding surf which begins to swing the ship broadside to the shore captain Williams sees on the Telegraph that the engines are in Reverse and he keeps them so in hopes of dislodging the ship from the rock the engines heave with all their might but it's futile before the ship budges the stern has been swung completely around and slams into another rock shearing the propeller blades clean off with no propeller blades to create drag the propeller shaft spins wildly and the engines surge below deck Fox Lee and his engineers work hard in the flooding engine rooms to stop the engines the last thing they do before abandoning their posts is open the steam vents if the cold water comes in contact with the boilers and there's still steam pressure in them they could potentially explode the venting steam will slowly relieve that pressure at this moment the Atlantic's full starboard broadside is lodged on the rocks the lights are out and the lower decks and stern are rapidly flooding realizing the imminent disaster the captain takes immediate action and issues three orders most importantly all hands on deck stewards ought to wake all passengers as quickly as possible as the first order is conveyed to the crew stewards and other Vittel Inc staff begin running through the creaking and slanting corridors shouting and pounding on doors ordering all passengers up and out on deck with the ship in darkness it takes these passengers extra time to put on their clothing and collect their valuables not trusting to leave them behind in case this is a false alarm captain Williams's second order is for the officers and sailors to ready and launch the lifeboats this is not like the Titanic there is no moment of calm to let the crew prepare the boats and politely request passengers to board the votes are heaved out as waves crash over the decks smashing a few of the boats as they prepared them when passengers began to emerge on deck they were thrown into the boats the crew didn't know this but they only have a 5-minute window to get these lifeboats away from the ship before it would become too unstable the third order from the captain is for quartermasters roy lance and speakman to begin firing the ship's distress rockets from the Brij they do so taking turns and firing them as quickly as they can neither the crew nor the passengers nor the captain know exactly where they are they do not know if they struck an island or a lone rock or the Canadian mainland with any luck the Rockets could hail another ship nearby or perhaps the residence of one of the countless fishing villages along the Nova Scotian coastline the first lifeboat is swung out and loaded with a handful of women and children it's launched on the port side of the ship which is facing the open sea it's launched successfully but once the boat is free in the water the inexperienced oarsmen are no match for the pounding sea the boat is lifted by each wave and thrown hard into the side of the stricken Atlantic it's dashed to pieces along with everyone on board another lifeboat is loaded with a few women and children in addition to a few dozen men under the command of second officer Metcalf a fight takes place around this boat captain Williams deems the lifeboats unsafe and orders everyone out of the boat he manages to pull the women and children out and send them to higher ground on the forward end of the ship but most of the men refused to leave the boat a mob rushes the boats and the officers would later be described by newspapers as using excessively brutal force to defend the life boat the captain however was correct the lifeboats were too dangerous before the fighting could even end the ship lurched a bit dropping the lifeboat into the sea and killing all of its occupants including officer Metcalf every other lifeboat on board suffers the same fate or is destroyed on deck before it is even launched most of the passengers are still below many of them are still clamoring around their cabins for their clothing or looking to link up with loved ones in other cabins those who are already trying to climb up the deck our bottleneck on the narrow stairwells or lost in the pitch-black maze of corridors the wood creaks and the metal groans as the ship becomes increasingly unstable the entire ship has fallen dark the only light still burning is the binnacle lamp now being used to ignite the distress rockets the Rockets do produce some results Mars Island has a family of fishermen living on the Clancy family Michael Clancy the father of the family here's the Rockets and goes out to see what is going on quartermasters roy lance and Speakman are unorganized and panicked in their firing of the rockets they do their best but they fumble a lot their ninth distress rocket misfires detonating on the deck of the bridge and scorching them in the face the ship begins to heave and the last of the Rockets tumble out of their hands over the side and into the sea only moments later the ship left out a terrible wail as the stern section loses its footing it falls loose from the rock and floods rapidly causing the ship to roll nearly 30 degrees onto her courtside passengers and crew are thrown from their feet crashing into railings and deck houses while the stern quarters containing the single women and children are smothered and submerged steerage passengers William Hogan who clings to the railings over the stern section describes what he hears I then heard a dismal wail which was fearful to listen to it proceeded from the steerage passengers below who were then smothering that did not last Morgan when all was still as death the sensor sections ship was still partially above the water after the southern rolling of the ship and the dying screams echoing through the corridors from the stern section the married couples and families in the midsection now realized the urgency to get up on deck but their escape routes are blocked or impassable a small handful of them do make it up on deck but as the ship is beginning to settle lower into the Seas they don't last long the passengers and crew who were already on deck seek the higher ground of the ship's bow and masts those in the masts watch in horror as the passengers continue to emerge cabin passenger JW sheets came out on deck carrying his young daughter rose he handed his baby off to one of the stewards going up the rigging while he rushed back into the ship to help his wife out on deck the two of them reassured to settle those in the rigging watched helplessly as mr. and mrs. sheets embraced each other one last time as the deck sank out from under them and the sea swept them away the steward would continue to look after rose but she would die of the cold before rescue would arrive those in the rigging watched in horror as passengers continued to trickle out on the deck as they emerged they no doubt felt a sense of hope but none of them would make it one man held onto the railing near the bridge for as long as he could in plain sight of those on the higher ground the waves repeatedly bashed him against the slanted deck of the ship causing deep gashes in his head but he did not lose grip until this section of the ship submerged and the man was never seen again four passengers trying to cling to the ship through the waves the railings were the best thing for them to hold on to portions of these railings still exist in the museum for some this would be the last thing that they held [Music] as the ships settled even more the passengers and crew in the rigging were forced to climb even higher the waves clamped those who couldn't climb fast enough once more the ship lost its footing and rolled harder onto its port side the masts now pointed out to the horizon those still trapped in the central quarters or the cabin class sections were drowned in their cabins portions of those areas would remain slightly above sea level causing some passengers to become trapped in the air pockets inaccessible to anyone on the outside of the ship they would watch out the portholes as the waves crashed over their part of the ship just like this one the broken glass is a testament to the violence of the disaster their fate was slow and drawn-out the ship would not settle much more instead they were drowned as the tide slowly rose Lauriston and her daughter Lillian Davidson were among those drowned in this section some of the crew heard a terrible screeching how coming from the seas around Mariners had long been superstitious about sea monsters but sea lions could pose a serious threat for large groups of people already in peril a few of the sailors began searching for fire axes anywhere available on the splintered ship fearing that they may have to defend themselves against these animals as they listened more closely an even greater horror began to hit them the screams were in fact coming from groups of women and children who had been ripped out of the shredded Stern section and plunged in groups into the sea being swept towards the rocks where they'd be dashed about the axes were dropped but nothing could be done to help them meanwhile geysers had begun shooting out of broken portholes in the mid section as waves were gutting the inside of the ship chief officer Firth continued to lead the few surviving passengers and crew he had with him higher and higher up the mizzenmast to escape the rising waters this group eventually dwindled down to only three people himself a cabin boy and a young woman mrs. Rosa Bateman captain Williams to let a larger group of passengers and crew up to the points of the bow where he and his crew decided on what's best for them to do to them it seems like their only hope is to try to find a way to safely get people to the shore by means of running a rope from the bow of the ship down to Golden Rule Rock and perhaps further to the shore Owens was given a life felt by the Stewart if he went first but he has to come to the cold almost pulled back the boy I went next and only by the mercy of God did I make it I found a man on the rock half dead somehow wash there I shook him awake and had him help me to fix the rope many of the men from the wreck climbed down on the rope to the rock and affixed for the lines waves were breaking on the rock and frigid sea spray made the task nearly impossible a rope is strung from the bow of the ship and brought down to Golden Rule rock it's finally fastened it takes two men to do this but it's finally fastened to the rock and Men start climbing down on to the rock at one point in the night it's described that a hundred or two hundred men aren't clinging to Golden Rule Rock with every wave sweeping more people off of it the captain and his officers don't know this yet but quartermaster Robert Thomas has already reached the shore he was thrown from the ship and swept ashore miraculously surviving everyone in the house was welcomed by the sound of shark reports sounded like cannon fire we later learned that it was the signal sailors coming from the Atlantic my father went out to see what was the matter when he got there he found quartermaster Thomas and brought him back to her home we sat him by the stove and I started to prepare something hot for him but he refused it he was urgent and trembling he said his liner had crashed on the rocks and we needed to rouse everyone in town to come and help he took some rope from my father and returned to the south side of the island where the ship had crashed I began cooking soup for any of the survivors that came ashore and it's a good thing I did too because shortly after the quartermaster returned with another survivor his name is sleek Minh an officer came in as well they were the only ones who had gotten off the ship yet by this point five ropes are now strung between the bow of the Atlantic and golden rule Rock and they are now working on bringing an additional line from the rock to the actual shore line as a small handful of men found safety on golden wool rock others shouted for help inside the air pockets of the forward men's quarters unlike the ones trapped in the midsection where waves broke over them this section was reasonably high above the water line and those outside the ship walked the hull and decks around them they pounded on the glass hoping to get the attention of those outside and after quite some time they succeeded some of the men on the bow found something to use and they smashed the glass in and began pulling up to a hundred men out of the flooded bow one of these men is 12-year old John Hanley seven men went ahead of me but I couldn't reach the open portal finally two men grabbed me and pushed me up and another man on the outside grabbed me by my hair and pulled me out I moved forward towards the bow and watched the men struggle to reach the rock I couldn't find my parents or my brother and I started to cry one of the men there recognized me as he was one of my bunk mates from the bow and he protected me until rescue arrived the crew on shore returned along with many of the local residents they've brought their own fishing boats out from the neighboring islands and the mainland and are eager to begin helping the easiest place for the boats to get to is Golden Rule rock they can't quite make it out to the ship yet or they're intimidated by the wreckage as they start picking people off the rock the captain and crew still aboard the wrecked liner begin shouting to the rescuers even offering them payment if they come further out to the wreckage and rescue those still clinging to it soon fishing boats were coming out but the fear of getting caught in the rigging they would only pick those off the rock and not off the ship this seemed folly as the rock was solid yet the ship was in danger of breaking up at he she is already beginning to buckle at the mainmast and I feared the hall would break at any moment another boat arrived on scene contained us taking us ashore as fast as they could row I was one of the last to leave the bow but there was still a handful of poor soul is trapped in the rigging of the mizzenmast Golden Rule Rock and the bow of the Atlantic had been completely evacuated of those still alive but someone was still shouting for help from the wreck chief officer further Rosa Bateman and the cabin boy were at the tip of the mizzenmast but after a few failed attempts the rescue boats decided they were unable to be saved officer Firth noticed that Rosa was becoming weak and worried that she might lose grip and fall into the sea he tied her to the mast hoping that somehow they'll still be saved Reverend ancient a Reverend of st. Paul's Church an Anglican Church here in the area woke up and went about his morning routine of going to a friend's house where they usually cook him breakfast now he gets there and there's no breakfast and he was a little surprised by this even more startling no one's home he walks around a little bit he finds that he can't find anyone and he's wondering what's up and then eventually he finds out that everyone is down at the wreck of the Atlantic helping with the rescue efforts he had been in the Royal Navy and he had left the Navy to become a clergyman he was about six feet tall very athletic an experienced sailor in the Royal Navy so he arrived at the the wreck site and the boats are pulled up and everybody's got a fire going and he looks out he sees two people alive and he said what's up those people they're there and so he asked he said we can't get to her William ancient widows in the boat got a crew together that way No and rescued John Firth in a very dramatic rescue he went aboard the ship he rescued the boy the boy jumped and they managed to rescue him but but he went up went down and got forth for the long piece of rope and kept tying it on and eventually he was in the water himself and through a line up to first to tie around his waist Firth coming down soon as his knees bent after being up there so long he fell in ancient managed to haul him back and he got him up and he was saved so ancient saved the last person saved for that he became known as the man who led the rescue and he said not really there is a document in his with his signature on it that says that he arrived at the dot of the site at about noon the rescue was finished when he arrived chief officer John Firth was the last person to leave the wreckage he got credit for standing by Rosa Bateman but truth be told he couldn't swim he made no claim to being heroic he couldn't swim but he actually said that Rosa Payton was for only because she kept up their all their spirits it was one of the most haunting sites of the entire disaster because she supposedly was very beautiful but she was tied to this mast and with the waves hitting her for so long she was actually already falling apart her clothes were coming off as described by the officer her eyes were starting to come out and her face was sunken it was just starkly contrasted by the elaborate jewelry that she was wearing around her neck and the beautiful dress that she wore which was now coming off in the waves and she was just tied to the mast of the ship as it was slowly settling down and breaking apart so that was one of the most haunting scenes and the last thing that the survivor saw when they were leaving the site of the wreckage was the masts of the ship and the ship rolling onto its side and beautiful young lady tied to it the Clancy family was becoming overwhelmed while Mr Clancy's effort was focused on pulling people from the water his daughter Sarah was the real hero when it came to their recovery every survivor coming in from the sea went through their living room that morning my father and some of the other locals brought their boats down to the rack and did their best to pull people off of it when they glanced a group of survivors they'd all come into our home and crowd by the fire I did my best to feed them and give them any medical attention that I could it was overwhelming every few minutes another group would come in and I'd need to usher the others I to make room for the new survivors many were passing out on the floor and some just broke down crying I believe every survivor of the shipwreck came through our home that maybe neither three or 400 people the number of survivors and the number of victims are still disputed the passenger lists were poorly kept and there are several instances of survivors simply walking away from the wreck site without having checked in with officials of the 952 reported to be on board around 550 of them are lost this 550 includes every single woman on board to think that while hundreds of men were saved every woman should have perished it's horrible if I'd been able to save even one woman I should be able to bear the disaster but to lose all it's terrible it's terrible the only child to survive the wreck is John Henley we were all cared for by mrs. irani she took us in and fed us and sheltered us she made sure olives especially looked after while Sarah had opened her house up to the survivors it seems that every resident of lower prospect was on site or assisting in some way but once the last of the survivors were off the ship the town helped themselves to the fixtures and cargo from the wreck there was a lot of accusations made about pillaging the wreck which are probably true not that these were bad people these were god-fearing people they lived from hand to mouth and when a wreck the this goes for all of this part of the world when a ship came ashore they moved heaven and earth to save the people but once the people were off they moved heaven and earth to get what they could before the darn thing went down and then they often helped Thanksgiving services at church to give thanks for their good fortune it's one of those things that you can judge but you have to be there by the afternoon of April 1st the ship had broken in half with only a small sliver of its hull still above the surface one company was tasked with sending divers into the wreck to pull out the bodies and another company was contracted to recover the items from the cargo hold explosives were used to break the ship apart even further and allow divers safer and easier access the deeper parts of the ocean liner the original owners of the cargo filed insurance claims for their shipments so the waterlogged items from the wreckage were auctioned off on the Halifax piers the bodies were lined on the shore and taken care of as best as they could be by officials the duty of the SS atlantic's officers did not end when the ship went down Captain Williams assigned his surviving officers to stand watch over the dead and protect the bodies from looters as best as they could be nonetheless some of the bodies were pillaged and defiled by tourists from the city some were pickpocketed some were tossed back into the sea and for some of the more disgusting sightseers a lock of hair from one of the attractive dead women was the best souvenir with the wreckage thoroughly searched and the divers confidence that all bodies that could be recovered had been recovered it was time to bury the dead Reverend ancient arranged for a mass burial of the Protestant victims to be buried near his church the bodies were pulled out of the wreck and piled up on what's called the hill of the Dead on the islands out there and then they were voted in here and divided up between the Catholics and the Protestants and this is the Protestant site right here the 277 were buried under the guidance of Reverend ancients and this monument was funded by the Ismay family now a lot of the local residents actually petitioned the White Star Line to fund a memorial to those lost on the SS Atlantic and the White Star Line agreed these graves are only a short walk from the Heritage Center Museum on that walk you pass the foundations of the original st. Paul's Church Reverend ancients Parish which had burned down in 1943 a new church stands nearby father Martin mosque of Upper prospect just across the waters buried the Catholic debt in a new cemetery since named star of the sea in lower prospect there's a hundred and fifty buried right here there's a small plaque on a concrete column and a sunken mass grave right here there's not much else to mark this spot so if you're ever visiting and you're looking for sites at the SS Atlantic this one is very easy to miss most of the passengers and crew on the Atlantic were Christian in some way Protestant or Catholic or other and one of the most common artifacts that are displayed in the museum and recovered from the wreck are crucifixes in some cases rosaries there's a porcelain figure of Mary that was recovered from the wreck also in the Catholic cemetery is the grave of Sarah O'Reilly and her husband Sarah had passed away in 1922 her stone is unreadable aside from the plaque left for her commemorating her care for the only surviving child of the disaster though the majority of bodies were buried in these two mass graves some of them were carried away and buried elsewhere in downtown Halifax is Camp Hill Cemetery which today contains a couple notable names in the Titanic disaster but by the summer streets entrance two of Atlantic's victims are buried there are rumored to be up to six different graves of victims of the SS Atlantic here now we've been searching here all day and we've only been able to find one this one right here of Ambrose Worthington the purser of the SS Atlantic he was only 23 years old and was from fleetwood England second officer Metcalfe was also buried near the purser but his stone is gone and the location is forgotten the bodies of Lauriston and Lillian Davidson were pulled from the wreck and buried together and their grave was photographed since then however the location of their grave has been forgotten even Telegraph City California the town they were traveling to is a deserted ghost town now a pile of ruins on the side of the highway who is to blame for the disaster an inquiry was held to investigate that very question and they concluded that the responsibility was mostly on Captain Williams for his mismanagement of the ship however the inquiry also praised Williams for his actions during the sinking they also blamed the White Star Line for sending the ship out to sea with insufficient coal although it's been later proven that the ship did indeed have plenty of coal on board so who do you blame do you blame captain Williams like the inquiry did for his mismanagement of the ship should he have stayed on watch while the ship approached unfamiliar dangerous waters do you blame chief engineer Foxley for deliberately reporting false coal estimates to the captain after all if he had been honest the ship never would have divert rated for halifax under estimating coal reserves was common practice at the time but is that an excuse or do you blamed second officer Metcalf who disregarded explicit orders from the captain to wake him at 3:00 a.m. if he had done so the captain who had already expressed his intentions to do so would have stopped the ship at that point and waited until morning to enter the harbour one thing is certain both the White Star Line and the survivors extensively praised the residents of lower prospect and Halifax for their rescue efforts and their hospitality towards those shipwrecked there the city of Chicago has no direct connection to the disaster but they were so moved by the actions of the rescuers that they sponsored rewards to those involved Reverend ancient was given a gold pocket watch and Sara O'Reilly received 20 pound sterling and a gold locket the Canadian government the cities of Boston and Halifax and the White Star Line themselves acting through the Cunard agents in Halifax sent further compensation to Reverend ancient the Clancy family and other residents of lower prospect our boat weaved through the different channels and around small islands for about 20 minutes when leaving the mainland behind we had to loop around the shore of lower prospect still a vibrant fishing community one building still stands from the time of the Atlantic however feebly looking out onto the sea this was the home of Richard Norris one of the fishermen who rode out to pull people off of a wreck the water was pristine and calm until we rounded the head of one of the islands and were now exposed to the open Atlantic Ocean we were lucky according to Bob who said that the water isn't usually this calm there it's usually quite choppy in this spot it was here that the Atlantic crashed into the rocks that is the rocks you struck right there that's Golden Rule Rock if you roll the roller rock right there yeah so she's struck there and then she slid over there and sink so when they took the boat so so the bow the ship wasn't there that's where they took him off of it I think they would have gone from that Cove that's my thinking so where is she where's she laying right now over there see that black boy oh yes that's our boy that we use to tie off with when he does 15 feet below us rests the crushed in portion of the bow that broke off as the waves pounded in behind it is a sharp ledge that drops down several meters which is where the remaining majority of the wreck lies the explosives used by divers tore the wreck apart and some years later metal scrappers came and helped themselves to pieces of the shredded hull so now what you have on the bottom is a debris field you know a lot of people when they think of a shipwreck they picture this ship sitting on the bottom of your swim in and out of it like the fish the Atlantic is basically flat there are a few things that you can recognize there are a couple of the propeller blades the drive shaft is there the thrust block is there and a couple of the boilers a lone boiler still stands it's one of the few recognizable landmarks that shows a mighty ocean liner rests here we were unable to land on the island on this trip but my girlfriend and I kayaks back and walked to the site a few nights later and got our first shots from the rocks where the survivors came ashore we set up camp and spent the night on the sites the waves pounded the shore and the wind's whipped across the rocks it really helps us to understand the conditions of that night on the site there is no marker there is no hints about the wreckage that lies just offshore there is nothing on Mars island that indicates the disaster that unfolded 145 years before but lower prospect keeps the memories alive through the SS Atlantic Heritage Park located at 178 Sandy Cove Road in Terrence Bay Nova Scotia it's open in the spring and summer and free to visit but they do take donations donations can be given on site or online at SS Atlantic comm or by becoming a member of the SS Atlantic Heritage Park Society the wreck of the steamship Atlantic is largely forgotten even among locals in Nova Scotia despite her being owned by the White Star Line the owners of the infamous Titanic and being one of the deadliest shipwrecks of the 19th century she is now just another one of the thousands of ships lying beneath the East Coast waves she'd remained the worst maritime disaster for the North Atlantic until the wreck of the SS labore John in 1898 and the worst disaster for the White Star Line until the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 the loss of all but one of the women and children would haunt the crew for the rest of their lives [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music]

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Keywords: atlantic, ss atlantic, steamship, steamship atlantic, ship, white star line, white, star, line, start, white star, liner, halifax, canada, nova scotia, ns, canadian, maritime, animation, real, time, realtime, real time, sinking, ss atlantic heritage part, society, titanic, honor, glory, honour, titanic honor and glory, lynskey, history, historical telegrams, heritage park, atlantic canada, lower prospect, terence bay, shipwreck, wreck, prospect, lower

Id: Z6JkwN7kw8E

Length: 65min 57sec (3957 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 21 2020