Here is another local maritime disaster, the RMS Atlantic that occurred close to Halifax, Nova Scotia on 1 April 1873, April Fool's Day! 535 people died, leaving only 371 survivors. Another White Star Line ship. All women and all children perished except for one twelve-year-old boy, John Hindley. Ten crew members were lost, while 131 survived. RMS Atlantic was a transatlantic ocean liner of the White Star Line that operated between Liverpool, United Kingdom, and New York City, United States. During the ship's 19th voyage, on 1 April 1873, it ran onto rocks and sank off the coast of Nova Scotia, killing at least 535 people. It remained the deadliest civilian maritime disaster in the Northern Atlantic until the sinking of SS La Bourgogne on 2 July 1898 and the greatest disaster for the White Star Line prior to the loss of Titanic 39 years later. please log in to view this image According to one newspaper account, a body of one of the crew members was discovered to be that of a woman disguised as a man. "She was about twenty or twenty-five years old and had served as a common sailor for three voyages, and her sex was never known until the body was washed ashore and prepared for burial. She is described as having been a great favorite with all her shipmates, and one of the crew, speaking of her, remarked: 'I didn't know Bill was a woman. He used to take his grog as regular as any of us, and was always begging or stealing tobacco. He was a good fellow, though, and I am sorry he was a woman. RMS Atlantic was the second liner commissioned by White Star (Oceanic being first) but carried the notoriety of being the first White Star Line steamer to sink. (The company had previously lost the clipper RMS Tayleur in Dublin Bay in 1854.) Other White Star Line ships lost in the North Atlantic include SS Naronic in 1893, RMS Republic in 1909, and RMS Titanic in 1912. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Atlantic
Killy that's another tragic story. The White Star Line must have been cursed. Its interesting that in the examples you and I have put up, almost all the women and children perished in those tragedies. I wonder why it was only men that escaped? Perhaps the women and children first rule wasn't adhered to? Doesn't sound very chivalrous at all. I thought this account in the RMS Tayleur disaster was particularly poignant: "As the stern tipped further into the water, among those still clinging to its slanting deck were the ship’s surgeon, 29-year-old Scotsman Robert Cunningham, with his wife Susan and their two sons, Henry and George, aged four and one. Clasping baby George to his chest he inched his way along another slippery spar acting as a bridge to the rocks. He was halfway to the shore when the ship lurched and Cunningham tumbled into the waves. He resurfaced, but had lost baby George. His distraught wife was watching from deck. Cunningham made it back and strapped their surviving child to his back. He tried again, but Henry, too, fell and was lost. Once more, Cunningham went back, this time for Susan, but as they reached the rocks a heavy wave swept her from his grasp. The courageous doctor tried to save another woman from the water, but she panicked and pulled him down, drowning them both." Sticking with the Irish/Canadian theme, did you know that Canada was once invaded........................................... ...by the Irish?!! It sounds so bizarre as to be laughable but its true: [video=youtube;bt74FoAdjFo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt74FoAdjFo[/video]
