SS Arctic disaster

The paddle steamer SS Arctic sank on September 27, 1854 after a collision with SS Vesta. Arctic was the largest and most celebrated of the four Collins steamers that had operated a regular transatlantic passenger and mail carrying service since 1850. Of the more than 400 on board, only 88 survived, most of whom were members of the crew. All the women and children on board perished.

About SS Arctic disaster in brief

The paddle steamer SS Arctic, owned by the Collins Line of New York, sank on September 27, 1854 after a collision with SS Vesta. Arctic was the largest and most celebrated of the four Collins steamers that had operated a regular transatlantic passenger and mail carrying service since 1850. After the collision, Arctic’s captain, James Luce, first attempted to assist the stricken Vesta, which he believed was in imminent danger of sinking. When he discovered that his own ship had been seriously holed below the waterline, he decided to run her towards the nearest land, in the hopes of reaching safety. His plan failed; the engines stopped when the ship was still a considerable distance from land. Of the more than 400 on board, only 88 survived, most of whom were members of the crew. All the women and children on board perished. Despite press calls for a full investigation into the disaster, none took place, and nobody was held legally responsible. Demands for the introduction of further safety measures on passenger-carrying vessels were likewise sidestepped. Some of the surviving crew chose not to return to the U.S. The Collins Line continued its transatlantic service, until further maritime losses and insolvency led to its closure in 1858. In the second quarter of the 19th century the transatlantic shipping trade was revolutionized by the development of long-range steamships. The transition from sail was gradual; shipowners were initially influenced by popular theories that ships could not carry sufficient coal to traverse the ocean.

This notion was disproved in 1838, by the almost simultaneous crossings of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s giant paddle steamed SS Great Western and the American SS Sirius. As the principal transatlantic mail carrier, the Cunard Line received subsidies from the British government and from the United States Post Office Department, the latter a point that rankled with some Americans, who felt that a home-owned line should be the beneficiary. In 1845, Edward Knight Collins, the New York shipowner, embarked on an ambitious steamship program. The first of four Collins Line ships launched in 1849, SS Atlantic, was launched in Liverpool and Liverpool and became the first United States’ Mail Steamship Company, known as the Collins Steamships Company. It began its operations on July 4, 1840, when RMS Britannia left Liverpool for Boston, via Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was the first transatlantic steamer to be owned by a U. S. shipping line, and the first ship to carry mail on the Atlantic route to the West Coast of North America. The other three lifeboats disappeared without a trace. Two of the six lifeboats that left Arctic reached the Newfoundland shore safely, and another was picked up by a passing steamer, which also rescued a few survivors from improvised rafts. The rest struggled to build makeshift rafts, but most were unable to leave the ship, and went down with her four hours after the collision.

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