SS Atlantic

Atlantic was built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast in 1870, and was the second ship built for the newly born White Star Line. She was powered by a steam engine producing 600 horsepower (450 kW) driving a single propeller, along with four masts rigged for sail. She sailed for New York City on her maiden voyage on 8 June 1871.

Quartermaster John Speakman led a number of survivors ashore by swimming to nearby rocks, creating a link from the vessel to land

John Hindley, the only child survivor of the Atlantic

On 20 March 1873 Atlantic departed on her 19th voyage from Liverpool with 952 people on board, of whom 835 were passengers, 2 of whom were babies born during the voyage, and 14 stowaways. En route, because of heavy seas and strong headwinds slowing their progress, Captain Williams became concerned that they would run out of coal for the boilers before reaching New York. They in fact had more than enough remaining fuel, but the ship's engineer had been purposefully under-reporting coal reserves to increase the margin for error in favor of safety. Thus convinced they were short of coal—and unable to hoist sail as a backup because of the strong headwind—the captain decided to divert to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to refuel.

During the approach to Halifax on the evening of 31 March, the captain and third officer were on the bridge until midnight while Atlantic made her way through a storm, proceeding at 12 knots (22 km/h) for the entrance of Halifax harbour, experiencing intermittent visibility and heavy seas. Unbeknownst to the crew or passengers, winds and currents had put Atlantic approximately 12 ¹⁄₂ miles (20.1 km) off-course to the west of Halifax Harbour. Because almost none of the crew had ever been to Halifax before, they were unaware of the dangers of the approach; no one took soundings, posted a masthead lookout, reduced speed, or woke the captain as they approached the unfamiliar coast. They did not spot the Sambro Lighthouse, the large landfall lighthouse which warns mariners of the rocky shoals to the west of the harbour entrance. As the night wore on without any sight of the lighthouse, the helmsman—the only crew member familiar with Halifax—became convinced that something was wrong, and relayed his concerns to the officers on duty, but was ultimately ignored.

At 3:15 a.m. local time on 1 April 1873, Atlantic struck an underwater rock off Marr's Head, Meagher's Island (now Mars Head, Mars Island), Nova Scotia.[1][2][3] All 10 lifeboats were lowered by the crew but were all washed away or smashed as the ship quickly filled with water and partially capsized. Survivors were forced to swim or climb ropes first to a wave-swept rock and then to a barren shore. Residents of the tiny fishing village of Lower Prospect and Terence Bay soon arrived to rescue and shelter the survivors, but at least 535 people died, leaving only 371 survivors.[4] The ship's manifest indicates that of the 952 aboard, 156 were women and 189 were children (including two who had been born during the voyage). All women and all children perished except for one twelve-year-old boy, John Hindley. Ten crew members were lost, while 131 survived.[5] This was the worst civilian loss of life in the North Atlantic until the wreck of La Bourgogne on 2 July 1898. The Canadian government inquiry concluded with the statement, "the conduct of Captain Williams in the management of his ship during the twelve or fourteen hours preceding the disaster, was so gravely at variance with what ought to have been the conduct of a man placed in his responsible position."

Winslow Homer drawing of an Atlantic victim cast up by the sea

Wreck of Atlantic during body and cargo recovery, April 1873

Burial service for victims of Atlantic shipwreck, April 1873, Lower Prospect, Halifax County, N.S.

Recovery and burial of the large numbers of victims took weeks. Divers were paid rewards for recovering the many bodies trapped within the hull. 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."[6]

The Wreck of the "Atlantic" -- Breakfast to Survivors in Faneuil Hall, Boston, 1873 engraving

SS 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 Tayleur in Dublin Bay in 1854.) Other White Star Line ships lost in the North Atlantic include Naronic in 1893, Republic in 1909, and Titanic in 1912.

Today, most of the ship lies heavily fragmented under 40 to 60 feet (12 to 18 m) of water.[7] Artifacts recovered from several salvage operations are on display at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia and also at the SS Atlantic Heritage Park and Interpretation Centre, in Terence Bay, Nova Scotia. A monument to the wreck is located at the mass grave near the interpretation centre in the Terence Bay Anglican Cemetery, while a smaller monument marks a second mass grave at the Catholic cemetery.

When the 1929 film Atlantic was released, everyone knew it was a thinly disguised story about the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Though this film was based on a stage play it also was made only seventeen years after the actual Titanic sinking and the public, especially survivors and their families, felt uncomfortable with a direct reference to Titanic. The producers of the film decided to release the movie under the title Atlantic, apparently unaware of the previous White Star Line disaster.

P.G. Wodehouse wrote a story in 1921 called "The Girl On The Boat" in which six chapters of the romance take place on a White Star liner he named "Atlantic", crossing from New York to Southampton. As the real "Atlantic" disaster had occurred 48 years before the story and 8 years before he was born, it is unlikely that he knew about it.

• Norwayheritage.com info on the Atlantic
• Reprint of April 1873 newspaper coverage of the disaster
• On the Rocks: Shipwrecks of Nova Scotia - Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax, Nova Scotia
• S.S. Atlantic Memorial, Sandy Cove

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Atlantic.

• Carte-de-visite photograph of unidentified boy (possibly RMS Atlantic survivor John Hindley?} Another picture of Hindley can be found on website MaritimeQuest - Atlantic (1871)){Note: this second website is copyrighted and is here for reference only}.
• Photographs of the SS Atlantic Memorial at Terence Bay, Nova Scotia
• Photographs of the SS Atlantic Memorial at Lower Prospect, Nova Scotia
• Website of the SS Atlantic Heritage Park and Interpretation Center in Terence Bay, Nova Scotia
• Passenger list
• HalifaxTrails.ca