Tuesday, October 20, 2009

SS Atlantic

White Star Line is a prominent British shipping company famous for its ill-fated luxury flagship, the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in 1912. But a not well known case of White Star Line 's SS Atlantic also had a disastrous end earlier in 1873. A recently published book "SS Atlantic: The White Star Line's First Disaster at Sea, by Greg Cochkanoff and Bob Chaulk, Goose Lane Editions, revisits this case. There's also an earlier 2006 book "Destiny's Voyage: SS Atlantic the Titanic of 1873" by Bob Love published by Authorhouse. Of particular notable to me about the case of SS Atlantic is the fact that the disaster of SS Atlantic was happened during a bad storm. Did they ever encountered a freaque wave? That was never been asked in 1873 and ever since. We can certainly assumed that they did not. But I just can't help think if that were happened today, the kind of blaming on freaque waves as an excuse will not be too far behind.

Here's a picture of SS Atlantic from here:


and an artist's rendition of SS Atlantic disaster from Currier and Ives:

1 comment:

rwlove said...

I read your posy of the SS Atlantic and will offer my comment about the freaque wave concern. As author of Destiny's Voyage I spent some 30 yrs of periodic research of the wreck. No wave or stormy seas were actually involved. The book explains my theory and the night occurances the crew experienced leading up to the wreck. The only waves were the breakers spotted by the watch shortly before crashing on the rocks. Thank you for posting the comment and interest in this great liner and tragic disaster. Bob Love