Two ships collided in heavy fog, killing 322 people off the coast of Newfoundland, USA, on this day in 1854.
The SS Arctic was a luxury ship, built in 1850 to carry passengers across the Atlantic Ocean. It had a wooden hull and could reach speeds of up to 13 knots per hour, an impressive clip at that point in history.
On 20 September, the Arctic left Liverpool, England, bound for North America. Seven days later, just off of the Newfoundland coast, it ran into a heavy fog.
Unfortunately, the ship’s captain, James Luce, did not take the usual safety measures for dealing with fog — he did not slow the Arctic, he did not sound the ship’s horn and he did not add extra watchmen.
At 12.15pm, the Arctic slammed into another steamer, the SS Vesta, an iron-hulled ship piloted by Captain Alphonse Puchesne. Since it was the Arctic that hit the Vesta, the crew of the Arctic initially directed their energy at helping the Vesta.
They had not realised that the iron hull of the Vesta had actually done much more damage to the Arctic than vice versa. Soon, the Arctic released its lifeboats, but many capsized in the choppy waters. As the crew of the Arctic discovered that their ship was seriously damaged, Captain Luce decided to try to beach the ship.
In doing so, he ran over several of the lifeboats, causing even more people to drown. The Arctic was too far from shore for the attempt to be successful and the action only increased the rate of flooding inside the ship. General panic then ensued. Desperate Arctic crew members took lifeboats from women and children attempting to escape.
When one of the ship’s high-ranking officers tried to stop this, the crew killed him. The final 70 people left on board crowded onto a makeshift raft as the Arctic sank. Reportedly only one member of this group survived.
In all, the 85 survivors included 61 of the crew and 24 male passengers. All the women and children on board perished.
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