The Terrible Disaster of the SS ARCTIC (1854)

this is not a story for the faint of heart it is graphic violent and disturbing we have studied the titanic we have studied the atlantic the swallow the lexington the lusitania although this shipwreck might not have the same number of victims as the others The absolute hell that unfolded during This

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experience is one of the worst I have ever studied. This is the Arctic. The third ship built for the Collins line. She was launched in January 1850 and made her first voyage in October of that same year. He was quickly capturing the clipper of the seas title when he claimed the blue ribbon the collins line had well built ships and a great crew and were often the heroes of the sea in 1852 one of the ships the pacific saved 16 from the wreck of the jesse stephens when It sank in a storm, but the company had a huge weight around its neck.

Politicians in Washington DC, many of whom wanted the company to fail, imposed the impossible requirement on them to always sail at full speed, regardless of weather conditions that often put the ships in danger. path of damage the

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was successful at first, but things took a sharp turn for her after she ran aground in 1853, then hit a rock in

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and then had her engines overhauled, but the new engine put quite a strain on her hull the

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It was a wooden paddle steamship. It had a first class known as saloon class and a second class. There was no third class on board.

Its second class accommodations were comfortable but its first class was luxurious with two large salons, one for dining and the other for resting. The arctic weighed 2856 tons 284 feet long with a beam of 45 feet she had a funnel with a red lid two masts and six lifeboats four hanging from davits and two stowed on the deck she was capable of flying canvas and sailing like a sailboat as she made by her sister in 1851. After her engines were disabled, the Arctic left Liverpool pier on the morning of September 20,

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. There were some notable people on board, at least during the time, the most notable being the families of several figures important members of the Collins line, the owner of the Collins. line was a man called edward collins he was not on board but his wife mary and two of his children henry and mary were traveling in lounge class james brown's family the president of the bank that financed collins line was also on board although as edward collins he himself was not on board george allen the lawyer for the novelty ironworks who built the arctic engines was traveling on board with his family and his baby these three families knew each other and kept close together some other persons of interest were on board the French Duke de Gramal traveling to Washington DC as a diplomat and ship captain traveling as a passenger aboard the arctic.

A man named Captain Pratt, his wife and his son. Interestingly, just a few months earlier, Captain Pratt and his family survived another shipwreck and considered themselves blessed. be here on this sturdy ship a children's book publisher named melon day and an english architect and painter named frederick catherwood commanding the arctic is an experienced sea captain captain james loose captain loose's son willie was 11 years old and He had suffered from an unidentified illness all his life for the first time Captain Luce and his wife agreed that it would be very good to let him travel to Europe with his father and now he was making his return trip with him Captain Luce's wife would stay home on the 20th or so, of the people I have specifically mentioned, only three would survive the arctic ordeal it carried 233 passengers and 175 crew for a total of 408 souls on board the trip itself was largely uneventful , passengers socialized and ate good food, music was played, and fresh autumn air was breathed on deck, but as the ship entered the North Atlantic temperatures dropped and few passengers were willing to go outdoors.

Captain Lucy's son, Willie, spent much of the voyage in his cabin, but spent a considerable amount of time with Millie Brown of the James Brown Arctic family mentioned above plying the waves at 13 knots or about 15 miles per hour as he approached the large banks off Newfoundland, while a small ship made of iron left Newfoundland bound for France. This boat belonged to a French fishing company and was used by the company to transport its fishermen between work in Newfoundland and their homes in France. This ship with more than 150 people on board was called Vesta. Vesta weighed 250 tons and stretched half the length of the Arctic at 152 feet long.

In addition to being made of iron, it was ahead of its time by having a propeller instead. of paddle wheels and sails on its masts to help it and was divided into four watertight compartments. On the second day of his voyage, he was now sailing towards the same area as the Arctic was just off the east coast of Newfoundland. September 27 was a cold and foggy day. The Arctic captain did not wish to travel at full speed with such sporadic visibilities. , but the politicians who gave their subsidies to the Collins line demanded it, it was now a quarter past twelve, local time, when out of the fog appeared a dark ship under full sail and full steam approaching them at least 10 knots, was the French fishing steamer Vesta.

A lookout aboard the Arctic called the alert. He stops the steamer in front of the officer. On the bridge he only had a moment to decide if he was going to turn the ship left or right, now turning left was the quickest way out of danger, but it broke the standard passage protocol for ships on the bridge. sense that they should always pass on the right, also required the vesta's captain to act accordingly and not attempt to pass on his own right, which would simply put them back on the path of the arctic, the officer shouted loudly to starboard, which believe it or not. means turning the ship to port, it's the opposite of what you might expect, it's called rudder command, the Arctic's engines were ordered to stop and at least her port engine stopped at one point and the engineers rushed to the deck to find out what was happening.

As soon as their orders were carried out, the Arctic slowly began to make its way to its porch, but the Vesta crew, perhaps panicking, resorted to what was known procedure and did not react in the way that the Arctic crew had. expected. The Vesta turned to continue forward. the right pointing the vesta right at the arctic turn if they had turned to port and complemented the maneuver of the arctic crew they could have avoided the

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an additional order was given aft but it was not executed quickly enough the loose captain came out on deck by starboard rowing box just in time to see the vesta break the arctic's starboard bow, just above the waterline, the vesta's propeller tore through the arctic's wooden hull into the crew quarters and impaled one of the sailors. he stays as his bow was crushed and the shattered vesta was violently twisted and torn from the hole it had created in the arctic as the arctic continued to advance, the vesta was trampled as the arctic pushed forward with vesta dislocating the arctic's hull plates all While she was there she crashed into the front of the Arctic's pallet box breaking the surrounding wooden bumper known as the garn and dislocating part of the pallet box frame.

The damage virtually did not check the Arctic's forward momentum and she continued to advance apart from those in the immediately damaged area. From the bow the collision felt like little more than a blow, a crash barely more than a tremor or tremor. Leaning over the railing to perform a hasty inspection, the Arctic's crew noted that most of the damage appeared to be above the waterline. The captain ordered a handful of crew to go down and see the extent of the damage and determine if it was still mostly watertight, although the Arctic appeared to be safe aboard the Vesta, however, it was a scene of absolute carnage, the passengers had been destroyed. and the forward end of the vesta was now painted with blood, the fishermen on board screamed as the ship sank forward, although the captain of the vesta attempted to control the situation, against his orders a lifeboat with 12 men was launched boarded and hurried toward the Arctic, which seemed safer as the wreck receded into the fog behind the Arctic.

Captain Lou saw the Vesta quickly fall into the water. He saw the exposed cargo hold and saw the sea gushing in. He heard the men aboard the Vesta calling for help. He released the Arctic engines ordered. hooked again and in order for the ship to begin to slowly turn to starboard and back up to help those on board the sinking vesta, he ordered the lifeboats to be removed so that they could assist the Frenchman while they abandoned the vesta and ordered the chief officer gourley and second officer balam. to go down and take command of two of the Arctic's lifeboats heading towards the Vesta, Gourley put his boat into the water first, while Second Officer Ballam had delays in launching his boat, meanwhile the Arctic gave the signal.

When the Vesta came back into view, Gourley approached. By then the excitement had drawn nearly all the passengers on deck crowding the starboard arctic rail, so many dozens of them crowding the side of the ship that the arctic actually tilted a few degrees to starboard. The captain struggled to shout his orders over the murmur. from the crowd, but there was no panic. Chief Officer Gourley's ship began to put some distance between her and the Arctic as Second Officer Ballam's ship finally began to descend from the Davis Arctic. The Davis Arctic's paddles cut through the water at a slower pace as the ship cautiously orbited.

The Vesta was settling, but there was something strange about the sound of the oars, the churning sound was slightly deeper, no one would have noticed. This, but their captain was attuned to every sound of his ship, the oars were getting deeper and deeper into the water. Loose shouted to Second Officer Balam to abort the launch of his lifeboats and return on board. He did so and was immediately ordered to re-inspect the bow. Ballam grabbed one of the firefighters on deck who was on his lunch break and they both climbed over the railing to determine the extent of the damage.

They were shocked to see that the Vesta's bow was still impaled in the arctic and hanging from the shattered hull. There were three gaping holes in the side, two of which were below the waterline and kept out the sea. Only Vesta was sinking, but the Arctic was also starting to sink. Captain Loose gave three orders in rapid succession, first to activate the ship's pumps to begin draining water on board, second to plug the holes from the inside with cargo and mattresses, and third to lower down. a canvas sail over the hole from the outside the pumps activated almost in an instant spraying sea water all over the deck and over the sides the other two orders failed miserably the damage was now too underwater for her crew to repair from the inside and the canvas sail tore from the jagged wood as it was being lowered onto the hull, at this loose point he had no other means to save his ship and the Arctic, like almost every other ship in history, until 1912 he did not it had enough lifeboats for everyone.

Aboard Newfoundland she was four hours away and the Arctic's only hope as the Arctic prepared to make a mad dash for dry land. Luce ordered the crew to signal Chief Officer Gourley's ship to return hastily, but she had disappeared into the fog. The Arctic crew went into overdrive. Steam turned west and prayed to leave Gourley's ship behind, but Loose was convinced that Gourley would pull through somehow, but Gourley and his men were never seen again. Arctic had also left Vesta behind, but there was nothing Arctic could do to help them without the captain knowing. Loose and the Arctic crew, however, the lifeboat Vestas had arrived alongside the Arctic when the ship accelerated forward, was swept away by the ship's starboard paddlewheel, and was torn to pieces along with all but one occupant, the bodies of those in the The lifeboat became stuck in the paddle wheel for several rotations until it fell apart enough to fall.

This was one of the first rude awakenings of the afternoon in which the Arctic's passengers would witness Arctic sailors dragging the only surviving Frenchmen aboard the Arctic and leaving the crash site. accident behind, but efforts continued to mitigate damage to the ship, the carpenter built some scaffolding over the side and attempted to plug the hole manually and the captain ordered the weight to be removed from the damaged starboard bow, the crew dragged the anchors and threw them placedover the port side, letting them loosen the ship's chain and all passengers were led to the aft port wing and in fact the weight on the flood section of the ship was unfortunately relieved, however the arctic was not built with watertight bulkheads so the water that had already entered simply flowed aft with the weight displaced the pumps continued to keep the flow at bay but the ship was still slowly sinking apart from the four main steam bilge pumps the arctic It had hand pumps that had to be manually pumped to the passengers and both crew worked these short shifts until they became exhausted from exhaustion and the pumps became sticky with blood from their blistered hands in an attempt to stop the mess beforehand.

The quartermasters were ordered to arm themselves and keep the passengers away from the lifeboats until the crew was ready to load them as the arctic fog cut through the ship's signal cannon was used as an impromptu distress call a young a Engineer named Stuart Holland was tasked with regularly firing the signal gun at a post that would remain alongside until the water approached the end of the boilers and the stokers attempted to abandon their posts and the lower decks, but were persuaded to stay there. Knowing that at that moment its best hope for survival was steam for the engines, the ship could have its head full. of steam, but the further she sank into the water, the more resistance she had and the less effect her oars had on pushing her forward.

When the water reached the furnaces, the ship shook violently as if part of its body had exploded. The arctic was losing power in its engines and was now only limping forward. Loose, he ordered the lifeboats to be loaded, starting with the starboard stern boat itself. The boat being launched by Second Officer Balam was loaded with women and children and then provisions and then placed under the command of the ship's butcher she was ordered to be loaded to the waterline just above and to remain there until all the last lifeboats were removed. They were ready to let go.

He wanted to launch all the lifeboats at the same time so that they could stay together after the ship sank. and make way for land as a group, however, here we see our first serious act of mutiny despite the captain's solid orders and the ship was still stable and in no imminent danger of sinking. The butcher and his sailors cut the lifeboats and silently drifted into the fog leaving those on the ship behind this lifeboat and its occupants were never seen again. The majority of the arctic crew were becoming increasingly self-centered and focused solely on their own survival rather than the captain's orders.

Trusting less in their crew and more in the male passengers, they crossed the deck to the stern lifeboat and began loading it with women and children, but a wayward crewman began to rush. Axes were used to defend against them, but the men's haste. caused the forward rigging of a ship to fail and throw women and children into the sea, killing each and every one of them. Some of the crew who stormed the lifeboat would survive the incident and ironically later claimed that the real captain was Loose. villain for preventing them from using the lifeboat, the last arctic steam went out and the ship stopped, worse still, the ship's steam pumps now gurgled to a stop, apart from the small hand pumps which the sea could now fill without resistance, fortunately .

The ship was still slowly sinking, although Second Officer Ballam prepared another lifeboat while the aft port one was recovered and prepared once more. Ballam's boat was lowered into the water and was briefly attached to the port paddle box before rowing into the fog, abandoning the ship. Captain Balam had pretended to be so loyal up to that point with a lifeboat at less than half capacity. and consisting almost entirely of crew and with the ship still slowly sinking behind him, Ballam's ship began to move towards Newfoundland despite Captain Loose shouting orders at them to hold fast. Passing and waiting to pick up people from the water, the now recovered port stern lifeboat was loaded with women and children, but not before an altercation broke out between the captain armed with a sledgehammer and a sailor armed with a knife, the loose captain won that one.

Shortly afterwards, although the lifeboat was attacked again by cowardly men, many of them stumbled and fell into the sea, the boat broke loose and some of the men who boarded it were lost in the fog, leaving the Arctic and their honor behind, the Duke. de Gramalt of France, mentioned earlier in his journey as a diplomat, jumped overboard and became a lifeboat. His survival would actually become a controversy that hung over his head for the rest of his life. special thanks, by the way, to frank gestremski. for sending me this card with an original photo of the Duke of Grimal, there were supposedly two lifeboats left and loose, he directed his attention to preparing them, they were smaller than those that had already escaped, but to lose the horror he found that one of the last lifeboats was already They had been kidnapped by the chief engineer of the Arctic, who gathered his friends, boxes of provisions, cigars and the ship's guns and quietly slipped away with the boat while attention was focused on the stern lifeboat as his boat drifted away, They even refused to pick up the swimmers.

The water that was close to them and they were trying to get on board even though their boat was only partially full, this was a punch in the gut for the captain. Five of the ship's lifeboats had already left and not a single woman or child had been safe, yet the families of Edward Collins, George Allen and James Brown were still on board as was the captain's son Willie. lucy, and almost all of his officers, engineers and sailors had abandoned him with a lifeboat loose. The captain decided that the best course of action now was to build a detachable raft. parts of the ship and use the last lifeboat as a platform in the water.

The masts were removed from the masts. The doors were removed from their hinges and all the debris that could be found was taken to the lowest point of the deck. The stern port. side of the ship to be assembled into a raft. Yes, the damage had occurred to the starboard bow, but the weight of the passengers and crew displaced the free-flowing water toward the stern and it was now descending in that direction, the raft It was the last hope for those on board, but at this point those left in the arctic were divided into three distinct camps, those who were loyal to Captain Loose, who did everything they could to save others and build a means of survival. escape, the second group were mostly female passengers, including the Collinses. and the brown family who accepted their fate and prayed silently appealing to god for salvation and those in the third group who seemed to appeal to the devil the third group broke into the liquor cabinet and got stupidly drunk they looted what they could they began to take lives violently jackets of others now the worst of this group saw this as an opportunity to do what they wanted without consequences and attempted to rape the women.

There were almost certainly murders in these final minutes as people fought and the few remaining knights aggressively defended the arctic that had been resisting its fate for over four hours was now beginning to lose its stability, swaying, rolling and falling. It waved as it fell deeper into the sea. Indeed, there were heroes as the ship entered its final moments despite the

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actions of a fourth. Officer Francis Dorian loyally stood by Captain Loose to the end defending the lifeboat that was being used in the construction of the raft and ensuring that it was not stolen. Apprentice engineer Stuart Holland kept firing the signal cannon in the hope that he and them would be heard. he would go down with the ship doing this his supposed last words were to the captain asking him to let the world know that at least one man was on his post one of the ship's two stewards a woman named anna downer was still working on one of the The ship's hand pumps with blood dripping down their arms and down the pump stem and staining the deck, the captain told him that he could actually leave his post and that there was no point in working those pumps anymore, the ship was sinking too fast, but she said. that as long as her arms continued working she would remain next to that bomb she went down with the ship when the raft was almost finished that group of vile passengers diverted their attention from the vices that were still on board the ship and rushed towards the raft trampling the Some of those rushing on the raft were felled by axes, but the raft was freed from the ship with several on it.

Fourth Officer Dorian's ship was also finally overtaken by the ruffians with all means of escape, now, exhausted, the loose captain made the last rounds of it, he said. goodbye to his passengers, spending a moment specifically with the families of Collins Brown and Allen, handing out life preservers all along the way. The children of these families clung to their mothers crying while everyone began to pray. Finally, Captain Loose went to his son's cabin. . He was lying in bed sick and she accompanied him to the bridge. The loose captain saw no chance of survival for either of them and hoped that he and his son would wait there calmly until the end.

The Arctic fell over the stern, destroying the deckhouse and the rapidly sinking passengers still on board were thrown into the funnel when Stuart Holland fired his last cannon signal. The ship groaned as her lower decks were blown away and her bow rose into the air. The captain released his son in his arms as he was dragged deep under the water struggling to get to the surface, he finally made it but was dragged under once again, he lost control of his son as he resurfaced in the chaos above the place. of the wreck, he managed to find his son at a distance and began swimming towards him during The collision that the Vesta had hit with the Arctic's starboard paddle box completely destroyed its forward guard and damaged the rest of the hull.

Now, when the Arctic hit the sea floor, that pallet box separated from the wreck and shot to the surface striking and killing several. fighting at sea, including Captain Loose's son, Captain Loose was hit badly on the head by the box, but recovered and covered in blood climbed onto the wooden structure like a raft, some others climbed to the top with him , including George Allen of Novelty Iron Works. From the rowing box they watched in horror as those in the water slowly died around them. There were some in the group of 12 at the box who saw their own family drown in front of them.

They tried to grab them but the sea was so rough that they moved away, they saw the Allen and Brown family climb onto a raft and slowly die there, the boat had disappeared but the horrors were not over, a gale began to rise and the blood in the water attracted sharks who dragged away some of the stragglers as the group began to separate. Night fell during the next day. More people died and the dozen on board the pallet box had now been reduced to three survivors, Captain Loose George Allen and the sailor who actually pulled the Frenchman from Vesta's lifeboat out of the water.

At sea that day, the Canadian Bark Huron en route to Quebec found the fourth officer Dorian's ship and picked up about 30 people on it. The Huron also found the large makeshift raft just before the ship's final submergence drifting to pieces with only one survivor still on board. who they also rescued, something interesting happened shortly after the Huron encountered another ship called Lebanon en route to New York and connected with it and gave the survivors aboard the Huron the opportunity to come aboard and sail directly to New York. Instead of staying with the Hurons and going to Quebec and then coming to the United States from there, the Arctic survivors who acted nobly during the sinking chose to go with Lebanon directly to New York and return home, those who acted a little. a little more cowardly they kept the ferret and went to Canada perhaps anticipating a very negative reception given their actions during the sinking and they returned with the ferret to Canada and stayed there for the rest of their lives the pallet box was at drifting during the days the ships passed through.

The sailor among them even tried to commit suicide twice by going mad at the sea, but was stopped by Captain Loose and George Allen. They were eventually picked up by the Cunard steamer Cambria, which picked up a small handful of other survivors from the sea, including french fishermen embarked into the arctic from the vesta cambria,He was under the command of a Captain Russell now, although he worked for Cunard, the arch enemy of Collins Line, he felt a personal gratitude towards Collins Line, Captain Russell was a survivor of the shipwreck of the Bark Jesse Stevens which sank in a storm and 16 of His crew were rescued by the Collins Liner Pacific.

In fact, it is a small world and Captain Russell saw this as sentimental revenge for the debt he personally felt towards the Collins Line for saving his life a few years earlier in the open sea in two of the lifeboats. They continued rowing west, one of them was the one commanded by Second Officer Balam and the other was the lifeboat seized by the ship's engineers two days after the shipwreck. The ships finally made landfall in Broad Cove Newfoundland, today known as Renews Kappa Hayden. . They rested here and got their bearings and then traveled 50 miles north to St John's.

When they reached the city, they were met with a surprising sight: the Vesta safely in the harbor with her. The bow was torn off despite the severe damage she sustained, her watertight bulkheads remained and her crew surprisingly managed to get her into port safely until then, Vesta did not know that the Arctic was sinking, but simply thought the collision had occurred. It had been a hit and run and The news of the selfish hit and run was already circulating and Captain Loose was portrayed around the world as a villain. Only when the survivor began to arrive did it become known that the Arctic fled for his own life, now to speculate for a moment that many people could suggest that if only the Arctic had stayed with the Vesta, he might have been able to evacuate his passengers and crew to the Vesta and then everyone could have returned safely to Newfoundland.

I don't think that was the case, the Vesta was hanging. In fact, for several hours after the collision her crew believed they were going to sink, it was truly a miracle and a testament to their seamanship that they were able to save the ship and bring her back to port, but the additional weight of more than 400 people from the Arctic coming aboard the Vesta, I think that would have been too much weight for the ship to hold. I mean, in the Arctic we see that they were able to change the entire angle and direction that the ship was descending by just everyone standing on the opposite side of the ship, the weight of 400 people on the Vesta would have been significant and I don't think the ship I would have survived that extra weight.

Officer Balaam chartered two ships once they reached Saint John. to bring the survivors back to the United States and one to return to the wreck site under his command and search for survivors, but they found none. Numbers will vary from source to source, but approximately 88 survived the Arctic sinking with a loss of 320, including all the latest news about the women and children

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did not reach the United States until two weeks later, on October 10. , when rumors of the sinking were finally confirmed by survivors, including Captain Loose, as more survivors from Canada arrived in the country. Details of the sinking began to emerge and the cowardice of some was identified when Officer Balam was asked why he removed the lifeboat from the ship.

He carefully fabricated the story to convict the captain. Many of the firefighters who made their way to the raft and lifeboats did as well. He condemned Captain Loose claiming that he was incapable of leading and that he had poor judgment, of course this was mainly to defer judgment of themselves. Loose actually blamed himself for some of the events of that afternoon, firstly the abandonment of Chief Officer Gourley, who had taken command. He lifeboated from the Arctic to Vestas to see what help could be provided and the Arctic left him behind in the mad rush to reach land.

He felt guilty for leaving him behind because his lifeboat was never seen again and he speculated that Officer Gourley might have helped maintain better discipline during the evacuation. He was also sure that his friend was cursing his name in her final moments. Either way, Captain Loose never returned to sea. No formal investigation was held, perhaps because politicians in Washington felt that would make them look bad for being behind the excessive speed policy even though they continued to demand it for the Collins Line even after the loss of the Pacific. A few years later, Edward Collins, the owner of the Collins Line, had just lost half of his family in the sinking. and he would never be the same again. the same goes for james brown, who lost six members of his family, and george allen of novelty ironworks, who witnessed firsthand the death of his wife and baby, but still Thus he himself survived, the three men would suffer from severe depression for the rest of their lives, how did Cunard react to the news that his competitor had lost the Arctic and the wave of grief that fell on New York City and the rest from United States?

Well, they had a parade, yeah, I'm not making this up. He had a parade through New York City just a couple of days later to celebrate and announce the safety of his lifeboats. The Vesta sailed until 1875 when she sank off Spain. There are no known plans or images of the Vesta with the exception of This rudimentary sketch was published immediately after the collision and shows her broken bow, so the rendering we created for this documentary was based primarily on that sketch and written descriptions. The remains of the arctic were never found. It is probably located somewhere off the east coast of Newfoundland.

With very little to mark the spot on the seabed where it fell, as its wooden body will have mostly disintegrated, there may be a singular relic of the sinking somewhere that was collected from the water, but nothing more, the Bodies were not recovered and the name shipping lines avoided the Arctic in the following years. White Starline considered naming one of the members of the ocean fleet Arctic, but opted to call him Celtic after they were reminded of this history. There are no suitable memorials. This is an era of ships that have been mostly forgotten and a company of ships buried in history and a praise of passengers and crew whose story has been little told.

I want to thank david shaw for his excellent book, the sea will embrace you, without which this video would not have been possible and also thanks to my friend Liam Sharp who created these animations with me and also for his additional research which contributed to this project. A huge thank you to all my Patreon supporters for helping cover the cost of these pretty big Collins Line documentaries, especially Kaiser Wilhelm. second air wicker zack sterosu tom shavada rob m amos mayhew corey andrews dakota charbonne zolt wagner and nicholas masella if you enjoyed this video and would like to support my ongoing research into maritime histories and lost history, please consider becoming a patron at the link below on the In the meantime, be sure to like and subscribe.

Thank you very much for taking this time to learn about this disaster.