Disasters at Sea Read online

  Copyright © 2009 Langenscheidt Publishing Group and Moseley Road Inc.

  First Skyhorse Publishing edition 2014

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

  ISBN: 978-1-62914-177-0

  eISBN: 978-1-62914-278-4

  Printed in China

  Miranda - The Tempest by John William Waterhouse, 1916

  O, I have suffered

  With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel

  (Who had no doubt some noble creature in her)

  Dashed all to pieces! O, the cry did knock

  Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished!

  —WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, The Tempest

  CONTENTS

  SHIPWRECKS AROUND THE WORLD

  Down into the Depths

  1 · NATURE’S FURY

  The San Agustin

  Spanish Treasure off the California Coast

  Nuestra Señora de Atocha

  Sunken Treasure in the Florida Keys

  The 1715 Treasure Fleet

  The Wreck of the Wealth of the Indies

  The Essex

  Rendezvous with the Leviathan

  USS Monitor

  The Ill-Fated Ironclad

  The General Grant

  Gold, Castaways, and Sealskin Suits

  RMS Rhone

  Haunted Wreck of the Caribbean

  USS Wateree

  Shipwreck on Land

  HMS Erebus and HMS Terror

  Vanished

  The Endurance

  The Greatest Antarctic Rescue of All Time

  SHIPPING IN THE ARCTIC

  SS Edmund Fitzgerald

  Tragedy on Lake Superior

  2 · THE FATAL FLAW

  The Vasa

  Royal Sweden’s Vainglorious Jewel

  The Medusa

  Betrayal and Brutality

  SS Metropolis

  A Pitiful Ruin on the Outer Banks

  SS Eastland

  Summer Outing Turned to Ruin

  SS Princess Sophia

  Alaska’s Greatest Tragedy

  MS Estonia

  Death in the Baltic

  MV Le Joola

  A Modern African Tragedy

  The Prestige

  Europe’s Deadliest Oil Spill

  ECOSYSTEM WRECKS

  MS al-Salam Boccaccio

  Betrayal on the Red Sea

  3 · COLLISION COURSE

  The Tek Sing

  The Ill-fated True Star

  HMS Birkenhead

  Chivalry to The Last Man

  RMS Titanic

  Pride Goes Before a Fall

  WRECK DIVING

  RMS Empress of Ireland

  Collision in the Fog

  SS Mont-Blanc

  A Disaster for the Ages

  The Andrea Doria

  Last of the Great Luxury Liners

  MV Doña Paz

  Collision with an Inferno

  4 · PIRACY, MUTINY, AND SKULLDUGGERY

  The Batavia

  Starvation, Treachery, and Murder

  The Henrietta Marie

  A Slave Ship Disappears

  The Whydah

  From Slave Galley to Pirate Ship

  The Queen Anne’s Revenge

  Blackbeard’s Flagship

  PIRATES

  HMS Bounty

  Mutiny in the South Pacific

  SS Tonquin

  From Trapping to Terror

  The Golden Venture

  Smuggled Human Cargo

  5 · CASUALTIES OF WAR

  The Mary Rose

  Grand Warship of Henry VIII

  The Spanish Armada

  Might of an Empire

  L’Orient

  Napoleon’s Flagship

  WARSHIPS IN THE AGE OF SAIL

  RMS Lusitania

  U-boat Attack

  HMHS Britannic

  The Titanic’s Unlucky Sister

  RMS Laurentic

  Secret Cargo

  KMS Bismarck

  Third Reich Leviathan

  USS Arizona

  Firestorm in Paradise

  MV Wilhelm Gustloff

  The World’s Deadliest Maritime Disaster

  USS Indianapolis

  Secret Mission, Silent Demise

  ARA General Belgrano

  Conflict at the Bottom of the World

  6 · MYSTERY!

  The Santa Maria

  Lost Ships of Columbus

  The Trinidad

  California’s Mystery Caravel

  The Monongahela

  Here Be Dragons

  The Mary Celeste

  The Phantom Crew

  SS Waratah

  Into Thin Air

  SS Tubantia

  Sunken Treasure?

  SS Carroll A. Deering

  Mystery Ship

  THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE

  SS Andaste

  The Lake Never Gives Up Her Dead

  7 · BLAZE OF GLORY

  USS Princeton

  Explosion on the Potomac

  SS Sultana

  America’s Worst Shipwreck

  USS Maine

  “Remember the Maine!”

  The General Slocum

  Inferno on the East River

  FIREBOATS

  8 · LEGENDS OF THE DEEP

  Noah’s Ark

  Wrecks of the Old Testament

  Ship of Faith

  Shipwreck of the Apostle Paul

  Skuldelev Ships

  Secrets of the Fjord

  The Lost Fleet

  Kublai Khan’s Navy

  Ship of Air

  The Phantom Wreck of New Haven

  The Flying Dutchman

  Ghost Ship

  SUPERNATURAL AT SEA

  The Final Word

  Lost at Sea

  Further Reading

  Index

  Acknowledgments and Credits

  DOWN INTO THE DEPTHS

  A raging storm and rough seas batter the man-o’-war Ridderschap (right) and the Hollandia (left) against menacing rocks in the Strait of Gibraltar. The ships left Gibraltar in February 1694, never to be seen again.

  Whenever a ship departs from shore, its crew members must fear that they will not return—and it has always been so. Yet, whatever treasures the journey promises, whatever glory awaits in battle or discovery, these possible rewards always seems to outweigh the real risks. The sea itself is a charming companion, and, in the Age of Sail—and even beyond—it was a common conceit for sea captains to call it (or their ships) “mistress.”

  DANGER AHEAD

  Most ships return safely to port. Yet, unfortunately, many do not. Storms, shoals, currents, human errors and arrogance, warfare, and piracy have brought down ships for millennia. Many shipwrecks vanished into the depths, never to be found again. Undoubtedly, we do not even know where to look for
quite a few of these. Some famous ships—among them Christopher Columbus’s most famous vessel, the Santa Maria—have eluded discovery despite centuries of investigation. Others, such as the Mary Celeste and the Carroll A. Deering, did not wreck at all, but their inexplicable reappearances, bereft of crew, have given rise to mysteries as yet unsolved in the ocean’s vastness.

  Some shipwrecks rank among history’s greatest and most famous tragedies. The Titanic assuredly leads in this, but the Andrea Doria, the USS Indianapolis, and the Lusitania join the famously doomed ocean liner. Others have not received the attention that they deserve, such as the Wilhelm Gustloff, sunk at the end of World War II, taking with it 9,000 lives. The circumstances of some shipwrecks, notably the HMS Birkenhead and its self-sacrificing crew and passengers, inspire us, while others, particularly the Medusa and the brutality shown aboard its raft, only evoke revulsion. Some shipwrecks are remarkable for the perseverance of their crews, such as the aptly named Endurance, while others, such as the equally aptly named Erebus and Terror, are notable primarily for the tragedies that befell their crews after they sank.

  Some shipwrecks, such as the sinking of the Vasa in Stockholm Harbor in 1628 or the capsizing of the SSEastland in the Chicago River in 1915 (above), happen before the eyes of horrified witnesses, who are unable to stop the disaster.

  FROM MOTHER NATURE TO THE SUPERNATURAL

  This book delves into some of the world’s most amazing shipwrecks, exploring their histories and, in turn, what has happened to their remains. Chapter 1 covers the tragedies caused by Mother Nature, whether her wrath descended in the form of a hurricane, tidal wave, or crushing ice. Chapter 2 reveals the tragedies of human error, and chapter 3 continues in the same vein with tales of terrible collisions, be they with massive icebergs, hidden rocks, or other ships. Chapters 4 and 5 also concern shipwrecks fated by human design, tracing the thrilling exploits of the piracy age and the glories and horrors of war on the high seas. Shipwrecks with stranger tales to tell can be found in chapter 6, with all the haunting mysteries of the sea—from ghost ships to sea serpents to outright disappearances. Chapter 7 covers the ships lost to one of sailors’ most persistent—and justifiable—fears, that of fire at sea, while chapter 8 moves out of modern history and into legend, myth, and the ancient world.

  Some ships, such as the HMS Rhone, which sank in the waters off the British Virgin Islands during a hurricane in 1867, leave long-lasting skeletons that prove irresistible to both amateur and professional wreck divers.

  All shipwrecks, whether for their stories, their drama, or the ancient treasures that they promise, draw us to them as markers of watery graves, pointed history lessons, or curious mysteries. Their ghostly silence cannot still our fascination with their rotting decks or rusting turrets, once trod and manned by unlucky sailors. Nor, perhaps, should it: for as long as we travel the unconquerable sea, it will claim both ships and lives. Our best hope for survival on the waves is to learn the lessons they bequeath, and the only honor we can give to the lives they have claimed is a promise to never forget them.

  Shipwrecks have long captured the human imagination, and many writers have taken up the task of chronicling the countless tales of downed ships throughout history. Although many remain obscure, certain ships have an immediate lure, as demonstrated by The Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters, published in 1912, the very year the famously “unsinkable” ship sank in the North Atlantic.

  1 · NATURE’S FURY

  The Shipwreck by Hendrik Kobell, 1775

  The San Agustin

  SPANISH TREASURE OFF THE CALIFORNIA COAST

  Sixteenth-century Spanish traders did a brisk business navigating between two colonial outposts on the Pacific Ocean. In the Philippines, they traded East Asian goods, such as silk and porcelain, and in New Spain (Mexico), they bartered for silver and gold. The San Agustin, a three-masted, 80-foot (24 m) Manila galleon, was one such treasure ship. She holds the distinction of being the oldest known shipwreck off the coast of California.

  The San Agustin departed Manila in July 1595. Bound for Acapulco, she carried treasure from her home port in the Philippines. King Philip II of Spain had ordered Captain Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeño to chart the coast of California, in hope of finding a safe harbor. The galleon reached Cape Mendocino, near the Oregon border, and from there she continued south along the foggy coast. Coming around the treacherous waters of Point Reyes in November 1595, the San Agustin put in at Drake’s Bay, just north of San Francisco. With the San Agustin safely moored in the bay, Captain Cermeño took most of his crew on shore to explore.

  Early explorers believed California to be an island, as shown on this c. 1650 European map.

  The rocky, often fogbound, California coast proved treacherous for ships unfamiliar with its waters. Even today, with far more advanced tracking systems, rogue waves and strange currents still regularly claim ships and lives.

  Three weeks after the San Agustin dropped anchor, though, a fierce southeaster blew in, dashing apart the ship and killing two crewmen. The storm left Captain Cermeño and his men stranded on an unfamiliar shore, their 150 tons (136 metric tons) of treasure sunk to the bottom of the Pacific. The wreck of the San Agustin has never been found, but bits of blue Chinese porcelain and other artifacts likely from the lost galleon have washed ashore in Drake’s Bay. Archaeologists and federal agencies renewed the active search for the San Agustin in 1997, and she remains a shipwreck ripe for discovery.

  Between 1565 and 1815, so-called Manila galleons (galleons that traveled between Manila and Acapulco, Mexico) brought Filipino and East Asian goods to the rest of the Spanish Empire for profits of from 100 to 300 percent.

  TO MEXICO IN A PLANK BOAT

  AFTER THE WRECK OF HIS SHIP, Captain Cermeño was faced with a near-mutinous crew of 76 men, stranded on a beach some 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from their destination in New Spain. Crew members’ letters and journals and the captain’s own log document their incredible passage to safety.

  Cermeño decided to press on toward Acapulco by any means necessary. During their three weeks ashore, the crew members of the San Agustin had been assembling a small plank boat, called a vicoro, intended for inland exploration. Captain, crew, and one dog piled into the rickety craft and headed south. Navigating out to sea, they would have drifted past the perennially fogbound San Francisco Bay, one of the world’s safest natural harbors. Two months later, in January 1596, the vicoro arrived safely in Acapulco. Cermeño had lost the king’s ship and a fortune in goods, and he had failed to discover the sought-for safe harbor, but his fortitude had saved his crew.

  FLOTSAM & JETSAM

  Drake’s Bay in California is named for the swashbuckling English privateer Sir Francis Drake (1540–95), who roamed the seas plundering Spanish ships.

  A 1628 relief map of Acapulco’s port. Now a major tourist city in Mexico, Acapulco was New Spain’s primary western port for centuries.

  Nuestra Señora de Atocha

  SUNKEN TREASURE IN THE FLORIDA KEYS

  Guns and cannons can protect against pirates and buccaneers, but they are no match for a ferocious hurricane. The hundreds who perished on the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha learned this bitter lesson. The Atocha was one of a fleet of 28 ships to leave Havana in 1622, laden with precious metals and other bounty of the New World destined for the coffers of the Spanish crown.

  The voyage across the Atlantic to Spain was perilous, but never more so than in the initial stretch. Pirates, who roamed the Caribbean, frequently targeted treasure-laden galleons, so armed escort boats accompanied each fleet. The 112-foot (34 m), three-masted Atocha served her fleet as almiranta, or heavily armed rear guard. Because she was so well protected by firepower—including 20 bronze cannons—she carried a ransom in treasure. Experts believe that the Atocha carried some 24 tons (22 metric tons) of silver bullion, 125 gold bars and coins, and huge measures of copper, tobacco, indigo, and jewels.

  Violent storms on the open sea, eve
n more so than pirates, made sailing dangerous. Here, a painting of ships in a rising storm by Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633–1707) highlights the danger of tall waves.

  On September 4, 1622, the fleet set sail, weeks later than it intended. That night and the following morning, the wind began to rise, and the flotilla made for the calm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The Atocha, along with two other ships in the rear guard, didn’t make it. High winds and monstrous waves drove the Santa Margarita, the Nuestra Señora del Rosario, and the Atocha onto a coral reef near the Dry Tortugas. With 260 souls and tons of treasure aboard, the Atocha, her hull badly damaged, sank in only 55 feet (17 m) of water. Five men who clung to the mizzenmast survived to tell the tale.

  FLOTSAM & JETSAM

  “Once you have seen the ocean bottom paved with gold, you’ll never forget it.”

  —Mel Fisher (1922–98)

  Gold doubloons and silver reales. The Atocha would have carried a fortune in such Spanish coins.

  THE SALVAGE OF THE ATOCHA

  Days after the Atocha sank, rescue teams attempted to salvage her sunken treasure. But another hurricane blew in, tearing the standing masts and sterncastle from the hull, and obliterating any trace of her whereabouts. Searchers found her sister ship, the Santa Margarita, in 1626, and salvaged much of her treasure. But the Atocha faded from memory, too far submerged to hope for recovery.

  Three centuries later, though, hope drove wreck diver Mel Fisher to search for the Atocha. Fisher and his crew had already helped discover the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet (see pages 18–19), and his success now led him to a greater challenge: the Atocha. Most rescue efforts had focused on “the last key of the Matecumbes,” the location noted by seventeenth-century records. In 1985, after nearly 16 years of searching, Fisher discovered the Atocha and her sunken treasure near Florida’s remote Marquesas Keys. A legal battle ensued, with both the United States government and the State of Florida laying claim to the bounty. Finally, the court ruled in favor of Mel Fisher. Many of the Atocha’s treasures are now housed in a museum in Key West, Florida.

  The Dry Tortugas, now a United States national park, change constantly under the pressures of wind and water, making them difficult to chart and safely navigate.

  The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West, Florida, houses artifacts from several shipwrecks, including the Henrietta Marie and the Atocha.

  TOOLS OF THE TRADE

  MEL FISHER HAD PERSISTENCE, SKILL, AND DRIVE, but he also had the right tools for the job. He invented a device he called a “mailbox,” which sent a stream of clear water down to the ocean floor, enabling treasure hunters to spot their quarry. Fisher also used a proton magnetometer, a highly sensitive form of magnetometer. These devices are commonly used in archaeology; they measure variations in the earth’s magnetic field, indicating the presence of ferrous objects, or metals.