SS ''Berlin'' was a steel ship, which was owned by the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

and built for use on their

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

service from

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-on- ...

and the

Hook of Holland Hook of Holland ( nl, Hoek van Holland, ) is a town in the southwestern corner of Holland, hence the name; ''hoek'' means "corner" and was the word in use before the word ''kaap'' – "cape", from Portuguese ''cabo'' – became Dutch. The English t ...

, which the company had initiated in 1893. The Great Eastern Railway ordered three steamships to operate the service. The ships were named ''Amsterdam'', ''Berlin'', and ''Vienna'' to publicise some of the rail connections from the Hook of Holland. ''Berlin'' was built in 1894 by Earles Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Hull. She had berths for 218 first- and 120 second-class passengers.

Sinking

At 0500 on Thursday, 21 February 1907, the Hook

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

keeper recorded that ''Berlin'' was navigating the channel when she suddenly veered off course northward after a huge

wave In physics, mathematics, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities. Waves can be periodic, in which case those quantities oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (res ...

struck her on her port quarter.

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Precious and

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

Bronders managed to return the ship to her original course, but another wave struck ''Berlin'' and she swung northward again, causing her to become impaled on the tip of the

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

breakwater Breakwater may refer to: * Breakwater (structure), a structure for protecting a beach or harbour Places * Breakwater, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia * Breakwater Island Breakwater Island () is a small island in the Palme ...

at the entrance to the New Waterway. Waves swept over the vessel, and both Precious and Bronders soon were swept overboard. The Dutch steam

lifeboat Lifeboat may refer to: Rescue vessels * Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape * Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues * Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen A ...

''President van Heel'' attempted to offer aid, but the rough seas prevented her from approaching the stricken vessel. ''Berlin'' broke in two amidships at 0600. The majority of those on board had fled to the bow, which sank when the ship broke in half. ''President van Heel'' could not close with the survivors on the stern of the vessel due to the weather. Only one man, a Captain Parkinson who was travelling as a passenger, was able to swim to the safety of the lifeboat.

Prince Henry Prince Henry (or Prince Harry) may refer to: People *Henry the Young King (1155–1183), son of Henry II of England, who was crowned king but predeceased his father *Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal (1394–1460) *Henry, Duke of Cornwall (Ja ...

made a visit the following day and went out on the

pilot boat A pilot boat is a type of boat used to transport maritime pilots between land and the inbound or outbound ships that they are piloting. Pilot boats were once sailing boats that had to be fast because the first pilot to reach the incoming ship ...

''Helvoetsluis'' as ''Helvoetsluis'' and ''President van Heel'' attempted to recover the bodies from the sea and rescue the fifteen people remaining on the stern. The rescue of the people required a great deal of effort. An important role in this rescue was played by lifeboat Captain

Martijn Sperling Martijn may refer to: * Martijn (given name), a Dutch given name (including a list of people with the name) * Vereniging Martijn Vereniging Martijn (; "Martijn Association"; stylized as MARTIJN) was a Dutch association that advocated the societ ...

who used a small boat to reach the North Pier and ascend its iron beacon, from where he was able to throw ropes to the deck of the wreck to rescue 11 of the survivors. Captain Sperling then took a

yawl A yawl is a type of boat. The term has several meanings. It can apply to the rig (or sailplan), to the hull type or to the use which the vessel is put. As a rig, a yawl is a two masted, fore and aft rigged sailing vessel with the mizzen mast p ...

from the salvage vessel ''Van der Tak'' alongside the wreck to rescue the remaining three survivors, all female. Both Alberts Frères and the English firm The Warwick Trading Company filmed these events; their films are considered to be the only film of a current event in the Netherlands that attracted international attention in the early years of

cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking * ...

Aftermath

The correct number of persons on board the ferry at that time was apparently not immediately known. Estimates in English newspapers ranged from 128 to 180 persons on board. It is now known that 128 of 144 persons on board were killed, including about 40 crew members. The ''Berlin'' tragedy was a very large disaster for its time, and the investigation into it became the standard for later government investigations of shipping accidents. Following the disaster, the Railway Passengers Assurance Company, Ltd., now part of

Aviva Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 18 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general ...

, paid out £8,600, its largest single loss at the time. Of the 128 people killed, 10 were insured by the company, with three holding general accident policies and seven holding boat and rail tickets.

Notable passengers

One notable passenger was Mr. Herbert, a

King's Messenger The Corps of King's Messengers (or Corps of Queen's Messengers during the reign of a female monarch) are couriers employed by the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). They hand-carry secret and important documents to Br ...

travelling with diplomatic bags, including ones for Berlin,

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, and

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

. The Tehran bag contained belongings of the Persian Prince ala-as-Saltanch: his jewelled

sword A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...

and his decorations including the insignia of the

Knight Grand Commander Grand Cross is the highest class in many orders, and manifested in its insignia. Exceptionally, the highest class may be referred to as Grand Cordon or equivalent. In other cases, there may exist a rank even higher than Grand Cross, e.g. Gra ...

of the

Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order (french: Ordre royal de Victoria) is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the British monarch, Canadian monarch, Australian monarch, o ...

. Although it is believed that Mr Herbert's body was recovered on 16 March 1907, his family asked for it to be treated as unidentified. The sword was recovered in early April 1907. A second notable victim was Hendrik Spijker of the

Spyker Spyker or Spijker was a Dutch carriage, automobile and aircraft manufacturer, started in 1880 by blacksmiths Jacobus and Hendrik-Jan Spijker. Originally located in Hilversum, the company relocated to Trompenburg, Amsterdam in 1898. Notable produ ...

car company. Following his death in the sinking, investigations revealed that the company′s finances were in a parlous state, leading to the company declaring

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

. William Dearborn Munroe, general manager of the

Arctic Coal Company Arctic Coal Company was a coal mining company that operated mines at Longyearbyen (then Longyear City) in Svalbard, Norway, between 1906 and 1916. The American industrialist John Munro Longyear visited Spitsbergen as a tourist in 1901, where he m ...

, and Lotte Wetterling, wife of the opera singer Theodor Bertram, also drowned in the wreck.Hartnell, Cameron C
"Arctic Network Builders: the Arctic Coal Company's Operations on Spitsbergen and Its Relationship with the Environment."
Dissertation, Michigan Technological University, 2009, p. 92.Kutsch, Karl-Josef and Riemens, Leo (2004)
"Bertram, Theodor"
''

Großes Sängerlexikon ''Großes Sängerlexikon'' (''Biographical Dictionary of Singers'', literally: Large singers' lexicon) is a single-field dictionary of singers in classical music, edited by Karl-Josef Kutsch and Leo Riemens and first published in 1987. The first ...

'' (4th edition), p. 387. Walter de Gruyter.

Cultural references

The Dutch television program ''

Andere Tijden ''Andere Tijden'' (''Other''/''Different Times'') is a history programme on Dutch television of the NTR and VPRO. There is also a version of the programme called ''Andere Tijden Sport'', which shows programmes about sports history. ''Andere Tijden ...

'' showed rare film footage of the disaster on 1 March 2007.

External links

*
Details of passengers
(Old Mersey Times)
Uitzending van Andere Tijden over de ramp met de BerlinDe Schipbreuk van de "Berlin"
- beschrijving door Pisuisse
A youtube film relating to the sinking

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berlin (1894) Steamships of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in 1907 Passenger ships of the United Kingdom Merchant ships of the United Kingdom Ships of the Great Eastern Railway 1907 in the United Kingdom 1894 ships Ships built in Kingston upon Hull Shipwrecks of the Netherlands