Deutschland (1866)
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''Deutschland'' was an iron passenger
steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...
of the Norddeutscher Lloyd line, built by
Caird & Company Caird & Company was a Scottish shipbuilding and engineering firm based in Greenock. The company was established in 1828 by John Caird when he received an order to re-engine Clyde paddle-tugs. John's relative James Tennant Caird joined the company ...
of
Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...
, Scotland in 1866.


History

''Deutschland'' was built as an emigrant passenger ship. She entered service on 7 October 1866 and arrived at New York on her maiden voyage on 28 October. On 8 August 1869, she collided with and sank the British
schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
''Mary Bottwood'' off Hastings,
Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
, United Kingdom, killing three of her four crew and rescuing the survivor.


Loss

The ''Deutschland'' sailed from Bremerhaven on 4 December 1875, commanded by Captain Eduard Brickenstein, with 123 emigrants bound for
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
via Southampton. Weather conditions were very bad with heavy snowstorms, and the ship had no clear idea of her position until, at 05:00 on 6 December, she ran aground in a blizzard on the
Kentish Knock The Kentish Knock is a long shoal (bank, shallows) in the North Sea east of Essex, England. It is the most easterly of those of the Thames Estuary and its core, which is shallower than , extends . Thus it is a major hazard to deep-draught navigat ...
, a
shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It ...
off
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 from Margate, from the Kentish Knock lightvessel, and out of sight from shore. At the time she was from where Captain Brickenstein estimated she was. Shortly before grounding, an attempt was made to go astern but this failed when the stress fractured the ship's propeller. Driven onto the sandbank, the vessel began to take on water and as the tide rose she failed to lift off the shoal as had been expected. When the sea began to break over her, and the wind rose to gale force, the order was given to abandon ship, causing some panic. One boat was launched, but was swamped, while a second boat, with the quartermaster, a sailor and a passenger aboard, went adrift and eventually reached shore on the Isle of Sheppey the next day with only the quartermaster left alive. The remaining boats were later washed away or destroyed by the stormy seas.
Distress rockets A flare, also sometimes called a fusée, fusee, or bengala in some Latin-speaking countries, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a bright light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for distress signaling, illumination, ...
were seen on the morning of 6 December by the Sunk lightship, which tried through the day to attract the attention of passing shipping, without success. Later, rockets from that light vessel were seen by another, whose own rockets were seen at Harwich in the evening, though neither the nature nor location of the casualty were known. The paddle
tug A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...
''Liverpool'' was dispatched at daylight on 7 December, reaching the ''Deutschland'' via the sequence of light vessels, and embarked all 173 still alive on the wreck.


Aftermath

Soon after the news of the disaster had broken, the wreck was raided by men from the nearby coastal towns, particularly Harwich and
Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to t ...
. An artist from the '' Illustrated London News'' produced an illustration of the scene which depicted the wreckers as resembling a flock of vultures. '' The Times'' also described the scene, saying that corpses had been ransacked, and their jewellery stolen. While there were some far-fetched suggestions that the ''Deutschland'' had been deliberately wrecked, there were well-founded allegations of deliberate delay in coming to the ship's assistance, as well as some of negligence. ''The Times'' published a leader which said that the ''Deutschland''s grounding had been known for 15 hours of the 30 hours it took for the tug ''Liverpool'' to come to her aid, and Captain Carrington, her master, was criticized for his slowness in acting. The
Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...
enquiry into the accident opened at
Poplar, London Poplar is a district in East London, England, the administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, borough of Tower Hamlets. Five miles (8 km) east of Charing Cross, it is part of the East End of London, East End. It is identi ...
, on 20 December. It was not usual to hold such an enquiry in the case of a foreign registered vessel being wrecked outside the three-mile limit, and it may have been done to respond to the criticisms which had been raised regarding the delay in coming to the ship's aid. Charles Butt QC, who had been briefed by the German government, stated that it was surprising that "a large steamer with upwards of 200 persons aboard should have lain on a dangerous sand close to the English coast for thirty hours before any assistance came to her". The enquiry eventually exonerated everyone of any blame except Captain Brickenstein, who, it was decided, had "let his vessel get ahead in its reckoning" and "shown a very great want of care and judgement". Brickenstein asked the German Chancellor
Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...
for an official German investigation, but this was ruled out. A wreck was found in 1969 on the northwestern side of Kentish Knock near the site of the disaster. It lies at a general depth of 14 m. While it could not be definitely identified, its size, condition, and items found by the maritime archeologist Andreas Stolpe in 2005 suggest that it is that of the ''Deutschland''.


Legacy

Among the victims of the shipwreck were five Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Hearts from Salzkotten, Westphalia, in the Kingdom of Prussia, who had been emigrating to the United States. This was both to escape the anti-Catholic
Falk Laws The Falk Laws or May Laws (German: ''Maigesetze'') of 1873–1875 were legislative bills enacted in the German Kingdom of Prussia during the Kulturkampf conflict with the Catholic Church. They were named after Adalbert Falk, the Prussian Minist ...
and to answer the need for nursing care in the German population of
St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
. Their deaths inspired
Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...
poet
Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame placed him among leading Victorian poets. His prosody – notably his concept of sprung rhythm – established him as an innovato ...
to compose the poem ''
The Wreck of the Deutschland ''The Wreck of the Deutschland'' is a 35-stanza ode by Gerard Manley Hopkins with Christian poetry, Christian themes, composed in 1875 and 1876, though not published until 1918. The poem depicts the shipwreck of the SS Deutschland (1866), SS ''D ...
''. Four of the five Sisters were buried in St. Patrick's Cemetery in Leytonstone, London, (a fifth whose body was never found is recorded on the memorial) and their deaths are commemorated every year in a memorial service held on 6 December in Wheaton, Illinois, by the Franciscan Sisters of their religious congregation now headquartered there.


See also

*
List of shipwrecks This is an index of lists of shipwrecks, sorted by different criteria. By location * List of shipwrecks of Africa * List of shipwrecks of Asia * List of shipwrecks of Europe ** List of shipwrecks of France ** List of shipwrecks of the Unit ...
*
List of United Kingdom disasters by death toll The following list of disasters in Great Britain and Ireland is a list of major disasters (excluding acts of war) which relate to the United Kingdom or Ireland, or to the states that preceded them, or that involved their citizens, in a definable ...


References

*


External links


''The Wreck of the Deutschland''
— the poem online {{DEFAULTSORT:Deutschland (1866) Shipwrecks in the North Sea Merchant ships of the Hanseatic League Steamships of Germany Shipwrecks of England Maritime incidents in December 1875 1875 in the United Kingdom Ships of Norddeutscher Lloyd 1866 ships