Cospatrick

1874

South Atlantic, the emigrant ship, cannibalism Location: South Atlantic, ~400 nmi SW of Cape Agulhas · Coordinates: 37.25°S 12.40°E · Casualties: ~470 · Survivors: 3 · Depth: destroyed · Cause: fire — Fire broke out in the forward hold in the early hours of 17 November 1874, probably from a lantern overturned among packing oil and oakum. The flames spread through the tinder-dry wooden hull within minutes. Most of the 477 aboard were trapped below before the boats could be launched. · Fate: destroyed · Type: emigrant clipper · Shaw, Savill & Co. · Tonnage: 1,220 tons · Crew: 44 · Flag: United Kingdom · Launched: 1856 British emigrant clipper, London to Auckland with 429 settlers and their provisions. Fire broke out in the forward hold in the early hours of 17 November 1874 in the South Atlantic. Two lifeboats got away with 62 of the 477 aboard; nine days later, three men were still alive, kept so by the flesh of their dead shipmates. Three survived of 477, and every British emigrant ship thereafter sailed with full lifeboat capacity. The Vessel The Cospatrick was a British wooden-hulled three-masted full-rigged ship, built at the Alexander Stephen & Sons yard at Dundee in 1856 and originally employed in the British India trade. She was 58 metres long, 1,220 gross tons, and had a carrying capacity of approximately 420 assisted-emigrant passengers. Her hull was built of teak and oak, following the standard British merchant practice for deep-water trading ships of the 1850s; she had been substantially rebuilt at Dundee in 1872 for emigrant-trade service. By 1874 she was owned by the Shaw, Savill & Company emigrant line and operated on the New Zealand emigrant route, which had been substantially expanded by the New Zealand government's 1872-1876 assisted-immigration programme. The New Zealand immigration programme had funded the passage of approximately 80,000 assisted emigrants from Britain to New Zealand over the five-year period; Cospatrick was one of approximately 40 emigrant ships engaged in the programme, and had completed two previous emigrant passages to New Zealand without substantial incident. Her master on her final voyage was Captain Alexander Elmslie, 42, a career merchant mariner of Scottish origin. Her complement on the final voyage was 42 crew and 430 assisted emigrants (predominantly British working-class emigrants from rural English and Scottish counties), a total of 472 aboard. The Disaster At approximately 00:30 on 17 November 1874, a fire was detected in the forward hold of Cospatrick by the watch on deck. The specific source of the ignition is unknown and was subsequently estimated by the Board of Trade inquiry to have been either a lamp left improperly trimmed, a spark from the ship's galley chimney, or spontaneous combustion of the oakum due to the combination of heat and moisture in the forward hold. The fire spread rapidly through the oakum and then to the paraffin barrels. Within approximately 20 minutes of the initial detection, the forward hold was fully engulfed in flame; the paraffin burned with extreme intensity, generating temperatures estimated at over 1,000 degrees Celsius that progressively compromised the ship's forward structure. The passengers, who had been asleep in the emigrant quarters amidships, were awakened by the shouts of the crew and by the smoke pouring aft from the forward hold. Captain Elmslie's response was standard: the ship's boats were launched, the passengers were mustered on the upper deck, and fire-fighting efforts were initiated. However, the fire was beyond the ship's fire-fighting capability within approximately 30 minutes; the pumps could not deliver sufficient water to the forward hold, and the paraffin-fuelled fire was spreading aft faster than the crew could contain it. Cospatrick had only five lifeboats aboard, for a complement of 472; the total lifeboat capacity was approximately 140 people. Three of the five lifeb