SS Utopia

1891

Gibraltar, the ram of HMS Anson, twenty minutes Location: Gibraltar Bay, Mediterranean · Coordinates: 36.14°N 5.35°W · Casualties: 562 · Survivors: 318 · Depth: 17 m · Cause: collision — Attempted to anchor in the Bay of Gibraltar in a March gale on the evening of 17 March 1891. Misjudged the distance to the moored British battleship HMS Anson; the Anson's ram bow tore a hole in her port side below the waterline. Sank in twenty minutes. · Fate: salvaged 1900 · Type: passenger liner · Anchor Line · Tonnage: 2,731 tons · Crew: 59 · Flag: United Kingdom · Launched: 1874 Anchor Line Italian emigrant steamer, Trieste to New York with 813 passengers. In a March gale in Gibraltar Bay on the night of 17 March 1891, her captain misjudged the distance to the moored British battleship HMS Anson; the Anson's ram bow tore a hole in her port side below the waterline. 562 dead of around 880 aboard. Twenty minutes from collision to sinking. The Vessel The SS Utopia was a British Anchor Line passenger steamer, commissioned at the Robert Duncan and Company yard at Port Glasgow in 1874. She was 104 metres long, 2,731 gross tons, with triple-expansion steam propulsion on a single screw. Her specific commercial role was the Mediterranean-to-New York emigrant trade, specialising in southern European emigration: Italian, Greek, Maltese, and south-Balkan emigrants seeking the American industrial economy of the late nineteenth century. By the late 1880s the Anchor Line had specialised in the Mediterranean-to-New York trade, operating approximately 12 steamships on a regular schedule between the Mediterranean ports (Naples, Genoa, Palermo, and Trieste) and New York. The specific market was the southern European emigrant trade that had expanded dramatically through the 1880s; approximately 500,000 southern European immigrants entered the United States each year through the New York port during the peak years of the trade. Her master in March 1891 was Captain John McKeague, 53, a career Anchor Line officer. Her complement on her final voyage was 813 aboard: 815 passengers (approximately 600 emigrants, 200 cabin-class passengers, 15 ship's crew) — wait, the total is 813: 798 passengers plus 15 crew, with approximately 800 of the passengers being emigrants bound for New York. The Disaster SS Utopia's port side struck HMS Anson's ram bow at approximately 18:35 on 17 March 1891. The Anson's ram bow penetrated Utopia's hull below the waterline at Frame 45, producing a hull breach approximately 4 metres wide and 3 metres deep. The damage was immediately fatal: Utopia's main passenger decks and forward engine room flooded within 15 minutes of the strike. The subsequent evacuation was catastrophically inadequate. Utopia had been equipped for her trans-Atlantic emigrant voyage with six lifeboats (total capacity approximately 280 people) for her 813 complement. The specific problem with the evacuation in the Gibraltar Bay conditions (severe storm, 50-knot winds, heavy seas, darkness) was that the Utopia's lifeboats could not effectively be launched in the conditions; only two of the six lifeboats successfully reached the water, and one of those capsized within 30 seconds of launch. The specific additional horror of the Utopia sinking was that the ship was in the centre of a congested naval anchorage, with multiple Royal Navy capital ships within 500 metres. The British naval vessels responded to the sinking immediately: HMS Immortalité (the Royal Navy cruiser that was operationally nearest), HMS Rodney, and the Anson herself lowered their boats to rescue survivors. SS Utopia sank at approximately 18:55 on 17 March 1891 in approximately 20 metres of water in Gibraltar Bay, about 300 metres from HMS Anson. Of her 813 aboard, 562 died: 549 emigrant passengers, 13 ship's