Man on the Ocean by Robert Michael Ballantyne (web ebook reader TXT) 📕

lifting the anchors broke down, and one of the anchors refusing to let go, was broken in half. The condenser of the paddle engines seems to have been proved too small in this trip. For some time she went against a stiff head-wind and sea-- which is now well known to be the great ship's forte--with perfect steadiness; but on getting into the channel she rolled slowly but decidedly, as if bowing--acknowledging majestically the might of the Atlantic's genuine swell. Here, too, a wave actually overtopped her towering hull, and sent a mass of _green_ water inboard! But her roll was peculiarly her own, and wonderfully easy.

The vessel made eighteen knots an hour. She was under perfect command, even in narrow and intricate channels, and, despite her varied mishaps and trials, passed through this stormy period of her infancy with credit.

_Disaster to "Great Eastern" in September 1861_.--Having made three successful voyages to America, the Great Eastern, after all her troubles, was beginning to establish her reputation, to confirm the hopes of her friends and silence the cavils of her enemies, when the bad fortune that has been her portion from the cradle once more overwhelmed her, and shook, if it did not altogether destroy, the confidence in her capabilities which the public had been beginning tardily to entertain.

There is nothing more difficult to ascertain than the true state of the case--with reference to culpability, accidental circumstance, inherent or incidental weakness, negligence, unavoidable risks, etcetera--in such a disaster as that which happened to the great ship in September of 1861. And nothing could be more unfair than to pass judgment on her without a full knowledge of the minute particulars, and, moreover, a pretty fair capacity to understand such details and their various relations. Before proceeding with the narrative of the event referred to, we may remark that while, on the one hand, it may be argued, with great plausibility, that her numerous disasters and misfortunes prove that she is unfitted for the navigation of the sea, it may, on the other hand, be argued, with equal plausibility, that the very fact of her having come through such appalling trials unconquered, though buffeted, is strong presumptive evidence that she is eminently fitted for her work, and that, under ordinary circumstances and _proper_ management, she would do it well. It is believed that any other vessel afloat would have been sunk had she been exposed to the same storm _under similar circumstances_. It must be borne in mind that, although other vessels weathered the same storm successfully, they did not do so with their rudder and rudder-posts gone, their captains and part of their crews new to them, and their chain cables, cabin furniture, and other material left as totally unsecured as if she had been a river steamer about to start on a few hours' trip.

On Tuesday the 10th of September the _Great Eastern_ left Liverpool for America with 400 passengers and a large, though not a full, general cargo. Between 100 and 200 of the passengers occupied the berths in the principal cabins; the remainder of them occupied the intermediate and steerage cabins.

All went on prosperously until the Thursday, when, as the ship was in full steam and sail, she encountered a terrific gale about 280 miles to the west of Cape Clear, and, in spite of the best seamanship, she failed to ride over the storm, which, with tremendous fury, swept away both her paddles. Simultaneously the top of the rudder-post, a bar of iron ten inches in diameter, was suddenly wrenched off, and her steering gear being also carried away, she broached to and lay like a huge log in the trough of the sea. From Thursday evening until two o'clock on Sunday, her bulwarks almost touching the water, she rolled about like a disabled hulk, the passengers and crew expecting that she would every moment go down. The working and rolling of the vessel, at one instant of dread, displaced and destroyed all the furniture of the cabin and saloons, and, broke it to pieces, throwing the passengers pell-mell about the cabin. Everything that occupied the upper deck was washed away, and a large part of the passengers' luggage was destroyed. Between twenty and thirty of those who were on board, including several ladies, had limbs and ribs fractured, with numerous cuts and bruises. One of the cow-sheds, with two cows in it, was washed into the ladies' cabin, together with other things on board, and caused indescribable consternation and confusion.

On Sunday evening, after two days of terrible suspense, a temporary steering gear was fitted up, and the disabled vessel with her distressed crew made for Cork Harbour, steaming with her screw at nine knots an hour. Her flag of distress was sighted at about three o'clock in the afternoon of Tuesday, off the Old Head of Kinsale, and H.M. ship _Advice_ at once steamed out to her assistance and towed her to within a mile of the lighthouse off Cork Harbour by about nine o'clock.

Such is a general outline of this disaster--one which is rendered all the more remarkable from the circumstance that the vessel had only been recently surveyed by the officers of the marine department of the Board of Trade, when new decks and other requirements were carried out and completed at a cost of 15,000 pounds.

The scene during the storm in the grand saloon, as described in detail by various passengers, was absolutely terrific. None of the furniture had been secured, and when the gale became violent and the rolling of the vessel increased, sideboards, tables, chairs, stools, crockery, sofas, and passengers were hurled with fearful violence from side to side in a promiscuous heap. When it is said that at each roll the top platform of the paddle-boxes dipped into the sea, anyone who has seen the towering sides of the _Great Eastern_ may form some conception of the angle of the decks, and the riot of unfastened articles that continued below during the greater part of the gale. The destruction was universal. The largest mirror in the grand saloon, which was about twelve feet high, was smashed to pieces by a gentleman going head foremost into it. Although much bruised and cut, strange to say he was not seriously injured. The chandeliers fell from the ceiling, and the crashes they made in falling added to the general din. One of the other mirrors was smashed by a large stove. Some of the passengers escaping from the dining-room were dashed against the iron balconies, which gave way with the pressure, and falling on the glass flooring at the sides, dashed it to atoms. The noise and turmoil of destruction below, together with the howling of the tempest above and the dashing of spray over the decks, whence it flowed in copious streams down into the cabins, formed a scene which cannot be fully conceived except by those who witnessed it.

On deck, the confusion was equally great and destructive. Many of the boats were carried away. The great chain cables rolled from side to side, until they were actually polished bright by the friction, while they were a source of perpetual danger to the crew in the performance of their duties. The oil-tanks broke loose, and after tumbling about for a time, fell down through the upper hatchway. And the two cows that fell with their cow-shed down into the ladies' cabin were killed by the violence of the shock. The chief cook was flung against one of the paddle-boxes, and having put out his hand to save himself, had his wrist sprained. He was then flung towards the other side, and coming against a stanchion in the way, had his leg fractured in three places. One lady had a rib fractured; another her shoulder dislocated; another her wrist. These are only specimens, selected to show what the poor people were subjected to. It is said that there were twenty-two fractures altogether, among passengers and crew, besides innumerable cuts and bruises. The cabins were flooded to the depth of several feet, and broken articles of furniture floated about everywhere. The luggage in the luggage-room, which had not been secured, was hurled about, until trunks, boxes, valises, etcetera, striking against each other, and against the sides of the compartment, were utterly destroyed--the very leather of the trunks being torn into small shreds.

Throughout all this terrible scene, the passengers behaved, with one or two exceptions, admirably. The ladies especially displayed great courage--remaining, in accordance with the desires intimated to them, in their cabins; while the gentlemen did their best to keep order. On the Friday, they appointed a sort of committee or police force, of upwards of twenty strong, who took the duty in turns of going round the vessel, keeping order, carrying information to, and reassuring, the ladies and children. Four only of these, who were called directors, had the privilege of speaking to the captain during the storm--thus saving him from the annoyance of repeated and ceaseless questioning.

The crew also did their duty nobly. Captain Walker acted throughout with calmness, courage, and good judgment; and from the tenor of resolutions passed at an indignation meeting, held by the passengers after their return into port, it would appear that they entirely exonerated him from any blame in reference to the disaster. The fitting up of temporary steering gear, which was begun on the Sunday when the storm moderated, was a work of great difficulty and danger. It was accomplished chiefly through the courage and cleverness of two men--John Carroll and Patrick Grant--who volunteered for it, and were let down over the stern at the imminent risk of their lives; and an American gentleman, Mr Towle, a civil engineer, rendered great assistance in superintending and directing the work.

It was not until two o'clock on Sunday morning that the vessel got up steam in her screw boilers, and steered for Cork Harbour. The whole of the ironwork of both paddle-wheels was carried entirely away. The ladder leading up to the larboard paddle-box was twisted in an extraordinary manner. The boats on the starboard side were all gone, and those on the other side were hanging loosely from their fastenings. Altogether, the great ship presented a most melancholy spectacle as she was towed into port.

At the meeting of the passengers already referred to, the first resolution was expressive of their grateful acknowledgments to Almighty God for his kind care in protecting them during the storm, and bringing them in safety out of their danger. The second condemned the directors, and stated that "the _Great Eastern_ was sent to sea thoroughly unprepared to face the storms which everyone must expect to meet with in crossing the Atlantic; and that, if it had not been for the extraordinary strength of the hull, and the skill which was manifested in the construction of the vessel and its engines, in all human probability every soul on board would have perished."

It has been said that if the ship had been more deeply laden she would have weathered the gale more easily. This, if true, is an argument in her favour. But in viewing the whole circumstances of this and previous disasters, we cannot avoid being deeply impressed with the fact that the _Great Eastern had not up to that time had fair play_. In her construction and general arrangements there have been some grave, and numerous more or less trivial errors. From first to last there has been a good deal of gross mismanagement; but