SS Arctic

The SS Arctic was a 3,000-ton Paddle steamer in the Collins Line steamships. A sister-ship to the SS Pacific that went into service in 1852, the ship was at the time the largest and most splendid of the line and was in operation in the Liverpool packet. It sank 27 September 1854, off Cape Race, Newfoundland, after colliding with the 250 ton French iron screw steamer SS Vesta in the fog.

Sinking

After the collision, the captain of the Arctic left the scene, thinking it would be safer to steam toward land. The bows of the Vesta were heavily damaged but her forward bulkhead was not breached, and after her crew had shored it up she was able to proceed cautiously. When the French vessel reached land, the captain was told that the Arctic did not make it back.

Casualties included 92 of her 153 officers and men, and all her women and children passengers, including the wife, the only daughter, and the youngest son of Collins Line manager Edward Knight Collins. The total lost was near 400. The tragedy hit the public quite hard in 1854 due to stories of cowardice by crew members, who took over some of the life boats. The fact that no women or children survived did not sit well with the American public. In a search for heroes in the disaster the Americans noted the bravery of young Stewart Holland, who stood on the sinking ship's deck firing (at intervals) the distress cannon, until the ship went under water. Holland did not survive. The ship's Captain, James C. Luce, survived the disaster with another man clinging to one of the ship's paddlewheel boxes, but Luce's son died in the wreck. At one point nearly 30 people were floating on a raft from the ship's deck, but due to waves and exhaustion only two were alive the following morning to be rescued. Yet one gentleman, from Mississippi, managed to make his own small raft, and was rescued the next day.^[1]

Frederick Catherwood, a famous English artist and architect of his time, best remembered for his meticulously detailed drawings of the ruins of the Maya civilization was lost. He was 55 years old.

In The History of Smith & Wellstood Ltd Ironfounders it is recorded that James Smith the company's founder was on board the Arctic. James found a raft shortly after entering the water and managed to drag himself on it. The raft was tiny and with every wave James felt his chances of survival diminish. It was at this time he saw a basket that had been used for storing plate. He paddled over towards it and managed to hoist the basket onto the raft. He squeezed inside the basket for protection against the elements. Eventually he was rescued by the barque, Cambria, outward bound from Greenock. James had a cooking stoves and ranges tinware factory on State Street, Jackson, Mississippi and was on his way back to America to hand this business over to his brother. ^[2]

At the time of the disaster the United States Merchant Marine, with its fleets of clipper ships and the Collins' Liners (then the fastest and most luxurious afloat) controlled the Atlantic trade. But Edward Collins depended on U.S. government subsidies based on carrying the mails to and from Europe. The "Arctic" was one of a fleet of ships, and had been one of the prides of the line, but its destruction was the first serious blow to Collins' reputation. It would be followed in two years by the disappearance of the SS Pacific in 1856. The ending of the Crimean War released the energies of Collins' English rival, Samuel Cunard, to fight for English predominance in the Atlantic Trade. Cunard won this by the end of the decade.^[3]

There is a large monument in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York, dedicated to all who lost their lives. It is dedicated to the Brown Family who lost several family members in the tragedy. A photo of it appears in Women and Children Last showing it is in a church steeple style monument, and has a stone model inside of the steamer foundering in the sea.

The last living survivor, Thomas Baker (born 5 March 1838) was 16 at the time of the sinking and survived by clinging to wreckage. He died on February 7, 1911 at the age of 73 in Memphis, Tennessee.

References