by Liz Mechem
Copyright © 2009 Langenscheidt Publishing Group and Moseley Road Inc.
First Skyhorse Publishing edition 2014
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
ISBN: 978-1-62914-177-0
eISBN: 978-1-62914-278-4
Printed in China
Miranda - The Tempest by John William Waterhouse, 1916
O, I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel
(Who had no doubt some noble creature in her)
Dashed all to pieces! O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished!
—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, The Tempest
CONTENTS
SHIPWRECKS AROUND THE WORLD
Down into the Depths
1 · NATURE’S FURY
The San Agustin
Spanish Treasure off the California Coast
Nuestra Señora de Atocha
Sunken Treasure in the Florida Keys
The 1715 Treasure Fleet
The Wreck of the Wealth of the Indies
The Essex
Rendezvous with the Leviathan
USS Monitor
The Ill-Fated Ironclad
The General Grant
Gold, Castaways, and Sealskin Suits
RMS Rhone
Haunted Wreck of the Caribbean
USS Wateree
Shipwreck on Land
HMS Erebus and HMS Terror
Vanished
The Endurance
The Greatest Antarctic Rescue of All Time
SHIPPING IN THE ARCTIC
SS Edmund Fitzgerald
Tragedy on Lake Superior
2 · THE FATAL FLAW
The Vasa
Royal Sweden’s Vainglorious Jewel
The Medusa
Betrayal and Brutality
SS Metropolis
A Pitiful Ruin on the Outer Banks
SS Eastland
Summer Outing Turned to Ruin
SS Princess Sophia
Alaska’s Greatest Tragedy
MS Estonia
Death in the Baltic
MV Le Joola
A Modern African Tragedy
The Prestige
Europe’s Deadliest Oil Spill
ECOSYSTEM WRECKS
MS al-Salam Boccaccio
Betrayal on the Red Sea
3 · COLLISION COURSE
The Tek Sing
The Ill-fated True Star
HMS Birkenhead
Chivalry to The Last Man
RMS Titanic
Pride Goes Before a Fall
WRECK DIVING
RMS Empress of Ireland
Collision in the Fog
SS Mont-Blanc
A Disaster for the Ages
The Andrea Doria
Last of the Great Luxury Liners
MV Doña Paz
Collision with an Inferno
4 · PIRACY, MUTINY, AND SKULLDUGGERY
The Batavia
Starvation, Treachery, and Murder
The Henrietta Marie
A Slave Ship Disappears
The Whydah
From Slave Galley to Pirate Ship
The Queen Anne’s Revenge
Blackbeard’s Flagship
PIRATES
HMS Bounty
Mutiny in the South Pacific
SS Tonquin
From Trapping to Terror
The Golden Venture
Smuggled Human Cargo
5 · CASUALTIES OF WAR
The Mary Rose
Grand Warship of Henry VIII
The Spanish Armada
Might of an Empire
L’Orient
Napoleon’s Flagship
WARSHIPS IN THE AGE OF SAIL
RMS Lusitania
U-boat Attack
HMHS Britannic
The Titanic’s Unlucky Sister
RMS Laurentic
Secret Cargo
KMS Bismarck
Third Reich Leviathan
USS Arizona
Firestorm in Paradise
MV Wilhelm Gustloff
The World’s Deadliest Maritime Disaster
USS Indianapolis
Secret Mission, Silent Demise
ARA General Belgrano
Conflict at the Bottom of the World
6 · MYSTERY!
The Santa Maria
Lost Ships of Columbus
The Trinidad
California’s Mystery Caravel
The Monongahela
Here Be Dragons
The Mary Celeste
The Phantom Crew
SS Waratah
Into Thin Air
SS Tubantia
Sunken Treasure?
SS Carroll A. Deering
Mystery Ship
THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE
SS Andaste
The Lake Never Gives Up Her Dead
7 · BLAZE OF GLORY
USS Princeton
Explosion on the Potomac
SS Sultana
America’s Worst Shipwreck
USS Maine
“Remember the Maine!”
The General Slocum
Inferno on the East River
FIREBOATS
8 · LEGENDS OF THE DEEP
Noah’s Ark
Wrecks of the Old Testament
Ship of Faith
Shipwreck of the Apostle Paul
Skuldelev Ships
Secrets of the Fjord
The Lost Fleet
Kublai Khan’s Navy
Ship of Air
The Phantom Wreck of New Haven
The Flying Dutchman
Ghost Ship
SUPERNATURAL AT SEA
The Final Word
Lost at Sea
Further Reading
Index
Acknowledgments and Credits
DOWN INTO THE DEPTHS
A raging storm and rough seas batter the man-o’-war Ridderschap (right) and the Hollandia (left) against menacing rocks in the Strait of Gibraltar. The ships left Gibraltar in February 1694, never to be seen again.
Whenever a ship departs from shore, its crew members must fear that they will not return—and it has always been so. Yet, whatever treasures the journey promises, whatever glory awaits in battle or discovery, these possible rewards always seems to outweigh the real risks. The sea itself is a charming companion, and, in the Age of Sail—and even beyond—it was a common conceit for sea captains to call it (or their ships) “mistress.”
DANGER AHEAD
Most ships return safely to port. Yet, unfortunately, many do not. Storms, shoals, currents, human errors and arrogance, warfare, and piracy have brought down ships for millennia. Many shipwrecks vanished into the depths, never to be found again. Undoubtedly, we do not even know where to look for
quite a few of these. Some famous ships—among them Christopher Columbus’s most famous vessel, the Santa Maria—have eluded discovery despite centuries of investigation. Others, such as the Mary Celeste and the Carroll A. Deering, did not wreck at all, but their inexplicable reappearances, bereft of crew, have given rise to mysteries as yet unsolved in the ocean’s vastness.
Some shipwrecks rank among history’s greatest and most famous tragedies. The Titanic assuredly leads in this, but the Andrea Doria, the USS Indianapolis, and the Lusitania join the famously doomed ocean liner. Others have not received the attention that they deserve, such as the Wilhelm Gustloff, sunk at the end of World War II, taking with it 9,000 lives. The circumstances of some shipwrecks, notably the HMS Birkenhead and its self-sacrificing crew and passengers, inspire us, while others, particularly the Medusa and the brutality shown aboard its raft, only evoke revulsion. Some shipwrecks are remarkable for the perseverance of their crews, such as the aptly named Endurance, while others, such as the equally aptly named Erebus and Terror, are notable primarily for the tragedies that befell their crews after they sank.
Some shipwrecks, such as the sinking of the Vasa in Stockholm Harbor in 1628 or the capsizing of the SSEastland in the Chicago River in 1915 (above), happen before the eyes of horrified witnesses, who are unable to stop the disaster.
FROM MOTHER NATURE TO THE SUPERNATURAL
This book delves into some of the world’s most amazing shipwrecks, exploring their histories and, in turn, what has happened to their remains. Chapter 1 covers the tragedies caused by Mother Nature, whether her wrath descended in the form of a hurricane, tidal wave, or crushing ice. Chapter 2 reveals the tragedies of human error, and chapter 3 continues in the same vein with tales of terrible collisions, be they with massive icebergs, hidden rocks, or other ships. Chapters 4 and 5 also concern shipwrecks fated by human design, tracing the thrilling exploits of the piracy age and the glories and horrors of war on the high seas. Shipwrecks with stranger tales to tell can be found in chapter 6, with all the haunting mysteries of the sea—from ghost ships to sea serpents to outright disappearances. Chapter 7 covers the ships lost to one of sailors’ most persistent—and justifiable—fears, that of fire at sea, while chapter 8 moves out of modern history and into legend, myth, and the ancient world.
Some ships, such as the HMS Rhone, which sank in the waters off the British Virgin Islands during a hurricane in 1867, leave long-lasting skeletons that prove irresistible to both amateur and professional wreck divers.
All shipwrecks, whether for their stories, their drama, or the ancient treasures that they promise, draw us to them as markers of watery graves, pointed history lessons, or curious mysteries. Their ghostly silence cannot still our fascination with their rotting decks or rusting turrets, once trod and manned by unlucky sailors. Nor, perhaps, should it: for as long as we travel the unconquerable sea, it will claim both ships and lives. Our best hope for survival on the waves is to learn the lessons they bequeath, and the only honor we can give to the lives they have claimed is a promise to never forget them.
Shipwrecks have long captured the human imagination, and many writers have taken up the task of chronicling the countless tales of downed ships throughout history. Although many remain obscure, certain ships have an immediate lure, as demonstrated by The Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters, published in 1912, the very year the famously “unsinkable” ship sank in the North Atlantic.
1 · NATURE’S FURY
The Shipwreck by Hendrik Kobell, 1775
The San Agustin
SPANISH TREASURE OFF THE CALIFORNIA COAST
Sixteenth-century Spanish traders did a brisk business navigating between two colonial outposts on the Pacific Ocean. In the Philippines, they traded East Asian goods, such as silk and porcelain, and in New Spain (Mexico), they bartered for silver and gold. The San Agustin, a three-masted, 80-foot (24 m) Manila galleon, was one such treasure ship. She holds the distinction of being the oldest known shipwreck off the coast of California.
The San Agustin departed Manila in July 1595. Bound for Acapulco, she carried treasure from her home port in the Philippines. King Philip II of Spain had ordered Captain Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeño to chart the coast of California, in hope of finding a safe harbor. The galleon reached Cape Mendocino, near the Oregon border, and from there she continued south along the foggy coast. Coming around the treacherous waters of Point Reyes in November 1595, the San Agustin put in at Drake’s Bay, just north of San Francisco. With the San Agustin safely moored in the bay, Captain Cermeño took most of his crew on shore to explore.
Early explorers believed California to be an island, as shown on this c. 1650 European map.
The rocky, often fogbound, California coast proved treacherous for ships unfamiliar with its waters. Even today, with far more advanced tracking systems, rogue waves and strange currents still regularly claim ships and lives.
Three weeks after the San Agustin dropped anchor, though, a fierce southeaster blew in, dashing apart the ship and killing two crewmen. The storm left Captain Cermeño and his men stranded on an unfamiliar shore, their 150 tons (136 metric tons) of treasure sunk to the bottom of the Pacific. The wreck of the San Agustin has never been found, but bits of blue Chinese porcelain and other artifacts likely from the lost galleon have washed ashore in Drake’s Bay. Archaeologists and federal agencies renewed the active search for the San Agustin in 1997, and she remains a shipwreck ripe for discovery.
Between 1565 and 1815, so-called Manila galleons (galleons that traveled between Manila and Acapulco, Mexico) brought Filipino and East Asian goods to the rest of the Spanish Empire for profits of from 100 to 300 percent.
TO MEXICO IN A PLANK BOAT
AFTER THE WRECK OF HIS SHIP, Captain Cermeño was faced with a near-mutinous crew of 76 men, stranded on a beach some 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from their destination in New Spain. Crew members’ letters and journals and the captain’s own log document their incredible passage to safety.
Cermeño decided to press on toward Acapulco by any means necessary. During their three weeks ashore, the crew members of the San Agustin had been assembling a small plank boat, called a vicoro, intended for inland exploration. Captain, crew, and one dog piled into the rickety craft and headed south. Navigating out to sea, they would have drifted past the perennially fogbound San Francisco Bay, one of the world’s safest natural harbors. Two months later, in January 1596, the vicoro arrived safely in Acapulco. Cermeño had lost the king’s ship and a fortune in goods, and he had failed to discover the sought-for safe harbor, but his fortitude had saved his crew.
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
Drake’s Bay in California is named for the swashbuckling English privateer Sir Francis Drake (1540–95), who roamed the seas plundering Spanish ships.
A 1628 relief map of Acapulco’s port. Now a major tourist city in Mexico, Acapulco was New Spain’s primary western port for centuries.
Nuestra Señora de Atocha
SUNKEN TREASURE IN THE FLORIDA KEYS
Guns and cannons can protect against pirates and buccaneers, but they are no match for a ferocious hurricane. The hundreds who perished on the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha learned this bitter lesson. The Atocha was one of a fleet of 28 ships to leave Havana in 1622, laden with precious metals and other bounty of the New World destined for the coffers of the Spanish crown.
The voyage across the Atlantic to Spain was perilous, but never more so than in the initial stretch. Pirates, who roamed the Caribbean, frequently targeted treasure-laden galleons, so armed escort boats accompanied each fleet. The 112-foot (34 m), three-masted Atocha served her fleet as almiranta, or heavily armed rear guard. Because she was so well protected by firepower—including 20 bronze cannons—she carried a ransom in treasure. Experts believe that the Atocha carried some 24 tons (22 metric tons) of silver bullion, 125 gold bars and coins, and huge measures of copper, tobacco, indigo, and jewels.
Violent storms on the open sea, eve
n more so than pirates, made sailing dangerous. Here, a painting of ships in a rising storm by Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633–1707) highlights the danger of tall waves.
On September 4, 1622, the fleet set sail, weeks later than it intended. That night and the following morning, the wind began to rise, and the flotilla made for the calm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The Atocha, along with two other ships in the rear guard, didn’t make it. High winds and monstrous waves drove the Santa Margarita, the Nuestra Señora del Rosario, and the Atocha onto a coral reef near the Dry Tortugas. With 260 souls and tons of treasure aboard, the Atocha, her hull badly damaged, sank in only 55 feet (17 m) of water. Five men who clung to the mizzenmast survived to tell the tale.
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
“Once you have seen the ocean bottom paved with gold, you’ll never forget it.”
—Mel Fisher (1922–98)
Gold doubloons and silver reales. The Atocha would have carried a fortune in such Spanish coins.
THE SALVAGE OF THE ATOCHA
Days after the Atocha sank, rescue teams attempted to salvage her sunken treasure. But another hurricane blew in, tearing the standing masts and sterncastle from the hull, and obliterating any trace of her whereabouts. Searchers found her sister ship, the Santa Margarita, in 1626, and salvaged much of her treasure. But the Atocha faded from memory, too far submerged to hope for recovery.
Three centuries later, though, hope drove wreck diver Mel Fisher to search for the Atocha. Fisher and his crew had already helped discover the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet (see pages 18–19), and his success now led him to a greater challenge: the Atocha. Most rescue efforts had focused on “the last key of the Matecumbes,” the location noted by seventeenth-century records. In 1985, after nearly 16 years of searching, Fisher discovered the Atocha and her sunken treasure near Florida’s remote Marquesas Keys. A legal battle ensued, with both the United States government and the State of Florida laying claim to the bounty. Finally, the court ruled in favor of Mel Fisher. Many of the Atocha’s treasures are now housed in a museum in Key West, Florida.
The Dry Tortugas, now a United States national park, change constantly under the pressures of wind and water, making them difficult to chart and safely navigate.
The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West, Florida, houses artifacts from several shipwrecks, including the Henrietta Marie and the Atocha.
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
MEL FISHER HAD PERSISTENCE, SKILL, AND DRIVE, but he also had the right tools for the job. He invented a device he called a “mailbox,” which sent a stream of clear water down to the ocean floor, enabling treasure hunters to spot their quarry. Fisher also used a proton magnetometer, a highly sensitive form of magnetometer. These devices are commonly used in archaeology; they measure variations in the earth’s magnetic field, indicating the presence of ferrous objects, or metals.
