Let Glasgow Flourish: Shipwreck Series, #5

By Thomas G Clark

The Steamship City of Glasgow disappeared "without a trace " in March 1854 with 480 souls aboard. No bodies were ever recovered, and no wreckage was ever found. The ship simply vanished.

 

Left behind were family members pacing a Philadelphia wharf expecting her to arrive "any day". Newspapers from three continents excused her late arrival because of weather or mechanical breakdowns. 

 

The S.S. City of Glasgow remains one of the great mysteries of the 19th century. Until now.

 

Let Glasgow Flourish is a biography of The S.S. City of Glasgow's short life and postulates where and how she disappeared in the North Atlantic. Using accounts of her previous voyages to estimate her daily location and cross-referencing to sea and weather conditions, I believe her demise and approximate location have been determined. 

Included are many personal stories of the men and women who sailed with her starting from her maiden voyage in 1850 until her demise. Let Glasgow Flourish recounts the glory of her days up to her tragic disappearance. Many maps and images are included to provide a fulsome context of this great steamship lost to history "without a trace". 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Distinctive Press
• Release date: Sep 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215060650

Book preview

Preface

A penny rests in the palm of my left hand. The coin is large, about the size of an American quarter and dense for its size.

As I press my hand around it, I detect a noticeable chill, as if it is telling me that it comes from a place long ago and feels out of place in the present.

The image on the face is of a young Queen Victoria, uncrowned, looking to her left. The words VICTORIA DEI GRATIA – Victoria, by the Grace of God– circle her finely coiffed head. This Victoria looks nothing like the stern, matronly looking photograph that I always associated with her. This young woman appears to almost smile, suggesting youthful optimism, self-assurance and perhaps a sense of humor.

The coin’s other side depicts a helmeted and seated Britannia holding a trident, with a shield at her side. At the bottom is a rose, thistle, and shamrock. Running across the top of the coin is the monarch’s legend: Queen of the Britains, Defender of the Faith.

When I turn the coin over again, I notice it is marred by a deep scar running from the back of Victoria’s hairpin, through her neck and down towards the coin’s date of 1853. The gash is enough to expose the coppery luster offset against the coin’s otherwise ochre dullness.

As I run my index fingers along the edge, I wonder how many individuals have held this very coin. I’m not thinking of present-day numismatists or family members who passed a collectible down through generations. I’m thinking of British emigrants in 1853 or 1854.

I can’t help but think that a penny identical to this now rests at the bottom of the North Atlantic, lying in a first-class cabin or inside a rusting locker, lost forever in the darkness of the ocean’s depths.

***

Let Glasgow Flourish is the fourth in a series of nautical biographies I have written about important shipwrecks. Each of these shipwreck investigations has been unique in one sense, though they all share some commonalities.

Those tragedies were triggered by known causes: a fire at sea, a collision with an iceberg, an encounter with a vicious storm. For each of these calamities I was able to reconstruct the events through survivor accounts, government investigations, or ship’s logs. Although some of these sources were biased or inconsistent, I believe I was able to distill the true circumstances of each disaster and its aftermath.

But the disappearance of the City of Glasgow is an entirely different matter.

•  There were no survivors who could describe the cause of her demise.

•  No other ships traveling from Europe to North America were lost at that time.

•  No investigation was ever commissioned by a government or insurer to determine the cause.

•  And most troubling, no wreckage or flotsam from the ship was ever found.

––––––––

In short, she simply vanished without a trace.

***

My challenge writing Let Glasgow Flourish was not only gathering information about a ship that existed for four short years, but in determining when, where, and how she was lost.

In doing so, I took a novel approach. I worked with data points from 1854, sorted them by type, and overlaid the results against the City of Glasgow’s probable course.

The result was revealing.

By plotting the reported location of storms she likely encountered and other obstacles in her path, I believe I can determine not only where she is located, but also the cause of her demise.

However, my analysis is by no means perfect. Rather, it is intended to provide an approximation of her location. Furthermore, I cannot definitively establish the reason for her loss, but provide strong evidence that can explain why she disappeared so quickly, why she vanished without a trace.

My sincere hope of the research is to provide the reader with the story of a remarkable ship that was at the leading edge of the technology of her time, but ultimately succumbed to the harsh realities of a wintery passage in the North Atlantic.

I am hopeful that I have solved what some have characterized as one of the bottomless mysteries of the sea.

Introduction

At this very moment, somewhere in the lightless depths of the North Atlantic, lies the SS City of Glasgow, her iron hull resting awkwardly in the shifting sands. Oddly shaped marine life darts over her decks and through her once well-adorned passageways. Her black smokestack remains a few hundred yards away, the cyclical shape now crushed under tons of pressure.

Fittingly, an eerie silence has descended upon the City of Glasgow, for she mourns for herself, the men who built her, and the 450 souls she carried to the bottom.

In 1850, the City of Glasgow was launched to great fanfare. Up to 100,000 spectators lined the banks of the River Kelvin, reports say, and the city declared a holiday in her honor. Her arrivals in New York and Philadelphia were cause for great celebration, her commander the toast of the towns.

But today she is almost completely forgotten; a spare Wikipedia entry mentions her demise, although she is the fifth largest peacetime disaster in British maritime history. No book has been written exclusively about her, until now. 

***

Usually a book about a maritime calamity describes the details of how a ship was lost.

Was there a lapse of judgment by the captain and crew?

Did an engineering or construction defect contribute to her loss?

Did economic pressures force the ship to sea prematurely in adverse weather conditions?

Was she ravaged by fire?

Did a vicious storm overwhelm her?

Was a rogue wave responsible for her sinking?

Typically, these questions would be answered through survivor accounts. The accounts would be recorded by journalists and later reported in newspapers. Perhaps a formal investigative commission would be created by the insurance carrier or a maritime association.

Sadly, in this case, none of these exist.

***

In March 1854, the heavy ropes that moored the City of Glasgow to a River Mersey quay were released, allowing the huge steamship to begin another crossing of the Atlantic. She had completed the journey dozens of times without incident, always on schedule, and instilling in her passengers an air of invincibility.

This confidence was in large measure due to her innovative design. The City of Glasgow was the first iron-screw steamer engaged in the American trade and the first venture of the Inman Company. Her construction advanced the latest technology:

•  Her iron hull was considered strong and durable, certainly tougher and more resistant to wind and waves than the wooden packet ships.

•  Her twin-lever beam steam engines were reliable and economically efficient.

•  Her steam engine avoided the vagaries of wind power, allowing the vessel to keep to her plotted course and not be subject to frequent tacking because of changes in the wind.

•  Her screw propeller demonstrated it was a reliable alternative to paddle-wheel propulsion.

***

In short, the City of Glasgow made a voyage across the ocean a matter of convention, apparently removing the elements of danger and delay, something her passengers were willing to pay a premium for.

Passengers enjoyed the ship’s accommodations while imagining they were in a moving hotel. They dined in an elegant saloon, sampled the choicest wine and even experienced a warm bath, a welcome byproduct of her steam engines.

In fact, passengers never needed to view the watery expanse outside. They could fool themselves into believing they weren’t even at sea.

Or so they thought, until 1854.

Sometime in March, the City of Glasgow suddenly vanished. It probably happened at night, when most passengers were asleep. Before she disappeared, the City of Glasgow likely encountered an enormous jolt that woke everyone from their slumber. As the ship pitched down bow-first, anxious parents and spouses assured each other everything was going to be fine.

As the ship angled down more steeply, seawater began to course between the wainscoted hallways causing the exquisite paintings of the Hudson River and Kenilworth Castle to tilt and then fall from the walls. The gas lights flickered for a few moments before they went out completely. And then cold ocean water rushed across the thresholds into each of the forward cabins.

The chilled water was a talisman that the end was near. Screams echoed through the cabins and hallways, but the sound of the rushing water soon muffled that out; probably for the best.

Hundreds of prayers were issued from inside the City of Glasgow, prayers by the pious and by those who up to now were unconvinced of a deity. But no matter their beliefs, the prayers would go unanswered. Unfortunately, there was nothing any god could do to save the City of Glasgow as she plunged below the surface.

***

Let Glasgow Flourish not only seeks to answer how she disappeared, but also to document her birth and short life. 

After years of research, I believe I have uncovered the cause of the disaster and her present-day location.

Some day in the future, NOAA or another international agency will map the floor of the North Atlantic and come across an anomaly that suggests a future investigation. Her discovery will likely be by chance.

Much later, an undersea robotic vehicle will be dispatched and come upon a deteriorating iron hull. Blurry images will be transmitted up to the vessel.

Researchers will comb through the known record of shipwrecks in this region and at first not find a match. The first videos from the ocean floor will show a hull with sail rigging, and the analysts will assume she was under wind power.

When the robot returns to the ocean floor it will move aft and discover an intact propeller, suggesting she was steam-powered.

Again, the investigators will search on-line records and not find a match.

Hours later, the vehicle will return to the dark crushing depths, where it will come upon the ship’s bow. In the silty waters it will shine a narrow beam of light which will uncover the ship’s true identity: SS City of Glasgow.

The discovery will be briefly noted in international newspapers. Glasgow, her eponymous city, will feature an article or two, and the discovery, like the ship, will again fall into obscurity. Perhaps this book will even be given a brief mention.

***

What will be overlooked in the discovery will be the human stories surrounding the City of Glasgow.

In Let Glasgow Flourish, her crew and passengers have been identified. Only some of the stories explaining why they were traveling to Philadelphia in March of that year have been revealed.

Perhaps the most intriguing and disturbing stories are the City of Glasgow’s association with the supernatural. These range from the premonition of her demise by the captain’s steward to the three American teenagers who started the Spiritualist movement worldwide.

For these reasons, the City of Glasgow will forever be enshrouded in myth, spiritualism, and superstition.

Let Glasgow Flourish also reveals the engineering breakthroughs the City of Glasgow embodied and what the ship meant to the city and to the larger Scotland.

And then there are the heroes and rogues that walked up her gangway during her short life.

Her captain crossed the Atlantic over a hundred times and was feted by the New York and Philadelphia elite. There is the account of an intrepid passenger who missed the ship’s maiden voyage departure, but somehow was able to chase down the vessel at Greenock, before it reached the open waters of the Atlantic.

***

And of course there are the ancillary victims of the City of Glasgow.

Days before the ship’s scheduled arrival, William Collis paced along the Philadelphia waterfront and happily greeted passers-by. When asked why he was there, he replied that he wanted to be the first to embrace his family as they walked down the gangplank.

He waited patiently for this day. His wife and five children were aboard and finally the family would be reunited in their new home.

There were other men and women also waiting at the foot of Queens Street wharf. They understood the City of Glasgow was punctual and her arrival was imminent.

But for William Collis and others, the wait was drawn out. Hours passed into days, days into weeks, and they became more anxious. The vigils during those damp cold March nights became more tormented.

What they feared would ultimately be realized.

The City of Glasgow would never be seen or heard from again.

Editor's Note

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John Macgregor is often spelled as MacGregor, Macgregor, or McGregor. Depending on the document source all variations will reference the same person in this book.

Also the English dating convention