Shipwreck Series

On a warm day in July 1883, a crowd gathered for the launch of the newest steamship added to the fleet of the Glasgow, Dublin and Londonderry Steam Packet Company.  At 11:25 a.m., a champagne bottle shattered across the bow, christening of the 500-ton SS Daphne. As the Daphne began to leave her slip, she accelerated toward the Clyde while a hundred men aboard waved to the crowd of onlookers. Within seconds of entering the river, 124 men and boys would quickly lose their lives.

In August 1831, the steamer Rothsay Castle was following her routine excursion from Liverpool to North Wales. It was the height of summer and one hundred plus passengers were traveling to Beaumaris for an evening of festivities before the annual regatta the following day. The fifty-mile journey should take about 5 hours and the four-man band was aboard to entertain the passengers. However, a negligent and drunken captain sat below deck for almost the entire voyage down the Mersey. Although the weather changed dramatically as the vessel entered the Irish Sea, Captain Atkinson was dismissive of the urgent appeals of his passengers to turn back to Liverpool or find the nearest safe harbor. In his own words: "I think there is a d.—d deal of fear on board, and very little danger. If we were to turn back with passengers, it would never do—we should have no profit." He, his crew, and passengers would pay dearly as they approached Dutchman's Bank in the middle of the night.

This book highlights the late 18th-century conflict among three countries-England, France and Ireland. The alliance of the Irish and French against the English was best seen in the 1797 "Expedition to Ireland" and the loss of the warship Droits de l'Homme. Expedition to Ireland is a thumbnail account of the disastrous plan to recruit Irish rebels in their mutual struggles with Great Britain. The book is accompanied by relevant maps and illustrations. Readers of C. S. Forester's fictional series, Horatio Hornblower will recognize the names of the vessels and commanders in this actual encounter.

"He who foresees calamities suffers them twice over"- Porteus   The year 1845 was disturbingly quiet on the east coast of the United States; no hurricanes or tropical storms had made landfall.  However, the residents along the coast knew that there would be 'hell to pay" when '46 arrived. It didn't take long before a wicked nor'easter battered the entire coastline in February. The storm reached inland from Savannah, Georgia to Syracuse, New York where snow was "piled in heaps of all imaginable shapes and dimensions" while barometer readings plunged in just a few short hours.     This was an extraordinary storm in terms of severity and reach. In Salem, Mass "drifts 15 to 20 feet are said to be piled up". In New Bedford, Mass "the quantity of snow is said to be greater than at any time previous in this victim since the memorable snowstorm in 1815. In Connecticut "the snow lies on the east side to an average depth of five feet, ad we have noticed a number of houses where it lies not less than six feet in depth directly against the front doors. In another, the mercury is down to zero, Fine times these!. But the storm reserved its wrath for those who happened upon the sea. The storm rose quickly from gale to hurricane force in a matter of hours and kept the intensity for days. When it reached the New Jersey shore it claimed nine ships, including the John Minturn, which bears the storm's name to this day. Undiminished Violence retells the events that led up to the storm, the storm itself, and its aftermath.   But it is far more than just a recounting of the weather and nautical events of the day. Undiminished Violence gives us insights into the passengers and crew aboard the Minturn, the freakish bad luck that brought some sailors aboard as passengers when weeks before they were victims of other shipwrecks themselves. The book focuses on the two major actors in this tragedy-the captain of the ship and the pilot who joined him to guide the ship into New York Harbor. We learn of the captain's prejudice against certain pilots and his decision that resulted in the deaths of his family, crew, and passengers. We also discover the heroism of one man who gave comfort to all and by his death had one of the largest monuments in New York erected to honor his bravery.   We learn of the captain's closely guarded secret from his wife and crew and the motivation which caused him to push his vessel , his passengers and crew into danger. And more broadly, the loss of the Minturn became part of a national story, when accusations were made that the residents of the New Jersey shore had plundered the bodies and charged a retrieval fee to their loved ones. The outrage caused the state of New Jersey to conduct a formal investigation into the charges and seek out the "barbarians".

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".