The Wreck of the SS London by Simon Wills
| The Wreck of the SS London by Simon Wills | |
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| Category: History | |
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Reviewer: John Van der Kiste
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| Summary: A painstakingly detailed and well-illustrated account of the SS London tragedy, a luxury liner which sank en route from Britain to Australia in 1866 with the loss of over 250 passengers and crew. The author's research into every aspect, from the company history specifications of the vessel, to the shipwreck and its aftermath, is exemplary. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 192 | Date: November 2016 |
| Publisher: Amberley | |
| ISBN: 978-1445656540 | |
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The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 was the ocean disaster against which all subsequent shipwrecks have come to be compared. Yet some forty years earlier, the people of mid-Victorian Britain and overseas were horrified by another loss at sea which at the time had a similar impact. In January 1866 SS London, a large new luxury liner en route to Australia, went down shortly after leaving England, with around 250 people dead, maybe more (the exact figure will never be known), and only three survivors.
This profusely illustrated account tells the story in painstaking detail against the full background. The author was inspired largely by purchasing a carte de visite of the three survivors (wrongly labelled as the ship's captain and officers) from an antique shop, and a few weeks later finding a bookmark in an old encyclopaedia, autographed by one of those survivors. This led to a journey of discovery, academically speaking, to uncover the full story.
A look at the history and technology of the ship, launched in 1864, the owners, the first voyages, the crew, captain and the passengers, against the background of maritime trade and expansion in the age of empire, lead on to an account of that terrible voyage on new year's day 1866. Wills tells the sad story almost like a novel in places, recounting the various stages day by day, from the arrival of the passengers at the East India Docks to the moment anchor was weighed. Captain Martin took care not to set sail on a Friday, which was traditionally regarded as bad luck, waiting until a few minutes after midnight on Saturday 6 January. Sadly this precaution failed to bring him good fortune. As they sailed for the Bay of Biscay, a severe storm was blowing, and the ship sustained such severe damage that he gave orders for them to turn back to Plymouth for repairs. They never reached that far before the elements overtook them all.
Naturally the saga did not end there. Thanks largely to the few fortunate survivors, notably Able Seaman John King, what happened gradually became known to the wider world. In those days news travelled much more slowly. Nobody in Australia, where people had been expecting their relatives to arrive safe and sound, knew until a mail ship brought the tragic tidings some two months later. Public reaction was swift and incredulous, with people unable at first to believe that such a calamity could have befallen them. The media was more respectful of individual privacy in those days, and we do not know how the majority of the bereaved dealt with the aftermath. However Justice Henry Chapman, a judge in New Zealand who had been waiting in vain to be reunited with his wife and three children who had all perished, wrote to his aunts about the disaster which had left him so desolate. He and many others were denied the closure of funerals, burials and gravestones for those whom they had lost, although there would be several public and private memorial services.
This is a very impressive book. The author's research into and mastery of fact, from the early history of the company and specifications of the vessel to his report of the inquiry and its findings, not to say of the human element and tragedies for so many, and as complete a list of passengers and crew as can be assembled from often contradictory records, is ample testimony to several years of hard work.
For a vivid account of that even more notorious tragedy at sea, we also recommend Lost Voices from the Titanic: The Definitive Oral History by Nick Barratt and The Other Side of the Night: The Carpathia, the Californian, and the Night the Titanic Was Lost by Daniel Allen Butler.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Wreck of the SS London by Simon Wills at Amazon.com.
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