SS London (1864)

The SS London was a British steamship which sank in the Bay of Biscay on 11 January 1866. The ship was travelling from Gravesend in England to Melbourne, Australia when she began taking in water on 10 January. With a total of 239 persons plus a great deal of cargo on board, making the ship overloaded and unseaworthy, only 19 survivors were able to escape the foundering ship by lifeboat, leaving a death toll of 220.

The SS London was launched on the River Thames in 1864, and had a 1732 ton register.^{[citation needed]}

The sinking of the SS London

The final voyage of the SS London began on 13 December 1865, when the ship left Gravesend in Kent bound for Melbourne, under a Captain Martin, an experienced Australian navigator. The ship was due to take on passengers from Plymouth, but was caught in heavy weather, and the captain decided to take refuge at Spithead near Portsmouth. The London eventually docked in Plymouth where passengers embarked, setting sail for Australia on 6 January 1866.

By a story later highly publicised, when she was en route down the Thames, a seaman seeing her pass Purfleet said, "It'll be her last voyage…she is too low down in the water, she'll never rise to a stiff sea." This proved all too accurate.

On 10 January, the London had reached the Bay of Biscay when the ship was caught in a storm. The captain decided to turn the ship around and head back for Plymouth. After the course was altered the ship rolled heavily, which caused seawater into the vessel, flooding the lower decks and filling the engines. The chief engineer and his crew remained in the engine rooms until the engines were deemed useless. Captain Martin announced to the crew and passengers that the ship was lost, and attempts were made to release lifeboats. Of all the boats onboard, only one was launched successfully. Although the boat was only designed to hold twelve passengers, 19 people took passage in it, and was manned by the chief engineer and his crew. The boat only just cleared the London when the steamship sank. The boat crew were rescued on 12 January by an Italian barque.

The Wreck of the Steamer 'London' while on her way to Australia is a poem by Scottish poet William McGonagall, one of his many poems based on disasters of the time.

Causes of the sinking

Three main factors were attributed to the sinking of the SS London by the subsequent enquiry by the Board of Trade.^{[citation needed]} Firstly the decision by Captain Martin to return to Plymouth, as it is believed the ship had passed the worst of the weather conditions and by turning back the London re-entered the storm. Secondly the ship was overloaded with 345 tons of railway iron. The final factor is seen as 50 tons of coal which was stored above deck, which after the decks were washed by waves blocked the scupper holes, which prevented drainage of the seawater.

Legacy

The disaster of the London aroused increased attention in Britain to the dangerous condition of the coffin ships, overloaded by unscrupulous ship owners, and the publicity had a major role in Samuel Plimsoll's campaign to reform shipping so as to prevent further such disasters. The disaster helped stimulate Parliament to establish the famous Plimsoll line, although it took many years.

The disaster of the London is extensively discussed in The Plimsoll Sensation, a 2006 biography of Plimsoll by Nicolette Jones.

Notable deaths

• John Debenham, son of William Debenham, founder of Debenham and Freebody's department stores
• Gustavus Vaughan Brooke, Irish stage actor
• James and Elizabeth Bevan, parents of the first Wales rugby union captain James Bevan
• John Woolley first principal of the University of Sydney, Australia

External links

• S.S. London - founded in the English Channel newspaper excerpts of the sinking and McGonagall's poem at ancestry.com
• Review of The Plimsoll Sensation in Bookworm on the Net, July 2, 2006

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