SS Eider
{{Short description|Ocean liner wrecked in 1892}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}}
{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country= Germany |Ship flag= {{Shipboxflag|German Empire|civil}} |Ship name= Eider |Ship namesake= Eider |Ship owner= Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen |Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route=Bremen–New York City |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=John Elder & Co., Govan |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number=283 |Ship way number= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=15 December 1883 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification= |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship fate=Wrecked, 31 January 1892 |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= {{sclass2|Rivers|ocean liner}} |Ship type= |Ship tonnage={{GRT|4722}} |Ship displacement= |Ship length= {{Convert|429|ft|8|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam= {{Convert|47|ft|abbr=on}} |Ship height= |Ship draught= |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship power= |Ship propulsion=Steam engine, single screw |Ship sail plan= |Ship speed= {{Convert|16|kn|lk=in}} |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity=1,204 passengers |Ship crew=167 |Ship notes= }} |
SS Eider was a 4,179 ton German ocean liner built for Norddeutscher Lloyd in 1884 by John Elder & Co. of Glasgow as the fourth ship in the {{sclass2|Rivers|ocean liner|4}}. She had four masts and was a two-funnelled steamer {{Convert|430|ft}} long, with a crew of 167, and capable of carrying 1,204 passengers.{{cite book | title=Norddeutscher Lloyd, 1857–1957: Geschichte einer bremischen Reederei | publisher=Schünemann | author=Bessell, Georg | year=1957 | location=Bremen | page=196 | oclc=3187889|language=de}}{{cite web | url=http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=1317 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060518233244/http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=1317 | url-status=usurped | archive-date=18 May 2006 | title=SS Eider | work=Clyde-built Ship Database | accessdate=12 December 2012}} However, she had a short service history, being lost in what is remembered as one of the most impressive and memorable shipwrecks on the coast of the Back of the Wight, a region on the Isle of Wight, England.{{cite web | url=http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/A894288 | title=Isle of Wight Shipwrecks: SS Eider and Alcester | work=h2g2 | date=7 December 2002 | accessdate=12 December 2012}}
Wreck
On 31 January 1892, Eider was heading up the English Channel to Bremen through thick fog. Around 10 p.m. the ship ran hard aground on the Atherfield Ledge, a hard outcrop of rock projecting from the large bay of the Back of the Wight. Captain Heinecke jettisoned cargo and called for tugs. The new Atherfield lifeboat approached from a recently established station on the cliffs, but the captain refused her offer of help.
The tugs did reach Eider, but a gale had arisen that made it impossible for them to get close enough in case they struck the rocks as well. At 10 a.m. the captain decided to evacuate the passengers;{{cite web | url=http://backofthewight.co.uk/eider.htm | title=SS Eider | work=Back of the Wight: Ships' Graveyard | accessdate=12 December 2012}} however, it was now too rough for the small Atherfield lifeboat, Catherine Swift, to be launched. The bigger lifeboats located at Brook and Brighstone were launched, but they had much farther to travel. The Brighstone lifeboat, Worcester Cadet, arrived first and carried a dozen women and children to Atherfield beach. The Brook lifeboat, William Slaney Lewis, reached Eider five hours after being launched and rescued another load of women and children.
By 2 p.m. the sea had worsened to the point where rollers were reaching over the stern, but by 3 p.m. the water had calmed and the lifeboats were relaunched. All the passengers were saved, but the crew stayed on board.
On Tuesday the gale reached storm force and the lifeboats evacuated the crew and bullion from the now badly holed and sinking vessel.
Result
The rescue brought praise for those involved from around the world. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) awarded medals for gallantry to some crew members, and Kaiser Wilhelm II gave each coxswain an engraved gold watch and donated £200 to the RNLI.{{cite book | title=Seize the Trident: The Race for Superliner Supremacy and How it Altered the Great War | publisher=International Marine/McGraw Hill | author=Burgess, Douglas R. Jr. | year=2005 | location=Camden, Maine | page=28 | isbn=978-0-07-143009-8 }} The ship was later salvaged and declared a total loss.
Notable passengers
Friedrich Trump, grandfather of 45th U.S. President Donald Trump, immigrated from Bremen, Germany, to New York aboard Eider in 1885 at the age of 16.Blair, Gwenda: The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a Presidential Candidate. Simon & Schuster, New York 2015, p. 30f.
References
;Notes
{{Reflist}}
;Sources
Matthias Trennheuser: Die innenarchitektonische Ausstattung deutscher Passagierschiffe zwischen 1880 und 1940. Hauschild- Verlag, 2010, {{ISBN|978-3-89757-305-5}}.
External links
- [http://www.norwayheritage.com/p_ship.asp?sh=eider Eider, Norddeutscher Lloyd] at Norway Heritage
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Category:Ships of Norddeutscher Lloyd
Category:Ships built on the River Clyde
Category:Rivers-class ocean liners