Passenger ship (1f/2m).
L/B/D:
320 × 42 × 38 dph (97.5m × 12.8m × 11.6m). Tons:
2,800 grt. Hull:
steel. Comp.:
1st 60, 2nd 120, 3rd 700; 100 crew. Mach.:
direct-acting, 600 hp, 1 screw; 12 kts. Built:
Caird & Co., Greenock, Scotland; 1866.
One of four steamships commissioned by Norddeutscher Lloyd between 1865 and 1867, Deutschland sailed as part of the company's weekly packet service between Bremen and New York. Built with direct-acting engines, she was refitted with compound engines in 1872. On December 5, 1875, she sailed from Bremen with 113 passengers, most of them German emigrants. Within hours of her departure, the ship encountered a blizzard with gale force winds. Poor visibility forced Captain Edward Brickenstein to reduce speed. Despite every effort with his English pilot to determine the ship's correct position, shortly after 0500 on December 6, Deutschland ran aground on Kentish Knock, one of the many treacherous sandbars that guard the mouth of England's Thames River. The ship remained afloat throughout the day, but by evening Captain Brickenstein had ordered the passengers and crew on deck. Some took to the rigging, but many died of exposure in the bitter cold. Help arrived only the next morning, in the form of the steam paddle-tug Liverpool, which rescued the survivors. All told, 157 passengers and crew lost their lives in the tragedy, which inspired the young Gerard Manley Hopkins to write his poem "The Wreck of the Deutschland."
Street, Wreck of the "Deutschland.".
