Flashback in Maritime history – SS Volturno sinking, claiming 136 lives 09 Oct. 1913

SS Volturno was an ocean liner that burned and sank in the North Atlantic in October 1913. She was a Royal Line ship under charter to the Uranium Line at the time of the fire. After the ship issued SOS signals, eleven ships came to her aid and, in heavy seas and gale winds, rescued 520 passengers and crewmen. 136 people—most of them women and children in lifeboats launched unsuccessfully prior to the arrival of the rescue ships—died in the incident. Volturno had been built by Fairfield in Govan and was completed in November 1906.

At about 06:00 on 9 October 1913, Volturno, on a voyage from Rotterdam to New York City, was carrying a mixed load of passengers (mostly immigrants) and cargo that included highly flammable chemicals. It caught fire in the middle of a gale at 49.12N 34.51W in the North Atlantic. The cargo hold in the front of the ship was found to be fully engulfed in flames. Shortly afterwards part of the cargo exploded. Later the fire spread to the ship’s coal bunkers, cutting off the fuel supply for the fire hose pumps. The crew attempted to fight the fire for about two hours, but, realizing the severity of the fire and the limited options for dousing it on the high seas, Captain Francis Inch had his wireless operator send out SOS signals. Eleven ships responded to the calls and headed to Volturno? ’s reported position, arriving throughout the day and into the next. In the meantime, several of Volturno? ’s lifeboats with women and children aboard were launched with tragic results; all the boats either capsized or were smashed by the hull of the heaving ship, leaving no one alive from these first boats.

Captain James Clayton Barr of Carmania, the first ship to arrive, took command of the rescue effort. Barr had the other nine vessels form a “battle line” of sorts and slowly circle the burning ship. Throughout the night of 10/11 October, Carmania kept one of her searchlights on Volturno, with another sweeping the ring of rescue ships to help them avoid collisions. According to one passenger, despite Carmania? ’s efforts, two of the ships, the Red Star liner Kroonland and the French Line steamer La Touraine almost collided, coming within 15 to 20 feet (5 to 6 m) of impact. This was disputed by an officer on the Kroonland.

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