RMS Oceanic (1899)

:"For other ships of the same name, see Oceanic."RMS "Oceanic" was a transatlantic ocean liner that was built by the White Star Line, and sailed on its maiden voyage in 1899.

Beginning

The keel was laid in 1897, and the ship was built under the supervision of its designer, Thomas Ismay, the shipwright and owner of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, the precursor to the famous White Star Line. The ship was named after the company, and was intended to be its flagship. She was built exclusively for speed, and was said to have exceeded convert|30|kn|abbr=on.

The "Oceanic", at 17,272 gross tons, was to become known as the "Queen of the Ocean", costing one million pounds sterling, and even with the use of the most modern labour saving devices still required 1,500 shipwrights to complete, and was launched on January 14, 1899. "Oceanic's" bridge was integrated with her superstructure giving her a clean fluid look, this design feature would later+ be omitted from the next big four White Star ships "Cedric", "Celtic", "Baltic" and "Adriatic" with their odd but distinguishable 'island' bridges. "Nothing but the very finest", was Ismay’s policy toward this new venture, and she was constructed at Harland and Wolff’s yard at Belfast, as was the tradition with White Star Line ships.

At a comfortable speed of 19 knots, this ship was capable of circumnavigating the globe without refuelling. The "Oceanic" was built to accommodate slightly over 2,000 passengers, including the 349 crew. In his autobiography, "Titanic and Other Ships" [Citation | first = C.H. | last = Lightoller | author-link = Charles Lightoller | title = Titanic and other ships | place = | publisher = I. Nicholson and Watson | url = http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301011h.html | year = 1935 | doi = | isbn = ] , Charles Lightoller gives an account of what it was like to be an officer on this vessel.

Career

In 1901, in a heavy fog, the "Oceanic" was involved in a collision when she rammed and sank the small Waterford Steamship Company SS "Kincora", killing 7.

In 1905, "Oceanic" was the first White Star Line ship to suffer a mutiny, which resulted in the conviction and imprisonment of 35 stokers upset with the officers over working conditions.

In 1912, the "Oceanic" was one of the rescue vessels that retrieved bodies from the sinking of the RMS "Titanic" in the North Atlantic Ocean.

World War I

Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the "Oceanic" was included in a deal with the Admiralty, which made an annual grant toward the maintenance of any ship on the condition that it could be called upon for naval work, during times of war. Such ships were built to particular naval specifications, in the case of the "Oceanic" so that the 4.7 inch guns she was to be given could be quickly mounted. "The greatest liner of her day" had thus been pressed into Naval service.

On August 25, 1914, the newly-designated HMS "Oceanic" departed Southampton to begin a naval Service that was to last just two weeks. "Oceanic's" job was to patrol the waters from the North Scottish mainland to the Faroes, in particular the area around Shetland. She was empowered to stop shipping at her Captain’s discretion, and to check cargoes and personnel for any potential German connections. She carried Royal Marines to carry out these duties, and the Merchant Master and many of his original crew served alongside the naval captain appointed.

"Oceanic" headed for Scapa Flow in Orkney, Britain’s main naval anchorage, with easy access to the North Sea and the Atlantic. From here she proceeded north to Shetland travelling continuously on a standard zigzag course as a precaution against being targeted by U-boats. This difficult manoeuvering required extremely accurate navigation, especially with such a large vessel, and in the event it appears to have been poor navigation rather than enemy action that was to doom the "Oceanic".

Disaster

Despite an accurate fix of their position made by navigator Lieutenant Davy Blair RNR the night before, and everyone on the bridge thinking they were well to the southwest of the Isle of Foula, they were in fact an estimated thirteen to fourteen miles off course and on the wrong side of the island, directly in the path of a reef, the notorious Shaalds of Foula, a major threat to shipping that comes to within a few feet of the surface, but which in calm weather gives no warning sign whatsoever.

The ship's naval captain, Captain RN William Slayter, and her Merchant Master, Captain Henry Smith, with two years former service aboard the "Oceanic", did not detect the error. Captain Slayter had retired after his night watch, unaware of the situation, with orders to steer to Foula. Captain Smith took over the morning watch, and with his former knowledge of the ship was only happy when the ship was in open sea. Having previously disagreed with his naval superior about dodging around the island, he instructed the navigator to plot a course out to sea. Slayter must have felt the course change, as he reappeared on the bridge to countermand Smith's order and made what turned out to be a hasty and ill-informed judgement which resulted in the ship running directly onto the Shaalds on the morning of 8 September.

Rescue

An Aberdeen trawler, the "Glenogil", was the first vessel on the scene, and although she attempted to pull off the massive ship, it proved an impossible task, and with the hull already ruptured, "Oceanic" would not have stayed afloat long in open waters. [cite web | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = TGOL - Oceanic | work = The Great Ocean Liners | publisher = greatoceanliners.net | date = | url = http://www.greatoceanliners.net/oceanic2.html | format = | doi = | accessdate = 2008-03-28] Other ships in the area were called in to assist in the rescue operation that was to follow. All of the ship's crew transferred to the traweler via the ship's lifeboats and were then ferried to the awaiting HMS "Alsatian" and HMS "Forward". Charles Lightoller, the ship's First Officer, was the last man off, taking the navigation room's clock as a souvenir.

The 573-ton Admiralty salvage vessel "Lyons" was dispatched to the scene hurriedly, and in the words of the Laird of Foula, Professor Ian S. Holbourn, writing about the disaster in his book "The Isle of Foula":

The launch of the Lyons, a salvage boat which hurried to the scene, was capable of a speed of ten knots, yet was unable to make any headway against the tide although she tried for fifteen minutes. Even then it was not the top of the tide, and the officer in charge reckoned the full tide would be 12 knots, he confessed he would not have believed it had he been told.cite book | last = Holbourn | first = Ian Stoughton | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = The Isle of Foula | publisher = Birlinn Ltd | date = 2001 | location = | pages = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 1841581615]

Of the "Oceanic"’s two Masters, Merchant Commander Smith is said to have come ashore at the remote island’s tiny pier, and on looking back out to sea toward his stranded ship two miles away, commented that the ship would stay on the reef as a monument and nothing would move it.

One of the Foula men, wise to the full power and fury of a Shetland storm, is said to have muttered with a cynicism not unknown in those parts "I‘ll give her two weeks".

Remarkably, following a heavy gale that had persisted throughout the night of 29 September, just two weeks after the incident the islanders discovered the following day that the ship had been entirely swallowed up by the sea, where she remains to this day scattered as she fell apart under the pressure of the seas on the Shaalds.

The disaster was hushed up at the time, since it was felt that it would have been embarrassing to make public how a world-famous liner had run aground in friendly waters in good weather within a fortnight of it beginning its service as a naval vessel. The revelation of such gross incompetence at this early stage of the war would have done nothing for national morale.

Court-martial

Lt. Blair was court-martialled at Devonport in November 1914, when he was found guilty of "stranding or suffering to be stranded" HMS "Oceanic", and was ordered to be reprimanded. He offered in his defence that he was exonerated by the evidence given by Captain Slayter and Commander Smith that he was under their supervision, and that the stranding was due to abnormal currents.

A similar charge was made against Commander Smith at a second court-martial; the evidence for the prosecution was the same as in the previous case, and witnesses were cross-examined with a view to showing that the position of the accused on the "Oceanic" was not clearly defined by the naval authorities, and that he was understood to be acting in an advisory capacity. He was acquitted the following day, as he was found to have not officially been in command on 8 September.

Captain Slayter was also acquitted.

alvage

In 1924, a salvage company which had been engaged on the scuttled German warships at Scapa Flow cut what remained of the wreck of the "Oceanic" down to water level and salvaged. In 1973 work began to remove more of the wreck and in 1979, the last remains were completely removed after 65 years. ["Navy News" number 628. United Kingdom Ministry of Defence, November 2006 [http://www.navynews.co.uk www.navynews.co.uk] ] .

Further reading

*"The Other Titanic", Simon Martin (Salvage report, 1980).

References

External links

* [http://www.bytenet.net/kaleidoscope/osnc/fleet/oceanic2.htm#top White Star Fleet - RMS Oceanic]
* [http://www.greatships.net/oceanic2.html Great Ships: Oceanic]
* [http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301011h.html Titanic and Other Ships]