Cable Ship (CS) ''Mackay-Bennett'' was a transatlantic cable-laying and cable-repair ship registered at Lloyds of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, as a Glasgow vessel, but owned by the American

Commercial Cable Company The Commercial Cable Company was founded in New York in 1884 by John William Mackay and James Gordon Bennett, Jr. Their motivation was to break the then virtual monopoly of Jay Gould on transatlantic telegraphy and bring down prices (particular ...

. It is notable for being the ship that recovered the majority of the bodies of the victims of the ''Titanic'' sinking.

Design and build

The ship was commissioned by the USA-based

from then noted River Clyde-based warship builders John Elder & Co. at their Fairfield Yards. The company incorporated a number of then new and original features into the cable ship. It was one of the first ships built from steel rather than iron, and she had a relatively deep keel design to both accommodate as much cable as possible and to keep the ship stable in the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

swells. The design was also very hydrodynamic to keep her fuel efficient and fast in operation. The hull design included

bilge keel A bilge keel is a nautical device used to reduce a ship's tendency to roll. Bilge keels are employed in pairs (one for each side of the ship). A ship may have more than one bilge keel per side, but this is rare. Bilge keels increase hydrodynamic r ...

s to keep her stable, and she had two rudders, one fore and one aft, to maximize manoeuvrability.''Clydebuilt: The ships that made the Commonwealth'' - CS ''Mackay-Bennett'' David Hayman, BBC Four, 5 June 2014

Operations

Named after the two founders of her owners, she was launched late in 1884. Her crew pronounced her name "Macky-Bennett". Mainly based in Halifax,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, where she first arrived in March 1885, she was also often used for operations on the European side of the Atlantic, based out of Plymouth, England. The Canadian author

Thomas Raddall Thomas Head Raddall (13 November 1903 – 1 April 1994) was a Canadian writer of history and historical fiction.schooner ''Caledonia'' on 12 February 1912.

Recovery of bodies

In April 1912, she was berthed at Halifax during a period of long-term work maintaining the

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

-to-Canada communications cable. Of the three ships in Halifax at that time only ''Mackay-Bennett'' had a hold capable of holding the 125 coffins and ice forming part of the exercise to recover bodies. The ship became notable as the main vessel contracted by the

White Star Line The White Star Line was a British shipping company. Founded out of the remains of a defunct packet company, it gradually rose up to become one of the most prominent shipping lines in the world, providing passenger and cargo services between t ...

to carry out the difficult task of recovering the bodies left floating in the North Atlantic, after the disaster. The task was further motivated by Joseph Astor's announcement of a $100,000 reward for the ship recovering the body of his father J. J. Astor. Her captain, Frederick H. Larnder, took on board a combination of specialists and an effective mobile mortuary. Both additional and specialized personnel and supplies were taken on board for the assignment. These included: *Canon Kenneth Cameron Hind of All Saints Cathedral, Halifax *John R. Snow, Jr., the chief embalmer with the firm of John Snow & Co., the province of Nova Scotia's largest undertaking firm, hired by White Star to oversee the embalming arrangements *Sufficient embalming supplies to handle 70 bodies * 100 coffins * of ice, in which to store the recovered bodies Crew were paid double pay for the grisly task. There was a hierarchy to the mortuary details as the ship could never hope to bring all back: first class passengers were embalmed and placed in coffins; second-class were wrapped in linen winding sheets; third class bodies were weighted and buried at sea (116 in total). The ship left Halifax at 12:28PM on Wednesday, 17 April 1912. Due to severe fog and rough seas it took the ship nearly four days to sail the to the scene of the disaster. The captain instructed the ship's crew to keep their logbooks complete and up to date during the voyage and subsequent recovery operation, but only two logbooks are presently known to have survived: seven pages from the logbook of engineer Frederick A. Hamilton, now kept in the

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unite ...

, England, and the personal diary of Clifford Crease, a 24-year-old Naval artificer (craftsman-in-training); much of the detailed account of the recovery operation is today traced to Crease's diary, now held in the

Public Archives of Nova Scotia Nova Scotia Archives is a governmental archival institution serving the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. The archives acquires, preserves and makes available the province's documentary heritage – recorded information of provincial significanc ...

. The ship arrived at the scene during the night, so recovery of bodies began at 06:00 on 20 April. CS ''Mackay-Bennett'' was anchored close to but not within the recovery area, and she offloaded her

skiff A skiff is any of a variety of essentially unrelated styles of small boats. Traditionally, these are coastal craft or river craft used for leisure, as a utility craft, and for fishing, and have a one-person or small crew. Sailing skiffs have deve ...

lifeboats. Crews then rowed into the recovery area and manually recovered the bodies into the skiffs. After recovering as many bodies as they deemed safe for the return journey (51 corpses), the crews then rowed back to the CS ''Mackay-Bennett''. The captain noted that there was neither sufficient space aboard to store all of the recovered bodies nor enough embalming supplies aboard. As the Canadian Government and associated burial and maritime laws directed that any bodies carried had to be embalmed before a ship enter a Canadian port, the captain agreed to a system whereby: *First-class passengers were embalmed, placed in coffins, and stored in the rear cable locker. These included the bodies of:

John Jacob Astor IV John Jacob Astor IV (July 13, 1864 – April 15, 1912) was an American business magnate, real estate developer, investor, writer, lieutenant colonel in the Spanish–American War, and a prominent member of the Astor family. He died in the sink ...

, the richest man aboard, body No.124 recovered on 22 April, identified by his unique diamond finger ring and the initials sewn on the label of his jacket; architect Edward Austin Kent, body No.258; and

Isidor Straus Isidor Straus (February 6, 1845 – April 15, 1912) was a Bavarian-born American Jewish businessman, politician and co-owner of Macy's department store with his brother Nathan. He also served for just over a year as a member of the United State ...

, owner of

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

Department Store. *Second-class passengers were embalmed, wrapped in canvas, and stored in the forward cable locker. *Third-class passengers were

buried at sea Burial at sea is the disposal of human remains in the ocean, normally from a ship or boat. It is regularly performed by navies, and is done by private citizens in many countries. Burial-at-sea services are conducted at many different location ...

, a total of 116 passengers. In October 2013, a photograph taken by Fourth officer R. D. "Westy" Legate came up for auction, which captured the Canon ministering over a ceremony of multiple burials at sea on board the ship. *The body of band leader Wallace Hartley, found fully dressed with his music case strapped to his body, was transferred to the ''Arabic'' and returned to England, where on 18 May he was buried in Keighley Road Cemetery,

Colne Colne () is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England. Located northeast of Nelson, north-east of Burnley, east of Preston and west of Leeds. The town should not be confused with the unrelated Colne Val ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

. *One body of an approximately two-year-old male infant, a third-class passenger and the fourth body recovered, was saved by the crew and stored in the hold. At 19:00 on 23 April, CS ''Mackay-Bennett'' lay briefly alongside the Allan Shipping Line's ''Sardinian'' (en route to

Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of K ...

), to collect additional canvas. Just after midnight on 26 April, CS ''Mackay-Bennett'' rendezvoused with the

Anglo-American Telegraph Company The Atlantic Telegraph Company was a company formed on 6 November 1856 to undertake and exploit a commercial telegraph cable across the Atlantic ocean, the first such telecommunications link. History Cyrus Field, American businessman and financ ...

's CS ''Minia'' to get extra embalming supplies, before departing for Halifax at dawn that day. After a seven-day recovery operation, the CS ''Mackay-Bennett'' had: *Recovered 306 of the 328 bodies found from among the 1,517 who perished aboard ''Titanic'' *Buried 116 at sea, of which only 56 were identified *Set sail for home with 190 bodies on board, almost twice as many as there were coffins available *Arrived in Halifax on 30 April 1912, began unloading her cargo at 09:30, and transferred the bodies to the

ice rink An ice rink (or ice skating rink) is a frozen body of water and/or an artificial sheet of ice created using hardened chemicals where people can ice skate or play winter sports. Ice rinks are also used for exhibitions, contests and ice shows. The ...

of the Mayflower Curling Club. The crew split the $100,000 reward for Astor's body (around $2500 each). Using some of that money they paid for the burial of the body of the unknown child and his headstone monument - the casket was marked by a copper plaque reading "Our Babe". The entire ship's crew, together with the majority of the population of Halifax, attended the child's burial at Fairview Lawn Cemetery on 4 May 1912. With improved

DNA testing Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, o ...

, on 30 July 2007 Canadian researchers at

Lakehead University Lakehead University is a public research university with campuses in Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ontario, Canada. Lakehead University, shortened to 'Lakehead U', is non-denominational and provincially supported. It has undergraduate programs, gradua ...

announced that testing of the body's mitochondrial DNA had revealed that the child was 19-month-old

Sidney Leslie Goodwin The Unknown Child refers to the initially unidentified body of Sidney Leslie Goodwin, a 19-month-old British toddler who was recovered by the ''Mackay-Bennett'' after the sinking of the RMS ''Titanic''. For almost a century, Goodwin's gravest ...

. After his death in 1955, Clifford Crease's body was interred only a few steps away from the grave of "Our Babe", a site he had visited on every anniversary of the tragedy during his lifetime. Mackay-Bennett Seamount, one of the

Fogo Seamounts The Fogo Seamounts, also called the Fogo Seamount Chain, are a group of undersea mountains southeast of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic Ocean. This seamount chain, lying approximately offshore from the island of Newfoundla ...

southeast of the

Grand Banks of Newfoundland The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a series of underwater plateaus south-east of the island of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. The Grand Banks are one of the world's richest fishing grounds, supporting Atlantic cod, swordf ...

in the North Atlantic Ocean, is named after ''Mackay-Bennett'' for her involvement in the ''Titanic'' disaster.

Retirement and scrapping

The ship was retired in May 1922, anchored in

Plymouth Sound Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a deep inlet or sound in the English Channel near Plymouth in England. Description Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point in Devon, a distance of abou ...

to be used as a storage hulk. During

The Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...

on England in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, she was sunk during a

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

attack but later refloated. Her hulk was finally scrapped in 1965.

References

External links

''Mackay-Bennett''
at Encyclopedia Titanica *
''Mackay-Bennett'' at the Atlantic Cable website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackay-Bennett Cable ships of the United Kingdom RMS Titanic Ships built on the River Clyde 1884 ships History of Halifax, Nova Scotia Maritime incidents in March 1941 Cable laying ships