SS ''Austria'' was a steamship of the

Hamburg America Line The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known in English as the Hamburg America Line, was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, in 1847. Among those involved in its development were prominent citi ...

which sank on 13 September 1858, in one of the worst

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s of the nineteenth century, claiming the lives of 449 passengers and crew. The ''Austria'' was built by Caird & Co. of

Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of ...

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and was launched on 23 June 1857. She was 318 ft and 2,684 BRT, with three masts and single screw propeller propulsion. After a cancelled British Government charter, she went into service with the

on 1 May 1858 on the

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

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route.

Tragedy at sea

Puttner - 1858 - Sinking of emigrant ship Austria

On 1 September 1858, SS ''Austria'' captained by

F. A. Heydtmann F.A. Heydtmann (died September 13, 1858) was captain of the Hamburg America Line’s ill-fated steamer ''Austria'' at the time of its sinking on September 13, 1858. As the Steamboat Austria disaster was caused by negligence of the crew, F.A. Heyd ...

sailed from

on her third voyage to

. At approximately 12:00, on 13 September, at coordinates , following a procedure to

fumigate Fumigation is a method of pest control or the removal of harmful micro-organisms by completely filling an area with gaseous pesticides—or fumigants—to suffocate or poison the pests within. It is used to control pests in buildings ( ...

steerage Steerage is a term for the lowest category of passenger accommodation in a ship. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century considerable numbers of persons travelled from their homeland to seek a new life elsewhere, in many cases North America ...

by dipping a red-hot chain into a bucket of tar; the chain became too hot for the

boatswain A boatswain ( , ), bo's'n, bos'n, or bosun, also known as a deck boss, or a qualified member of the deck department, is the most senior rate of the deck department and is responsible for the components of a ship's hull. The boatswain supervises ...

to hold, and it was dropped onto the deck, which immediately burst into flames; although the ship was traveling at only half speed it was impossible to stop the engines as the engine crew had become asphyxiated. When the helmsman abandoned the wheel, the ship swung into the wind, spreading the flames down the length of the ship, racing through the mahogany veneer and varnished bulkheads, as passengers jumped into the sea. The passing

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...

, ''Maurice'' of France rescued most of the survivors (67), and the ''Catarina'' of Norway picked up more (22) the next morning. As the blackened hulk was left to sink, all but 89 of 542 passengers were lost.

Survivors

Amongst the survivors were: *

Theodore Eisfeld Theodore Eisfeld (April 11, 1816, Wolfenbüttel, Duchy of Brunswick – 16 September 1882, Wiesbaden) was a conductor, most notably of the New York Philharmonic Society, which became the New York Philharmonic. Biography Eisfeld's chief instruc ...

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music director *

Charles Brew Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...

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* Charles Rosene

Drowned

Amongst those who drowned were: *

Henriette Wulff Henriette may refer to: * Princess Henriette of France * Henriette of Cleves * Henriette Willemina Crommelin (1870-1957), Dutch labor leader and temperance reformer * Henriette Dibon (1902–1989), French poet and short story writer. * Henriette H ...

, friend and frequent correspondent of

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consist ...

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, merchant for S.F. White & Bro., Chicago, IL hicago Press and Tribune (1858-1860). Nov. 13, 1858; ProQuest Historical Newspaper Chicago Tribune (1849-1985)/ref>

Paintings of the disaster

The fire and subsequent sinking has featured in multiple paintings, including: *

Josef Püttner Josef may refer to * Josef (given name) * Josef (surname) * ''Josef'' (film), a 2011 Croatian war film * Musik Josef, a Japanese manufacturer of musical instruments {{disambiguation ...

, "Untergang der Austria",

Deutsches Historisches Museum The German Historical Museum (german: Deutsches Historisches Museum), known by the acronym DHM, is a museum in Berlin, Germany devoted to German history. It describes itself as a place of "enlightenment and understanding of the shared history ...

, Berlin, Germany. *

Eugène Isabey Eugène Louis Gabriel Isabey (22 July 1803, in Paris – 25 April 1886, in Montévrain) was a French painter, lithographer and watercolorist in the Romantic style. Biography He was born to Jean-Baptiste Isabey, a well known painter who ...

, "L'incendie de l'Austria",

Musée national de la Marine The Musée national de la Marine (National Navy Museum) is a maritime museum located in the Palais de Chaillot, Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. It has annexes at Brest, Port-Louis, Rochefort ( Musée National de la Marine de ...

, Paris, France; "L'Incendie du steamer Austria", Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, France; * Anonymous, "Burning of the Austria",

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich 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 United ...

, England. * Le duc Charles, "L'Incendie de l'Austria", Chateau des ducs de Bretagne, Musée d'Histoire de Nantes, Nantes, France.

References

External links

* *
Hulman Dynasty site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Austria 1857 ships Ships built on the River Clyde Steamships of the Hanseatic League Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean Maritime incidents in September 1858 Ship fires Merchant ships of the Hanseatic League Ships of the Hamburg America Line