SS ''Eider'' was a 4,179 ton German

ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). C ...

built for ''

Norddeutscher Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of t ...

'' in 1884 by John Elder & Co. of

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as the fourth ship in the . She had four masts and was a two-funnelled steamer long, with a crew of 167, and capable of carrying 1,204 passengers. However, she had a short service history, being lost in what is remembered as one of the most impressive and memorable shipwrecks on the coast of the

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, a region on the

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Wreck

On 31 January 1892, ''Eider'' was heading up the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" ( Cotentinais) or (Jèrriais), ( Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kan ...

to Bremen through thick fog. Around 10 p.m. the ship ran hard aground on the Atherfield Ledge, a hard outcrop of rock projecting from the large bay of the

. Captain Heinecke jettisoned cargo and called for tugs. The new Atherfield lifeboat approached from a recently established station on the cliffs, but the captain refused her offer of help. The tugs did reach ''Eider'', but a gale had arisen that made it impossible for them to get close enough in case they struck the rocks as well. At 10 a.m. the captain decided to evacuate the passengers; however, it was now too rough for the small Atherfield lifeboat, ''Catherine Swift'', to be launched. The bigger lifeboats located at

Brook A brook is a small river or natural stream of fresh water. It may also refer to: Computing *Brook, a programming language for GPU programming based on C *Brook+, an explicit data-parallel C compiler * BrookGPU, a framework for GPGPU programm ...

and

Brighstone Brighstone is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Wight, 6 miles southwest of Newport on the B3399 road. Brighstone was previously known as "Brixton". The name derives from the Saxon name " Ecgbert's Tun". Brighstone is the largest vi ...

were launched, but they had much farther to travel. The Brighstone lifeboat, ''Worcester Cadet'', arrived first and carried a dozen women and children to Atherfield beach. The Brook lifeboat, ''William Slaney Lewis'', reached ''Eider'' five hours after being launched and rescued another load of women and children. By 2 p.m. the sea had worsened to the point where rollers were reaching over the stern, but by 3 p.m. the water had calmed and the lifeboats were relaunched. All the passengers were saved, but the crew stayed on board. On Tuesday the gale reached storm force and the lifeboats evacuated the crew and bullion from the now badly holed and sinking vessel.

Result

The rescue brought praise for those involved from around the world. The

Royal National Lifeboat Institution The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on some inland waterways. It i ...

(RNLI) awarded medals for gallantry to some crew members, and

Kaiser Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until his abdication on 9 November 1918. Despite strengthening the German Emp ...

gave each coxswain an engraved gold watch and donated £200 to the RNLI. The ship was later salvaged and declared a total loss.

Notable passengers

Friedrich Trump, grandfather of 45th U.S. President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of ...

, immigrated from

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie H ...

, Germany, to New York aboard ''Eider'' in 1885 at the age of 16.Blair, Gwenda: ''The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a Presidential Candidate''. Simon & Schuster, New York 2015, p. 30f.

References

;Notes ;Sources Matthias Trennheuser: Die innenarchitektonische Ausstattung deutscher Passagierschiffe zwischen 1880 und 1940. Hauschild- Verlag, 2010, .

External links

''Eider'', Norddeutscher Lloyd
at Norway Heritage {{DEFAULTSORT:Eider Ships of Norddeutscher Lloyd 1884 ships Ships built on the River Clyde Rivers-class ocean liners Shipwrecks in the English Channel