|
Columbus was built for the White
Star Lines sister company, the Dominion
Line. Her maiden voyage from Liverpool -
Boston began October 1st 1903. By
December of that year, she had been
transferred to the White Star Line to be
operated under the name Republic.
The following year saw the new owners use
her on cruises out of New York -
Mediterranean. On one such cruise,
Republic departed New York January
22nd 1909 bound for Naples via Madeira.
At six in the morning the following day,
she encountered heavy fog when
approximately 175 miles from Ambrose
Lighthouse. The poor visibility forced
the Republic’s captain to
slow his ship and sound her horn at
regular intervals. This standard
procedure failed to prevent a near
catastrophic disaster as the Lloyd
Italiano Lines 5,018-ton Florida
on route to New York rammed the
Republic on her portside aft of
amidships.
With the Republic’s
engine room flooding and losing power,
her captain ordered that a distress call
be made on the Marconi radio. Fortunately
for the Republic, this new
communication system had recently been
installed on most transatlantic ships.
The White Star Lines Baltic
arrived at the scene to find the
Republic’s passengers had
already been transferred to the not so
badly damaged Florida. With the
small ship overloaded and her hull in a
damaged state, all passengers were
transferred to the Baltic so they
could be taken to New York. The American
coast guard ship Gresham attempted
to tow the Republic into port the
following day. As they were attaching a
towline, it became obvious they were too
late to save the ship and pulled back to
watch her sink. The following inquest
blamed the Lloyd Italiano Line for
causing the collision. This forced them
to sell the Florida so they could
pay the White Star Line compensation for
the loss of their ship.
Below, the Republic
sinking
|
