Oceanic (II)
At the time of her launch at Harland and Wolff, Belfast on 14th January 1899 Oceanic (II) was the largest ship in existence and the first ship to be longer in length (but not tonnage) than Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s SS Great Eastern that had been launched in 1858 and broken up for scrap in 1889.
Under the command of Captain JG Cameron on 6th September 1899 Oceanic departed her home port on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York, with 1,890 people onboard. From Liverpool she proceeded to Queenstown then on to New York where she landed on 13th September 1899. While in New York $5,000 was raised for local hospitals by people paying to visit Oceanic.
Oceanic ran aground off Three Castles Head in Ireland on 9th October 1900 but was able to reverse back to safe water. While in Liverpool five days later Oceanic’s anchor chain broke while it was being lowered. As a result of the chain breaking one person lost their life and another was injured but survived.
While in the Irish Channel, in fog early on 8th August 1901 the coastal steamer Kincora of the Waterford Steamship Company sank with the loss of seven of her 20 crew after she collided with Oceanic. The only damage that Oceanic sustained was a dent in her bow and some paint missing. Oceanic’s crew were praised by her passengers for their rescue of Kincora’s surviving crew members.
When Oceanic returned to Liverpool from New York on 11th October 1905, thirty three of her firemen were arrested for conspiracy to disobey orders after they refused to work during the voyage over a dispute over pay. The firemen were sentenced the next day to imprisonment at hard labour for a week.
During a voyage from Southampton to New York on 25th November 1906 in heavy weather on the North Atlantic, Oceanic’s Captain, James G Cameron was knocked unconscious by being forced off his feet when a huge wave swept over the bridge, smashing a chart room window and injuring First officer Thomson by the flying glass. After Captain Cameron was treated by the ship’s doctor he returned to the bridge and remained there for most of the next twenty four hours. Captain Cameron had been Oceanic’s Captain since her maiden voyage and remained her Captain until April 1907 when he become White Star’s Superintendant at Southampton.
On 3rd June 1907 in New York Oceanic suffered approximately $5,000 to $10,000 worth of damage after a fire broke out in No. 6 hold which was occupied as a steerage compartment. As the crew were unable to contain the fire, Captain Haddock called in New York fire fighters who with the assistance of McClellan, a fireboat brought the fire under control.
From 19th June 1907, Oceanic sailed from Southampton instead of Liverpool.
In heavy weather on 21st March 1911, Oceanic’s First Officer Charles Lightoller, who would later serve as Titanic’s Second Officer on her ill-fated maiden voyage was nearly struck by large splinters, on the bridge when around nine feet of Oceanic’s foremast fell to the deck nearly hitting her funnel and glass dome and putting her wireless out of action for nearly an hour, when Oceanic was struck by lightning. The Lighting strike did not delay the voyage and no one was hurt.
During a voyage from Southampton to New York on 29th February 1912 Oceanic lost a blade from her port propeller which made her a day late arriving in New York. When Oceanic left New York it marked the last time Captain Haddock would command Oceanic as before he took command of Olympic he was sent to Belfast to supervise Titanic until Captain Smith took command after completing his last voyage on Olympic.
A month after the Titanic disaster on 13th May 1912 Oceanic discovered Titanic’s collapsible lifeboat A, with 3 bodies onboard, the bodies were buried at sea and the lifeboat was taken to New York. Collapsible A was the last boat to leave the starboard side of Titanic after floating off swamped from the ship, it had around 20 people onboard but only 12 survived; the survivors had been rescued by lifeboat 14.
On 6th February 1914 Oceanic was hit by a huge wave on her way to New York which resulted in passengers in deck chairs on her promenade deck being swept towards the stern in 4 feet of water, the wave also smashed 3 deck house ports and a stateroom port as well as some other minor damage to the ship. There were no serious injuries. Oceanic arrived in New York fifty hours late on this voyage with her rigging and decks covered with ice and snow and her bridge with a foot of frozen snow as she also later in the voyage encountered heavy gales and snow.
When the First World War broke out Oceanic was one of the first ships requisitioned for war duties. A month after she was commissioned as an armed merchant cruiser, on 8th September 1914, under the command of a Royal Navy Captain, Captain William Slayter and Oceanic’s previous commander Captain Henry Smith, there to assist him, navigational errors and conflicting orders from the captains, resulted in Oceanic being pushed on to the rocks of Shaalds of Foula were she grounded.
After attempts to free Oceanic failed and the condition of the wreck worsened especially after a storm 2 weeks later, the wreck was abandoned.
At a court martial following the incident both Captains were exonerated of any wrong doing but Oceanic’s officer, David Blair who was originally Titanic’s 2nd officer before the officer reshuffle, was reprimanded for not taking proper precautions to sound on the approaching island and for not immediately stopping the ship when he sighted land.
Oceanic remained on the rocks until 1926 when she was broken up/salvaged as for as the water line, another salvage operation began in around 1973 and most of what was left was removed in 1979. There is still some traces of the wreck on the site.
