The Sinking of White Star Line’s RMS Republic
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ค. 2024
- The White Star Line's RMS Republic, launched on February 26th, 1903, sank after she collided with the SS Florida in a fog bank off Nantucket on January 24th, 1909. The disaster was the first time Marconi wireless was used to transmit a distress signal. The rescue was a major success, with only 6 people dying in the initial collision. With hardly any casualties, the Republic taught the shipping industry that modern ocean liners were virtually immune to major disasters. This confidence would ultimately prove deadly for RMS Titanic only 3 years later.
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Sources:
www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexpe...
www.rmsrepublic.news
www.rms-republic.com
www.jackbinns.org/
web.archive.org/web/200906181...
archive.org/details/radiobroa...
www.bbc.co.uk/cambridgeshire/...
Music sourced from Epidemic Sound: www.epidemicsound.com/referra...
Chapters:
0:00 Titanic and Republic
1:36 Chapter 1: The Magic of Wireless
5:05 Chapter 2: A Tale of Two Ships
9:23 Chapter 3: Sailing Blind
13:13 Chapter 4: 83 Boatloads
18:07 Chapter 5: All the Wrong Lessons
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Thank you for watching! Did you stay to the end to hear about the gold?
Yes! Surprised someone hasn’t gotten it yet!
Maybe I already found it & didn't tell...
Sounds like an urban myth to me. A BILLION dollars worth of gold?! In less than 300 feet of water? With today's technology, they'd drill a big hole in the side of the ship to get it if they had to. I mean, they drill oil wells in thousands of feet of water, for way less than a billion dollars worth of oil.
Or is it some kind of government protected situation where no one is allowed to access the ship? But even then, unless its within sight of land, I could see someone sneaking out there, for a BILLION dollar payday. Or, they'd just buy off the gov't by offering to split the money with the State.
Sadly no my boat is sinking rn
Absolutely! Let's bank roll an expedition to the Republic Wreak and discover the sunken treasures of a lifetime! Crazy its location is known in under 400 feet of water, yet its interior can not be accessed. With that much gold I would think someone would have tried. Makes me wonder tho if because it was supposedly the US Navy's Big White Fleet payroll if the government would sieze such recovered treasure. Certainly they would try to tax the living day lights out of it either way.... Like the state of Florida tried to do to Mr. Mel Fisher upon the discovery and salvage of the treasure galleon Atocha....
Baltic and her Captain J.B. Ranson deserve some credit for rescuing Republic’s survivors. A lot of people forget how big of a role they played in the rescue.
Indeed they did. Mad respect for the Baltic, her captain and crew.
Yeah, all possible because the wireless operator was able to inform them as to their position and condition.
@@harrietharlow9929 Baltic definitely had plenty of capacity for the more than 1,600 survivors she rescued. She was on a westbound voyage approaching New York with only 489 passengers onboard (her total capacity was 2,875 passengers; 425 first class, 450 second class, and 2,000 third class) during a typically slow January crossing. She was 64 miles away when Republic’s distress call was relayed to her.
Tell me your American without telling me, you're American.
@@sirandrelefaedelinoge What is that supposed to mean?
Wow, the captain stayed with his ship until it sank even though he could have left with his officers. Honor and duty meant a lot more back then I guess. Contrast his actions with that captain of the Costa Concordia who legged it at the first opportunity.
Quite so: no one was, in all probability, more surprised that he survived, than the man himself.
You have to remember the Costa Concordia Captain was Italian and NOT British which explains things adequately.
The White Star Line would cut your pay the moment that the ship was critically damaged. (As mentioned in the documentary Saving the Titanic 3 minutes in. th-cam.com/video/yzHZJcyU9g8/w-d-xo.html) CW & FN Black, the music directors for the White Star Line, sent a bill to Andrew Hume, the father of the late John Hume, for the loss of the uniform. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musicians_of_the_Titanic) Given the way people were treated after a shipwreck, it does not surprise me that the Captain would try to go down with the ship.
Honorable, yes but in this particular case, a bit silly. Everyone was fine and there was no real reason to go down with his ship whereas the Concordia's captain left in the middle of the crisis.
Captain Sealby wasn’t alone, Second Officer Williams stayed with him. Both were washed into the sea when Republic sank. They were rescued by one of Gresham’s lifeboats.
This story literally made everything that was done wrong in regards to the Titanic make so much more sense. Thank you.
This would make an amazing movie. Heroism, tragedy, suspense, and a mostly 'happy' ending (with the vast majority of those involved surviving), with the specter of the upcoming Titanic disaster hanging over it all. RIP to those who lost their lives; the story of the 14-year-old boy is particularly devastating. 💔
(And I loved "Oh yeah, the gold!")
Plus it would put the _Titanic_ Disaster into perspective: Ships didn’t need enough lifeboats to hold everyone aboard in one go because a rescue ship would launch her own lifeboats and both ships' boats would make multiple trips.
I think that's their intentions. Can U say Golden Globe ?
only if it had interesting characters written and acted well
If someone ever made an anthology series about the golden age of ocean liners, especially if it would feature some of the familiar faces we know from Titanic earlier in their careers, I’d watch and binge-watch it without hesitation!
It just blows my mind that nobody at the time could have ever imagined the ability to wirelessly transmit messages over great distances would also be a massive aid in navigating a ship and calling for help if needed in addition to allowing wealthy passengers to message wherever they wanted to.
It’s nice to hear about a sinking where almost everyone survived.
Same is for the HMHS Britannic
I never knew til now what the rationale was for Titanic to have so few life boats--that it was believed they were there only to ferry passengers to another ship. This video was exceptionally informative as well as a tale of high courage and dedication. Thank you 🙏
Even if they had more lifeboats they wouldn’t have had enough time to lower them all it took near enough 10 to 15 minutes to sort the lifeboats out and they had to be lowered by hand
@@Borninthe80s.I wish more people would understand that. They barely had enough time to launch the lifeboats they did have. There’s too much emphasis on the lack of lifeboats. Same with not having binoculars. It would work fine during the day, but at night it was pitch black out, they couldn’t of seen anything anyway.
The reason Titanic had so few lifeboats, as I've come to understand, is that ships in her era were more focused on preventative measures rather than reactive. In short, they were very confident in the bulkheads, which could have 4 completely full without sinking the ship. Unfortunately, as we know, Titanic had around 6 compartments filled with water.
It's really interesting that the take away from this incident wasn't "Wow, look at all the stuff that went right at the right time!" instead of "... Wow, that could have gone a lot worse. We should continue to focus on safety."
Survivor's bias blinds industries, as well as people.
2 years prior to the Titanic's sinking, Jack Binns served aboard the RMS Adriatic whose captain was none other than Captain E.J. Smith - the future captain of the Titanic. Captain Smith was impressed by Binns and had specifically asked for Binns to be assigned to the Titanic, but for some reason the head of White Star Line believed Binns was a jinx and would bring bad luck to the soon to be commissioned Titanic, so Binns was assigned to a different ship. Binns resigned from the Marconi company and went to work as a reporter for the New York American newspaper 2 days before the sinking of the Titanic and covered it for the New York American. In 1917, he joined the Canadian Royal Flying Corp and was later transfer to the Royal Flying Corp of Great Britain. After WW1, he returned to work as editor and contributor to several magazines and newspaper.
Wonder how things would've gone with him as operator.
Be honest, I got so wrapped up in the story, I forgot about the gold. Excellent storytelling.
In the case of the _Republic_ and the _Florida_ , rescue was fairly close. For the _Titanic_ , however, the closest ship, the _Californian_ , did not, or was not able to, respond in time. Although _Carpathia_ pushed herself well past the red line to arrive ASAP (and would never sail as fast again), she would still only arrive hours after _Titanic_ 's final plunge, leaving the survivors to float in the cold Atlantic for a long, long time. Still, the confidence in wireless communications and the watertight compartments and waterpumps was amazing. Far fighter than their confidence in lifeboats to keep people alive.
Well, Titanic's wireless operator didn't help matters by telling The Californian's operator Evans to shut up while the guy was trying to warn him about icebergs that night. The guy shut down his radio at 11 pm, as was the norm. The Californian being a steamer, did not have a 2nd wireless operator aboard.
The Titanic found itself in a dangerous ice field on a very dark night, it would have been perilous for any ship to have approached her until dawn.
And Carpathia was closer to titanic than the Baltic was to the republic. Crazy how just a 4knot difference in speed can have the change. If Carpathia could've gone 20knots it might would've been enough to get there right after the final plunge
The Olympic sank, not the Titanic.
@@atomicwedgie8176 okay bro if you say so
This is why I always say context is important to understand large scale disasters. Our minds usually go numb with routine and complacency, ignoring potential red flags or hypothetical situations which are obvious to those who watch back at the events with hindsight.
Thanks for this background to a more famous and deadly disaster, and for teaching me how much of a hero Jack Benz was that night (and honestly the crew of both the Republic and Baltic too). And how he dodged being involved into said more famous disaster.
When you said he was scheduled to work on the Titanic, I said "Oh no!" out loud!
The very first recorded incidence of Florida rolling in and Floridaing everything up for everyone.
A nice retelling of the story. Very impressive that Jack Binns completely recovered from his accident. Probably also worth mentioning that the North Atlantic is usually quite stormy, making lifeboats not much use (as in the sinking of the Volturno), and of course in the other two major passenger ship disasters of the period that everybody knows about the lifeboats were mostly unusable, because the ship listed and sank too quickly.
I live in the same small market town of Brigg which the radio operator originated from. I never knew his story and I thank you for telling it, keeping his memory alive.
Bradley, great video - and thank you for sharing the story of RMS Republic! (Am I the only one who finds "ROYAL Mail Ship Republic" to be an interesting juxtaposition in terms?) I enjoy seeing clips of movies in your videos, and if you ever found enough material to make an "Ocean Liners in Film" video, I'd be very glad to see it. I really enjoyed your look back at how these ships were advertised. Also, I'd love to hear your take on "A Night to Remember." Keep up the great work!
Thank you so much! I love that idea!
I think that'd be an excellent subject for a video. There's definitely a lot of material out there.
@@BigOldBoats thanks for sharing, I wasn’t aware of this accident.
Fun fact: you're not even allowed to use the name "Royal" in the commonwealth or the UK without permission from His Most Royal Majesty. I owned a USA meat company and began selling into Canada. I received a stern letter from the province of BC when I tried to register my business name: "Royal Meats"....NO can do, they said.
One of the most fascinating stories I have ever heard. The link between this episode and the Titanic is absolutely amazing.
Proof that nothing exists in isolation. Great Video on the Republic never knew that this event happened.
I knew absolutely nothing about this, and I was "glued to the screen" watching your video. You have done an excellent job in both presenting the details of the disaster and showing appropriate footage gleaned from other sources. Keep up the good work and I will look forward to future documentaries.
Very interesting. After seeing the photos of Florida I'd say that she was a pretty well designed ship. Her bow deformed in form of "concertina" (actually I thought that such kind of deformation is only possible in cartoons), absorbing the forces of impact and leaving the rest of the vessel intact. It also makes me believe, that - as it has been suggested - Titanic could have survived (or at least sunk a few hours later) if she hit the iceberg head on.
I noticed one day in Eastlake Ohio, as my mainsheet jammed entering Chagrin river, the prow ( above water line ) struck
the vertical metal breakwater. The fiberglass Prow dented, yet no other visible damage.
We'll everyone knew what happened the the Atlantic years before so they wanted to avoid head on. Can't really blame them.
Thank you for covering the lesser known White Star Line ships! RMS Republic and the Baltic deserve some recognition 🚢 would love to hear your take on the Atlantic's sinking off the coast of Nova Scotia
I'm sure he already has done a video on her or others definitely have
Seems as boat approaches what may be a Harbor, speed is slowed but not heaved-to in a FOG. I would tell passenger to sit tight; we are waiting for
FOG to lift or broad daylight. No Stopsign to accomplish this inaction.
@@jameswg13 Part-time Explorer has done some in depth, but I love when other creators cover stories, everyone has their unique storytelling style :)
On the subject of incidents which influenced attitudes before the Titanic, I wonder whether you can find out anything about a certain four-funnelled liner which hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic? The ship was the Kronprinz Wilhelm, in 1907, and suffered a crushed bow, according to Wikipedia, but still completed the voyage safely. I wonder whether the Titianic's officers might have heard of it, and whether they might have thought that this proved that a collision with an iceberg was more of a nuisance than a deadly threat?
"While ploughing her way through the darkness of the early morning the North German Lloyd liner Kronprinz Wilhelm on Monday collided with an iceberg off the Banks, and but for quick work on her bridge and equally quick response in her engine room she would have crept into port badly crippled, if she ever got in at all. " - New York Times
Sounds like a deadly threat to me.
"A strike on the part of her regular crew of boiler room stockers now turned out to have a fortunate by-product. The green replacements could shovel coal to the boilers at a rate barely sufficient to keep the ship's speed at 16 knots. When the westbound vessel was off the Grand Banks and only a hundred feet from what had at first seemed to be a mere fog bank, they recognized the true nature of what they were gazing at - it was a massive but now blessedly sun-softened iceberg. By putting the helm hard aport and reversing his quadruple-expansion engines Richter was able to avert a head-on collision. Nonetheless, the big ship did strike the berg a glancing blow which dumped tons of ice into her starboard well deck, dented her bow, and scraped away all the paint - as well as the lifeboats - on the starboard beam.A quick examination showed that the ship had received no damage below waterline, though just prior to the impact her officers on the bridge had had the foresight to throw the switches so that all 20 doors to her 17 watertight compartments were electrically closed before the moment of impact." - 'The Kaiser's Merchant Ships in World War I
Extremely interesting video. Just a little historical note, Captain Inman Selby was a cousin of White Star's Managing Director, J Bruce Ismay.
A fantastic retelling of this often overlooked event. I never made the connection between the Republic's use of wireless and the fate of the Titanic, but you make a strong case here.
I see someone else in the comments has mentioned it, but I would like to echo the praise for the use of classic film clips in your videos. I've seen quite a few old films in my day, a real Turner Classic Movies fan, but I can't say I've recognized most of the clips you use. Perhaps a special "Shipwrecks in Film" video would indeed be an interesting proposition, revealing the names of the films you pull from and summarizing their plots and relations to maritime history. I would love to expand my film library, and I admire the use of practical and model effects to depict such events. Plus it might be a fun chance to talk about the use of real liners in such films, most famously the SS Ile de France in the flop disaster flick "The Last Voyage" and the SS Cap Arcona in "Titanic" (1943).
It's hardly about "making a case": the connection with Titanic has been acknowledged for quite some time. I first heard of this disaster, for example, and of Jack Binns, fully a generation ago in a PBS documentary, in which all the same points were made.
I agree. Which ships stood in for other ships in films would be interesting too.
17:54 I got emotional when they found the ship. Good story telling. ❤❤❤
I have become addicted to your channel. I have long been an enthusiast of ships from the turn of the last century, but you are bringing to light ships that I have never heard of, and you do it with painstaking detail. Thank you, I feel like a kid again ( I'm 63!), and I am falling in love with my old passion once again. I appreciate your dedication to detail. It's all new to me again. Yes, I did pay attention to the end, and the gold. Not that the knowledge would do me any good at. The lowest point I will swim to is the bottom of my bathtub, and I hope my rubber ducky will have the buoyancy I need to get me to the surface in case of emergency. Cheers!
Thank you for your work. The calculus behind that life boat requirements, make much more sense now.
I'll echo previous opinions- great story and well told! I love the camaraderie between the radio operators, absolute heroes.
Who needs cable when you have great documentaries like these.
Wow! I never even knew this ship existed, nor the pivotal role she played in subsequent ship design and BoT regulations - I learned something new today. Thanks for that and greetings from across the Pond.
As usual, great stuff to watch. I love how you divide your mini-documentaries into chapters and it alltogether makes a one, compelling story. Also love how you mix videos of different ships and it perfectly depicts the on-going mood and situation. One of the best liner-dedicated channels on whole YT and a lot of inspirations 2me btw 😉
Thank you! Glad to hear you're enjoying the videos!
Jack has some amazing good luck, could've lost his legs but fully healed then avoided the Titanic.
I did not know about this ships's story and how it influenced Titanic's fate.
Thanks very much.
You tell these stories so well. Thanks for what you do!
CQD stood for CQ calling all stations D distress, so calling all stations Distress
Correct! Also heard come quick distress which is also most likely a myth.
It is CQ is calling all Stations, the D stood for some form of Distress. It was replaced by SOS, just for the rhythm ...---.... The three short three long three short cuts through interference much better than the old CQD. -.-.--.--.., which you can more easily be confused with a general call. N4YPR
The directional lanes of travel are still common in busy waterways even today. Puget Sound and other restricted areas of mobility also have these regulations today. It just makes sense once ships could determine their own route through self propulsion as relying on wind limited vessels in not just the routes with the best wind, but areas with strong currents often would overpower sailing ships and "waiting on the tide" often had nothing to do with water depth but current durection.
Great video, Captain Bradley, as always. Great story, and testament to how heroism often comes from those in relative obscurity.
Outstanding! I’ve hoped for this follow-up on the Republic rescue since last January and it was worth the wait!
The Marconi Wireless was such an amazing invention. Comparable to the Internet.
"Oh, yeah, the gold." This made me crack up a bit. XD
Ha, I loved the “And oh, by the way, there might be a billion dollars worth of gold.” at the end!
This episode was particularly interesting to me. As a MA and RI resident for all my early life I was familiar with the Lightship and partially knew the waters off that coastline. Storms are frequent off Nantucket and many fishing vessels were sunk there, so it is amazing that the weather held for so long.
Finally a documentary on the SS republic
nice to see that the Republic is getting a full video, rather than just getting mentioned. Thank you for telling this story. I feel that a video on Soviet ships, such as the Admiral Nakhimov and Marco Polo would be an interesting topic.
Brilliant, as always. The stories of long forgotten heroes are excellent. Perhaps a a video dedicated to those?
The British Board of Trade failed to update the lifeboat law as ships grew bigger. They measured the number or lifeboats via the gross tonnage not the number of passengers aboard. Also, as you said, back then lifeboats were seen not as lifesavers but to transport people from a distressed ship to a rescue ship. There were many ships around so it was though a nearby ship would be able o rescue the passengers which is why they didn't think it would be necessary to have enough lifeboats for all passengers
Yep & actually no. of desks making Lifeboat decisions outnumbered no.
of seaway ships ?
Thanks for giving this story a detailed, proper treatment: I had to go over many of this story's points in the comments section of another channel, just a few weeks ago, and you covered every single one of them even more fully. Thank you, indeed.
It's always a treat to see a new video from you. 🙂
Great story! I haven't heard of this one before. Thank you for your work. The channel is great and I watch each new video as soon as they are posted as I enjoy them so much!
Wow, excellent job Brad! Great research and excellent vintage footage!!
A great video, one of your very best. Keep at it man, we all love it!
You've become my favorite ocean liner channel. Keep up the awesome work!
Great video! Even though I was already familiar with the story, I learned a lot of details new to me. You have a wonderful narrative voice, and great accompanying photos and video of the era (or depictions of it). Just an all around joy to watch your content. Thanks!
I just want to thank you for always producing superb videos of the highest quality! Your videos always manage to really *bring me there* in a sense, excellent editing!
I've definitely been more fascinated by Big Old Boats since finding your channel! Hehe! Thanks again!
This was an excellent video, very well put together. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.
What a great and fascinating historical story and so well told!! Thanks very much 👍
I love watching your videos when I'm going to sleep you're voice is soothing plus it takes me two or three before I'm fully clonked out I love the history you teach the unsung heroes and victims of the great transatlantic cruises keep up the good work I can't wait to learn more I'd love a video on the hms barham
Wow, this vid has it all! Scenes from the best Titanic movie, a factoid about Titanic that I did not know, and sailors doing squats! Best episode yet. Thank you!
What a story! Great stuff, and wonderfully done.
This was fantastic, thanks for making this!
Very interesting. I can easily see how this reinforced the attitude that it would never be necessary to put everyone into the lifeboats at once.
I wasn't into the history of boats and ships until I started listening to your channel, now I try not to miss a video
thanks for this, new story for me, well produced video and clear narration, thumbs up
Finally a video about RMS Republic. Republic for me is one of the more interesting shipwrecks in history. But it was a awesome video, Bradley, as with all your videos. I am looking forward to the next video you've in store😇 Cheers!!
Have always been a huge fan of your videos - you highlight events overshadowed or forgotten so perfectly, Also - As Someone who works in Brigg, and Live in Lincolnshire… I’m amazed by the fact about Jack the Marconi operator - I’ve never heard of him and always considered the republic a pretty significant event and so having that link is amazing to me. Your pronunciation was near perfect by the way - people here tend to say “….shire” like “Sher” as opposed to “Shyer”
What an epic story. Wow! Amazing presentation!
An excellent presentation,I enjoyed every minute of this story
Another amazing production, thank you!
Many thanks for another great video, reminds me of the Laurentic , full of gold but it can't be reached, I love that the wireless operators were the IT boys of the time .
Great work Big Old Boats, fascinating story of the Republic and the Florida. RIP to the lives lost.
An Excellent presentation. I was not familiar with the history concerning the RMS Republic. Yet another fascinating story. Thank you.
Thank you for an excellent video! You've just gained a new subscriber. :)
Fascinating and Heroic Story, Well done !
Love your channel❤ thank you ! …please continue to upload vids😊
Thank you for your efforts 🙏
Absolutely facinating! Thank you so much! 👍👍👍👍
Excellent. Very educational and interesting. Thank You and Best Regards.
a very interesting story of marine loss. I enjoy your channel, but feel I need to correct an apparent error. As a former ship captain and mariner who was at sea during the last days of wireless telegraphy, I'd like to let you know that CQ (_.__ __._) is the international maritime signal for "Calling all stations", and in those days adding the "D" as a suffix indicated a distress message, which was later changed to SOS as the international WT Distress signal, because it was distinctive and could not be confused with the CQ signal made by stations (usually shore stations send out traffic lists to listening vessels). Keep up the good work; your videos are extremely informative.
Thank you for sharing this story.
Excellent presentation and narration.
Her captain was a real legend, comforting his crew and passengers in the worst trip of their lives
I find it amusing how wireless radio operators from back in the day were basically the equivalent of modern PC gamers (that being technophillic nerds). I'm just imagining the wild chats some of them must have had with each other while on their own time.
What amazing luck Jack Benz had. Hope he lived a long and prosperous life.
Amazing story. Thank you for sharing
The Republic and Baltic story is definitely worthy of its over video - thank you for doing it! Also, The wreck of the Republic is privately owned and diving is not allowed without permission
Very interesting! Keep up the great work!
That was a great story and insight into the thinking with liners back then ❤
thanks for all the details. I was born 1970 and as a youth made the ham radio examen and for a few years had some short-wave equipment on the rooftop of my parent's house and operated QSO's mostly in the 20m band using SSB as well as CW so at least i got the feeling of how to use morse-code on a "wireless set" and was trying to imagine how people might have felt 100 years ago when putting out distress signals and organising evacuation. Being able to use the sound of a rocket to determin a position (yet triangulation aparantly being impossible) is also miraculous to me.
Thanks for the content, excellent
as someone who has been a titanic nerd my whole life i really appreciate the happy ending stories. i want to hear them all!
Wow, what a saga! Thanks
In 1909, the orders for changing course were in the process of being changed. 'Hard a port" could mean turn the WHEEL to steer the ship to port (what we would expect today), or push the TILLER to port which would turn the vessel to starboard. The loss of the Republic in part caused the instruction to be clarified.
I didn't know Jack Binns had been disabled. I have several books about him, but had never heard that. I am suffering from a broken leg and considered amputation as well, but now am thinking I may get back to walking, after 8 mos in a wheelchair.
I agree. helm orders then were given for the tiller rather than the wheel, a tradition from th days of sail.
Great video, very interesting story. Thank you.
As usual, great video. 👍
I love these. Great listening
Aww! Awesome clips from a great movie 'A Night to Remember' good book too
Excellent presentation and research
Another great video. Maybe treasure ships or other ships carrying exceptionally valuable cargoes that ran into trouble would make interesting video subjects.