our ship is sinking fast beneath the waves it's such a storm that we cannot live in small boats
one boat has already gone below with our human cargo god let us all live through this we struck
an iceberg in a blinding snowstorm and floated two hours now it's 3 20 am by my watch and the
great ship is dead level with the sea goodbye all at 2 am on march 4th 1893 the british steamer ss
coventry came upon an overturned lifeboat in the north atlantic later that day they would find a
second floating upright almost completely swamped but in good condition with its sail and mass
still intact the two derelict boats were from the white star line livestock carrier the ss neuronic
they were found only a few miles from where the titanic would sink less than 20 years later
the two lifeboats were the only verified trace of the ss neuronic that would ever be found
at the time the incident was a confounding mystery that sparked a small media sensation
now the lost ship is just a nearly forgotten historical footnote what happened to the brand
new steam ship and the 74 souls on board remains one of the great mysteries of the white star line
by the early 1890s the white star line still under the supervision of thomas
ismae had well established itself as an innovative atlantic shipping line
their latest passenger liners the teutonic and the majestic both launched in 1889
took turns capturing the blue band for the fastest atlantic crossing in 1891.
they were the first white star liners to be constructed without square ribbed sails
and they garnered international acclaim particularly impressing kaiser wilhelm ii of
germany his country would soon begin construction on the kaiser class of four funnel liners that
would spark a period of fierce competition for atlantic dominance between the european powers
the white star lines interests extended well beyond their premier passenger liners
and included a fleet of lesser-known vessels that service the lucrative atlantic livestock trade the
ss neuronic like most white star line ships was constructed at heartland wolf in belfast ireland
she was launched may 26 1892 and completed on july 11th she was a well-equipped and modern
vessel for the time designed to also accommodate a small number of passengers to maximize profits
she was powered by twin reciprocating engines that drove twin propellers to achieve a cruising speed
of 13 knots she was 470 feet long and 6 594 tons for comparison the teutonic built only a few years
before at harland and wolf was one of the largest most advanced ships of the time she came in
at 582 feet and 99 tons so while the neuronic was certainly not a record breaker she was a fairly
large ship for the time her maiden voyage took place on july 15 1892 sailing from liverpool to
new york she sailed without incident for the first few months of her career the ss neuronic departed
liverpool for her final voyage on february 11 1893 she was commanded by captain william roberts
a veteran of the white star line with 20 years of experience serving the company she had a total of
74 men on board made up of 50 crewmen 14 cattlemen and 10 horse traders the voyage was a routine one
she carried 3572 tons of general cargo and 1017 tons of welsh coal after dropping off her harbor
pilot at point linus wales the ss neuronic was never seen again it was somewhat normal
at the time for cargo ships to arrive behind schedule but after a few days worry began to grow
the story first broke in the new york times on march 2nd 19 days after the ship left liverpool
her longest trip at this point had been 11 days and her sister's ship the slower ss bovick
had arrived in new york that day after leaving liverpool six days after the neuronic departed
ships on the same route reported heavy seas gale force winds and snow
when the ss coventry arrived in port later that month with the news of the abandoned lifeboats
it was clear the ship had probably been lost there was intense media speculation at the
time over the fate of the missing freighter with stories of potential boiler explosions getting
carried off course and wives driven mad by grief seriously but then the bottles began to appear
on march 3rd in bay ridge new york a bottle was found with a message inside it read february 19th
1893 neuronic sinking all hand praying god have mercy on us the message was signed el winsl then
on march 30th in ocean view virginia another message washed ashore in a champagne bottle
it was the most detailed reading 3 10 a.m february 19th ss neuronic at sea
to who picks this up report when you find this to our agents if not heard of before that our ship is
sinking fast beneath the waves it's such a storm that we can never live in the small boats one boat
has already gone with our human cargo below god let all of us live through this we were struck by
an iceberg in a blinding snowstorm and floated two hours now at 3 20 a.m by my watch and the great
ship is dead level with the sea report to the agents at broadway new york in kersey and company
goodbye all it was signed john olson cattlemen the next message was found in the irish channel on
june of that year it read struck iceberg sinking fast neuronic this message was signed young the
final message was found september 18th floating in the mercy river it contained two strips of
wool and red all hands lost neuronic no time to say more the message was signed with just a t
an inquiry was held by the british board of trade at st george's hall in liverpool the ship's design
and cargo manifest were reviewed and it was quickly determined that a sudden shift in cargo
wasn't to blame for the disaster the harbor pilot was interviewed and reported nothing out of the
ordinary while he was briefly on board the ship beyond that the board had little to work with
there was speculation from the captain of another white star line ship the runic that
it was possible that the ship's engines could suffer a catastrophic malfunction
that would result in one of her pistons shooting down through the hole causing her to sink almost
immediately real company man right here the board of trade was quick to dismiss the bottle messages
and iceberg theory they claimed that there was no ice present despite reports from other
ships in the area that they had encountered ice near where the incident likely occurred
there is however reason to question the authenticity of the bottle messages for one
none of the signed names l winsell john olson or young appear on the crew or passenger lists
once the story first appeared in the papers the missing ship was a big story
so it's suspicious that the first message was found in new york only one day after the story
first broke in the new york times the white star line also dismissed the second bottle as a hoax
because they felt it was impossible for the bottle to reach the spot where it was found
but debris from ships in the area have been found along the eastern seaboard of the united states
throughout the years even if it's unlikely it's not impossible while there's reason to doubt the
bottles there's also reason to believe they could be authentic the names don't match the manifest
but it was very common at the time for passenger lists to be pretty inaccurate even the titanic
20 years later had 33 mistakes on her passenger lists so it's not inconceivable that someone gave
a different name joined the crew last minute or simply made a mistake the first two bottles also
lists the exact same date february 19th based on the neuronic speed and date of departure she
would likely have been in the area where her lifeboats were found at around the same date
the second bottle also listed several other specific details and even correctly named
the white starline agent in new york so if it was a fake the pranksters really did their homework
but if the bottles were hoaxes and the ship didn't strike an iceberg in a snowstorm
what happened to her and if they're real why were no bodies or debris found after survivors from
the titanic disaster were rescued from collapsible egg the lifeboat was set adrift with three bodies
after drifting for a month the boat was recovered by the ims oceanic the three bodies were still on
board the small boat in fact the last bodies recovered from the titanic were discovered
a full six weeks after the tragedy so why were none found from the neuronic the last theory and
definitely the craziest one came a decade later in 1903 a bomb was planted on the q node lines
rms umbria by a political terrorist who went by the name guess where so the bomb plot failed and
when he was arrested newspapers claimed that a slip of paper was found in his room that read
the destruction of the neuronic was complete rousseau is completely forgotten now but he was
somewhat notorious at the time and known to target british ships but aside from being pretty bad at
making bombs that actually worked rousseau was in america at the time of the neuronic disaster
which would make it pretty hard for him to board the ship in liverpool the story is likely a case
of media's sensationalism they even spell neuronic wrong in the headline which is kind of fun
the thing that strikes me about the neuronic mystery is not so much trying to figure out
how it happened we can gather that something went terribly wrong that caused the ship to
sink with all on board that's not all that mysterious the thing that i get caught up on
is the lonely terror of the situation knowing that your ship is sinking in the middle of the night
miles from anyone who can help how it must have felt for the relatives of the 74 men on board
it's one thing to lose a loved one it's another to always wonder what actually happened to them
no one even sent a search party after the ship went missing the white star line altered the
teutonics roots slightly after the incident to sail through the area where the neuronic
was thought to have been lost but that was it they just asked another ship to keep an eye out
it's hard to imagine such a difference today but after all the 74 men weren't paying passengers
they were just replaceable employees the neuronic disaster happened five years before the marconi
company began producing systems like the one installed on the titanic in that time if you ran
into trouble your only hope was signaling a nearby ship or survive in a tiny lifeboat which in heavy
seas would be almost completely impossible one of my favorite stories from the titanic
disaster is what happened on saturday april 13 1912 the day before she struck the iceberg
that evening while chief telegraph operator john phillips was at work sending messages the
marconi machine suddenly stopped working it was standard procedure at the time that if something
went wrong with the equipment the operators were not supposed to try and fix it they were to wait
until the ship reached shore where a company technician could properly service the equipment
phillips and his assistant harold bride ignored the rules and spent five hours working late into
the night to fix the equipment on their own it's terrifying to imagine what would have happened
if they hadn't fixed the machine when they did the titanic sank in two hours and 40 minutes
what if when the massive liner went down the carpathia wasn't racing to the scene
what if no one knew she was in trouble that's exactly what happened to the crew of the ss
neuronic when whatever went wrong with the ship whether it was a sudden engine malfunction or a
collision with an iceberg and a blinding snowstorm all they could do was wait for their ship to sink
beneath them leaving them alone in the churning icy waters no one would know what happened to them
no one would know their state of mind in those final moments they were just gone without a trace
you