SS Storstad

The Storstad after the collision in Montreal

The Storstad was a coal freighter, which in 1911 by the shipyard Armstrong - Whitworth in Low Walker on Tyne for the A / S Maritim ( AF Klaveness & Co.) was built in Christiania in Norway.

History

The Storstad under the command of Captain Thomas Andersen was loaded with coal on the way to Quebec when she ran into the early hours of the morning on May 29, 1914 St. Lawrence River in a dense fog bank. About two clock at night they rammed the Canadian passenger ship Empress of Ireland near the city of Rimouski. While the Empress of Ireland, capsized and sank within fourteen minutes that Storstad was indeed damaged, but remained buoyant. Having established that the own ship was not in danger, the crew left the boats into the water and picked up survivors of the Empress of Ireland. In the accident more than a thousand people were killed.

A later investigation gave the crew the Storstad the blame for the disaster, as Alfred Toftenes, the first officer, changed course and the captain did not inform about the fog. A further investigation by Norwegian authorities, however, came to the conclusion that the captain of the Empress of Ireland was responsible for the accident because he stopped his ship. Had he not done so, both ships were driven past one another without problems.

The Storstad drove after the accident further to Quebec, where he was first seized by the authorities, but later bought back by the previous owner and repaired. During World War I she was torpedoed and sunk on March 8, 1917 by the German submarine U 62 ( Commander Ernst Hashagen ) off the Irish coast. The crew was rescued.