Monday, April 09, 2007

The return of the victims of the SS. Vestris by RMS Celtic. The Celtic brought back to Europe suvivors of the Vestris and then crashed.

RMS Celtic on the rocks at Roche's Point Queenstown, (now Cobh) Ireland...
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My grandfather saved many newspaper clippings in scrap books. They go from the 1920's till the early 1930's.
One of the pages of his scrap book deals with the sinking of the Vestris. So here are some of the original pictures from the sinking that were in the papers in 1928.






The ship was ready to capsize. These remarkable pictures caught the public's imagination. Several survivors of this disaster sailed back to Europe on the RMS. Celtic.





One of the several other shots of the Vestris sinking






Water is coming over the side of the ship in this news photo..








The news clipping showing the Vestris before her sinking






The Celtic's career came to an end like the Vestris in 1928. However rarely does the story go beyond the Vestris. Here is a rare late menu cover from the Celtic in 1928







The food in this dinner was a simple fair...





The SS. Vestris was built in 1912 and had a most successful career. In November 1928 the Vestris was sailing near the Delaware coast in rough weather and her cargo shifted..He balance was compromised, and she started to list strongly. Soon it was evident that she was going to sink. An SOS was sent and many ships came to her rescue. The disaster was one of the first in which photographs were taken. It was in all the papers...It was the stuff of high drama.
Several of the survivors took the White Star Line's RMS Celtic home from New York in December of 1928. This ship was famous for once being the largest ship in the world when she had been built in 1901.
The crossing went well till the ship reached Ireland when she was hit by a violent gust of wind and crashed heavily into the rocks at Roche's Point in what is now Cobh, Ireland....The ship was holed and settled onto the rocks. All the passengers were sent to the boats and the ship was evacuated.
For the survivors of the Vestris, this was just a little too much for them. I wonder how many of them ever sailed again?