RMS Stella del Nord
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 The Stella del Nord photographed in Moddra, 1907.
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| History | |
|---|---|
 Cacertian Empire
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| Name: | RMS Stella del Nord |
| Owner: | File:CacertianAlberrenoLineFlag.png Alberreno Line |
| Port of registry: |
 Port of Andria, Andria Protectorate |
| Route: | Andria to Moddra to Kenlis |
| Ordered: | 4 October 1896 |
| Builder: | Royal Shipbuilders of Cacerta, Fumicino, Cacertian Empire |
| Laid down: | 4 November 1897 |
| Launched: | 17 June 1898 |
| Completed: | 5 September 1898 |
| Maiden voyage: | 12 September 1898 |
| In service: | 5 September 1898 |
| Out of service: | 3 May 1908 |
| Fate: | Struck an iceberg at 1:20AM (ship’s time) and sank approximately two hours later on 3 May 1908. |
| Status: | Wreck |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Star-class ocean liner |
| Displacement: | 16,221 tons |
| Length: | 170 meters |
| Beam: | 20 meters |
| Draught: | 8.5 meters |
| Decks: | 5 |
| Propulsion: |
list error: <br /> list (help) 2 × screw propellers 2 × quadruple-expansion steam engines |
| Speed: | 20 knots (37 km/h) max |
| Capacity: | 1,894 passengers |
| Crew: | 557 crew |
RMS Stella del Nord (Italian: North Star) was a Cacertian passenger liner operated by the Alberreno Line that sank in the southern Malian Sea on 3 May 1908 after striking an iceberg during its routine voyage from Moddra to Kenlis. According to the records at the time, the Stella del Nord was carrying an estimated 1,552 passengers and 543 crew at the time of the sinking. Of the 2,095 people aboard, over 1,200 perished making it the deadliest peacetime sinking of an ocean liner in Tyran to date.
After leaving Andria on 27 April 1908, Stella del Nord made her usual crossing of the Nuandan Ocean and arrived in Moddra four days later. There she resupplied and disembarked passengers intended for Syara before taking on additional passengers bound for Ossoria, departing Moddra on the afternoon of 1 May. On 3 May, two days into her journey, she glanced an iceberg at 1:20AM ship’s time that buckled the hull-plates below the waterline and opened up four of her eleven watertight compartments to the sea. Despite the efforts of her experienced crew, the lack of sufficient lifeboats ensured that only a fraction of its occupants would survive. At 3:20AM, she foundered with well over a thousand people still aboard.
The disaster was met with region-wide shock. The Stella del Nord had been in service for nearly a decade, was manned by an experienced crew, and had also survived two other encounters with icebergs in her career which garnered her an impeccable reputation. Public inquiries in Cacerta and Ossoria led to several changes in maritime safety which also included several wireless regulations that were passed around the world to learn from various missteps in wireless communications that could have saved many more passengers.