RMS Stella del Nord

The Stella del Nord photographed in Moddra, 1907.
History
Cacertian Empire
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:	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 was making her 106th voyage, 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.

Background

The Stella del Nord was the first of a pair of Star-class ocean liners ordered by the Alberreno Line during their early years in operation out of the Andria Protectorate. 1897, Alberreno had officially entered the market for trans-Andria travel between Cacerta and its extra-national protectorate. In March 1897, they had purchased Giovanni & Co Shipping from which they obtained four ships: Primavera, Estate, Autunno, and Inverno. Inverno would be the first to sail on the company’s new route that would take it from Andria to Moddra to Kenlis. This new line proved to be successful and profitable with twenty-two crossings completed by Invenro and Estate on which a combined total of 24,000 third-class passengers traveled. As a result, Alberreno ordered the construction of Stella del Nord and Stella del Sud to operate between Andria and Ossoria and Andria and Cacerta respectively.

Career

Sinking

At 12:15AM on 3 May, lookouts Domenica Carafa and Ristoro Barbieri began spotting pack ice and several icebergs directly ahead and informed the bridge. First Officer Amelio Califano ordered the ship to reduce speed from full to half to allow the ship more time to maneuver around obstacles when necessary. Although the Stella del Nord had received iceberg warnings the previous afternoon from the nearby LPR Tobar Sagais which reported pack ice and field ice at 1:45PM and LGS Abhainn an Lagáin who had reported three large bergs at 8:30PM, none of the ships understood the scale of the ice field into which the Stella del Nord was sailing.

At approximately 1:00AM Domenica reported a large iceberg directly ahead of the Stella and immediately passed the word along to the bridge of the obstacle. Califano, believing the ship was moving slow enough to easily maneuver around the iceberg, ordered the ship hard astarboard. According to testimony from Ristoro, from his position in the crow’s nest with Domenica it “appeared as if we had cleared the iceberg when all of a sudden we felt a shuddering just as the iceberg cleared past our view at the lookout post”. Stella del Nord had struck the iceberg on her starboard side by an underwater spur of ice, buckling its hull plates and separating them at the seam; four of the ship’s watertight compartments had been subsequently breached. First Officer Califano, after feeling the shudder and observing the collision, immediately closed the vessel’s watertight doors from the remote controls on the bridge. About five minutes after the collision, the Stella’s engines were shut down leaving her to drift northward.

Captain Taddea Fiorina felt the collision in her cabin and immediately came to the bridge where she was informed of the situation. Fironia and Califano went below to find that the forward cargo holds and mail room flooded while the adjacent boiler room already had 4 meters of water and was quickly rising. The ships crew battled to pump out the water, but it was clear that the amount pouring in was far more than the ship’s ballast and bilge pumps were capable of handling. Having captained the Stella del Nord’s sister ship, Captain Fiorina was aware that the ship could not remain afloat much longer than a few hours.

The Stella was equipped with fourteen wooden lifeboats which was sixteen less than was needed to accommodate everyone aboard. Despite knowing this and after assessing the damage, Captain Fiorina immediately roused the remaining crew, ordered the lifeboats uncovered, and the passengers to be mustered at 1:45AM. Progress in evacuating the passengers proceeded at a steady pace and all the lifeboats aboard had been successfully launched carrying 848 of the 2,095 people aboard.

Between 3:10 and 3:15AM, the Stella del Nord’s rate of sinking increased rapidly and she eventually foundered at 3:20AM with well over a thousand people still aboard. The remaining passengers and crew were immersed in the lethally cold waters of the Malian Sea, almost all of whom perished within the first half hour due to cardiac arrest and cold incapacitation. Fifth Officer Sabino Rana organized several lifeboats to return to try and mount a rescue and managed to help fifteen survivors into the lifeboats, although five would die due to cold-related illnesses before the arrival of any assistance.

It had been hoped that a passing vessel would be close enough to allow for transferring passengers using the lifeboats from Stella del Nord to the rescue. Distress signals were sent by wireless, rockets, and lamp, but none of the ships that had responded to the Stella’s signals were near enough to reach the stricken vessel before she sank. The SCS Simple Truths was the closest, but at a maximum speed of 17 knots took a little under three hours to reach the site. Another to respond was the LPR Bradán Feasa, which set course for the position of the Stella but was stopped en route by pack ice.

The Stella del Nord’s survivors were rescued the morning of 3 May by the SCS Simple Truths which had steamed through the night at high speed and considerable risk, dodging numerous icebergs en route. Simple Truths lights were first spotted at around 5:30AM and not long after she began firing green rockets to signal any survivors that rescue was inbound; she arrived on site at 6:00AM and began accommodating the survivors with food and blankets where possible.

Simple Truths, a fully-laden cargo vessel bound for Kylacky, did not have the supplies or accommodations to properly care for the survivors but Captain Zitko Evgeniev Vasev elected to remain onsite having communicated with Captain Niall Ó Mathúna that the LPR Bradán Feasa was making 23 knots and would arrive by 7:00AM. After several hours of transferring the survivors, the Bradán Feasa conveyed them back to Kenlis. 858 people survived the sinking while at least 1,200 people lost their lives.