The Utopia disaster, March 17, 1891: How she sank and how she was raised

By Brian Porro

On 30 August 2022, ‘OS 35’, a bulk carrier that was outbound for the Netherlands, hit the ‘Adam LNG’, a gas carrier which was in the anchorage outside the Port of Gibraltar. After the collision, the vessel was directed into a position less than 1,000 feet (approximately 300 metres) off Catalan Bay, on Gibraltar’s east side anchorage, where it settled at the bow to the bottom at a depth of approximately 56 feet (less than 20 metres).

Salvage teams later decided to sink the stern of the vessel too but, although preparations began immediately, the wreck was not lifted and removed until a year later – July 2023.

That incident recalled memories of having read about an earlier tragedy, the sinking of the Utopia but, beyond that, it prompted questions about what happened after the Utopia sank.

What happened to the victims?

How long did the vessel remain half submerged in the port?

How and when was it raised or salvaged?

What eventually happened to the Utopia?

THE SINKING

Much has been written about the disaster and how it came about and much of it has appeared here, in the pages of the Gibraltar Chronicle, over the years.

The SS Utopia was an Anchor Line steamship which had been built in the Clyde by Robert Duncan and Co. 17 years earlier in 1874 and for 8 years it operated between Glasgow and New York, Bombay and London.

From 1882, the Utopia was dedicated to taking passengers from Italy to the United States of America carrying mostly Italian passengers during the period of the great Italian emigration.

By 1890, in order to make more money for the Anchor Line, the number of first-class passengers the ship could accommodate was reduced to 45 while the number of ‘steerage’ or third-class passengers it could take was increased to 900.

When the Utopia departed Naples on 12 March 1891, it was carrying a total of 880 passengers, 59 of whom were crew, many British, 3 first-class passengers, and reportedly 3 stowaways. There was good reason for calling into Gibraltar, including to take on coal for fuel, to deliver a cargo of meat and vegetables and, not least, to collect an additional lifeboat.

Yes indeed – a lifeboat that had been under repair at Gibraltar. That meant the vessel had departed Naples without the full and yet inadequate complement of rescue equipment, at least in modern terms.

Tragically, for the 880 persons on board, there were only enough lifeboats with capacity for 460 at best and only in calm weather. There were no life rafts and the life jackets that were available numbered only 200.

There are many reports of what happened that night. Many of them are too harrowing to transcribe here.

The Utopia was making its way into the inner harbour in adverse westerly conditions in poor light at 6.30 pm. The captain had been a frequent visitor but, that night, he claimed to have been surprised at how crowded the harbour was with various warships, so he re-manoeuvred and calculated he could steer between two, which required passing across the bow of HMS Anson. Unfortunately for the Utopia, Anson was fitted with a ram, a sharp protrusion from the bow below the level of the water, and Utopia ran itself on it, gashing its hull under the waterline near the engine room.

As the vessel heeled and sank back it extended the damage, the ram ripping through the side like a can opener through a of beans, and it only took some 20 minutes for the ship to sink completely, leaving its superstructure just above the water once it hit bottom.

The implications for those on board are clear. There was little or no chance of finding a way off or doing so quickly enough. The eyewitness reports are blood chillingly horrific.

562 died.
Divers who went down later gave accounts of ‘hatches and the chart room being closely packed with the bodies of the unfortunate passengers, who had become wedged into an almost solid mass in their frantic rush to reach the decks.’ Many (but not all) of the bodies were recovered by the divers and duly buried ashore.

Nonetheless, 290 third-class passengers were saved. Also saved were 2 saloon passengers, 23 crew and 3 Italian interpreters.

COURT
Despite finding that the master of the Utopia committed a grave error in judgment, by which his ship was sunk and loss of life occurred, the Court did not remove his certificate.

Certainly, no one remarked on the capacity or number of lifeboats, lifejackets or other devices in relation to the number of passengers carried.

In the days following the disaster, many more bodies were recovered and arrangements were made for their burial.

Although there may not be a complete list of passengers which has survived, the burials performed by the Bishop of Gibraltar do represent a roll of many of the victims. The Book of Burials held at the Cathedral of Saint Mary the Crowned, Gibraltar, records the names of the victims buried three days later in Gibraltar on Friday 20 March 1891.

The small glimmer of good news is the one or two names in the register struck out, the comment in the remarks column explaining the person had in fact been listed among the survivors.

SECOND INCIDENT
The wreck of the Utopia, with its upper elements above the water, continued to pose a risk to shipping while it lay there.

Arrangements were made for a number of lights to be placed on the mastheads and on a hulk, a floating vessel tethered nearby. Nevertheless, on 31 March 1891, 14 days after the sinking of the Utopia, SS Primula on entering the harbour collided with the wreck.

The Admiralty Court at Gibraltar found the fault lay with the poor arrangements made to warn of the Utopia’s wreck.

Evidence was given by Manuel Cruz, one of the no doubt local men on board the hulk providing warning lights, who said that the lamps were of the proper number and in the proper position.

The court decided to ignore that evidence and found that it was ‘probably the case’ that on the night of the collision the duties of the lightkeepers on board of the hulk ‘were very inefficiently performed.’

The final decision was that, ‘owing to the neglect on the part of those employed by the … captain of the port’, the position of the wreck was insufficiently indicated and that the captain of the Primula was misled and had no notice from lights of the position or existence of the wreck.

RAISING THE UTOPIA
In many versions of the story of the SS Utopia, less is said about what eventually happened to the ship after it lay in the Bay of Gibraltar for months.

There were, reportedly, many plans submitted to the owners in Scotland for the recovery of the vessel but, eventually, the contract went to a salvage engineer in Scotland.

New bulwarks, the ‘sides’ of the ship above the deck, were constructed to be fitted onto the ship’s own, to reach well above the surface as she lay. The great novelty lay in the method of fixing to the ship, which was by means of clamping the new elements onto the existing parts of the ship rather than by resorting to boring or drilling or by using existing openings, such as side-light holes or portholes. The new, taller superstructure consisted of oak planks and a cover of canvas to ensure there was no leakage.

The large gash which caused the rapid sinking was patched with oak planks secured by screw bolts, a job so well done that no further work was required for the tow back to Clydeside.

Pumps were then set to work, removing water from within the vessel until it slowly rose to a vertical position and, stern first, began to lift from the bed, followed by the bows.

According to reports, this attracted a great crowd, including many on small craft in the bay who, when the vessel began to rise and straighten up after an hour of pumping, all cheered.

When the stern had risen 9 feet (3 metres) above the water and the bows had come away from the soft bed, it was slowly towed inshore. The Utopia was then beached on a shoal and the next part of the operation began.

Pumps were concentrated on the deck and slowly the damage began to come to light, including rusted cable chains and a winch fouled with seaweed. But as the water was completely emptied, the lower areas could not be immediately accessed because of the number of bodies that clogged the decks below, a year after they had been trapped and died, and the gases that were released by the decomposed bodies and the decaying cargo made it dangerous to enter and work there. It was clear that not all the deceased had been accounted for.

In order to deal with the remains, water was flushed through the compartments. The decayed bodies and the putrid cargo were then removed and, for public health reasons, were buried at sea in the Strait. That part of the work was as dangerous as it was difficult to face.

Finally, the vessel was made secure and the Utopia was towed home to Scotland. The owners subsequently decided not to bring the ship back into service and left her to rust in the River Clyde. The hulk was scrapped in 1900.

According to reports of the time, the wreck was recovered ‘probably in the shortest time and with the least expense on record for a vessel of her size’.

One has to wonder whether, in the guided tours of a Gibraltar of the future, tour guides will point out a plaque set on a new promenade and say: ‘This is the spot where the Utopia went down in 1891 – of course, it was all water around this area at the time’.