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ss SAALE
built by Fairfield Govan,
Yard No 312
Last Name: MADISON (1923)
Previous Names: PRINCESS (1921) - J.L.LUCKENBACH
Propulsion: Single screw - 17 knots
Launched: Wednesday, 21/04/1886
Built: 1886
Ship Type: Passenger Cargo Vessel
Ship's Role: Transatlantic liner
Tonnage: 4967 grt
Length: 439.6 feet
Breadth: 48.1 feet
Owner History:
Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen
1901 Luckenbach Transportation & Wrecking Co, New York
1919 luckenbach SS Co. Inc., NY
1922 Archibald M.Ostrom, NY
Status: Scrapped - 1924
Remarks: Maiden voyage from Bremen to Southampton and New York 18th August 1886
One of five of the company's ships damaged by the tragic New York fire of 1900
Following from Dictionary of Disasters at Sea
On the afternoon of Saturday, June 30th, 1900, five liners belonging to
Norddeutscher Lloyd were lying alongside the company's wharf at
Hoboken, New York, when there was an outbreak of fire which
involved all five ships. They were the Saale, Bremen, Main,
Phoenicia and Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, and the fire started with a
bale of cotton which at the time was being handled by some German
stevedores. A high wind was blowing and within a short time a
stack of whisky barrels was on fire, setting fire to the nearby
warehouses, which were light wooden structures.
Every effort was made to tow the liners into mid
stream, but the
heat was so great that many men on the upper decks died from the
effect of that alone. The Saale was cut adrift and grounded on
Communipaw Flats. The Main, with about 150 men on board, was
burned as she lay alongside the wharf. The Bremen was, at the time,
entertaining a party of about 100 visitors, chiefly women and
children. Sheets of flame fastened on the liner and within a short
time she was in the same plight as her sister ships. In her case an
explosion added to the terrors of the fire. She was eventually towed
upstream, together with the Main, where after some hours the fires
were extinguished. The Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse managed to get
free without the help of tugs.
So rapid was the conflagration that within nine minutes the whole
frontage of the wharf, a quarter of a mile in length, was on fire. To
prevent it spreading, the officials of the Hamburg
America company at
the next wharf blew up their pier.
Many scores of people were trapped between decks and suffered
an agonising death. On three ships, the Saale, Main and Bremen,
there were 189 dead, while those on the other ships, and upon the
wharf, added a considerable number to this total. The decks, piers
and warehouses were burned out and damage estimated at over
£2,000,000 was caused.
Broken up in Italy Q3/1924
Photo supplied by
Previous update by Bruce Biddulph
Last updated: by George Robinson from the original records by Stuart Cameron
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