LAST SEEN IN THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE

 

by William J. Nissen

 

 

The Story of the Norwegian Four –
Masted Barque Theodor
(previously known as S.S. China and
S.S. Magallanes)

 

 

 

Presented at the meeting of the
Chicago Literary Club
Chicago, Illinois U.S.A.
November 29, 2004

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright 2004 William J. Nissen

 

 

This paper begins with the loss at sea of the Norwegian Four-Masted Barque Theodor after the ship was last seen transiting the Bermuda Triangle.  The paper then describes the history of the ship, which was initially a steamship of the Cunard Line named China, and was later a Spanish steamer named Magallanes, before it was converted to a sailing vessel named Theodor.  The paper also analyzes the significance of the ship as both a steamship and as a sailing vessel.


 

            As its name indicates, the Bermuda Triangle is a triangle-shaped area in the Atlantic Ocean.  Its three corners are Miami, Florida; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the island of Bermuda.  This part of the Atlantic, also known as the Devil’s Triangle, has long had a reputation for being the site of unexplained losses of ships and aircraft.[1]

A number of possible explanations have been offered for the loss of ships and aircraft in the Bermuda Triangle.  One explanation is that the Bermuda Triangle is one of only two places on earth where a magnetic compass points toward true north.  The other such place is an area called the Devil’s Sea, east of Japan.  Normally there is a variation between magnetic north and true north, and a navigator must compensate for this variation.  If a ship or aircraft were to compensate where compensation is not necessary, or vice versa, it could end up seriously off course.[2]

There are other environmental hazards present in the Bermuda Triangle as well.  The Gulf Stream sends a strong current through the area.  In addition, weather patterns can be unpredictable, and they include sudden thunderstorms and water spouts.  Finally, there is an extreme variation in bottom patterns that include both shoals and some of the world’s deepest trenches.[3]

The first known transit through this area was by Christopher Columbus on his 1492 voyage of discovery to America.  He passed through the Sargasso Sea, a part of the North Atlantic which is almost as large as the continental United States, and whose western portion overlaps the Bermuda Triangle.  The Sargasso Sea is named for the Portuguese word for seaweed, because the Sea’s surface is covered in many places with floating seaweed.  The Sargasso Sea is relatively calm, as it is surrounded by currents that cause it to rotate clockwise, and some sailing ships have been unable to depart from the area for months because of the lack of wind.  An area of the ocean known as the Horse Latitudes (between 30°N and 35°N) runs through the Sargasso Sea.  This area received its name when ships carrying horses were unable to leave because of lack of wind, and.  water ran low.  Horses either jumped into the ocean in a futile attempt to quench their thirst, or were deliberately thrown overboard to save water.[4] 

In Columbus’s first journey through the Sargasso Sea and Bermuda Triangle, he noted in his log the widespread and thick seaweed, the presence of strange sea creatures living in the seaweed, erratic compass movements while in the area, and a “great flame of fire,” now thought to be a meteor.  As a result of these reports, the area began at that early date to acquire a reputation for strange occurrences.[5]

During the nineteenth century, a number of mysterious events involving ships passing through the Bermuda Triangle were noted.  In 1840, for example, the French ship Rosalie, which was sailing from Hamburg, Germany to Havana, Cuba, was found at sea near Nassau in the Bahamas, with most of her sails still set, and her cargo in good order, but without a single person on board.  The mystery of the crew’s disappearance is still unexplained.  In 1880, the Atalanta, a British training ship, sailed from Bermuda, bound for Portsmouth, England with a crew of 290 cadets and officers.  She was never seen again.  Other ships reported to have disappeared after voyages through the Bermuda Triangle during the nineteenth century were the Swedish barque Lotta in 1866, the Spanish ship Viego in 1868, and the Italian schooner Miramon in 1884.[6]

 

 

 

A Ship Disappears  

On March 17, 1906, the steamer Virginian, skippered by Captain J. M’Donald, was steaming through the Bermuda Triangle from Liverpool to New Orleans.  Captain M’Donald sighted another vessel, and made the following entry in his log:

Passed Norwegian four-masted barque Theodor, steering east, showing signals WDCP; light wind and clear weather; latitude 29 32 N, longitude 69 10 W.[7]

 

The signals referred to in the log were signal flags flown to identify the vessel.  The Theodor’s actual signal letters were HDCP, so that the entry of WDCP in the log means that there must have been a mistake either in hoisting the flags on the Theodor, or in reading them from the Virginian.[8]

            As Captain M’Donald noted in his log, Theodor was a four-masted barque.  A barque is a sailing vessel with at least three masts.  All masts are square rigged except for the sternmost mast, which is rigged fore and aft.[9] A barque-rigged vessel was different from a ship-rigged vessel in that the ship-rigged vessel was square-rigged on all masts.  The number of crew members needed to sail a barque-rigged vessel was less than the number needed to sail a ship-rigged vessel.[10]  Four-masted barques, which were built primarily during the period 1880-1910, and co-existed with steamships, were the most highly developed sailing vessels widely used in the merchant marine before steamships took over entirely.[11]

            The Theodor had sailed from Tampa, Florida for Yokohama, Japan on March 2, 1906 with a cargo of 3300 tons of phosphate and a crew of 26.[12]  She was a Norwegian flag vessel, and at that time she was the largest sailing ship in the Norwegian merchant fleet.[13]  Her home port was Christiania, Norway.[14]

Christiania was the capital of Norway.  It became the capital in 1294, and was originally named Oslo. It was located at the head of the Oslo Fjord, which connected the city to the North Sea.  In 1624, Oslo was destroyed by fire, and King Christian IV of Denmark, who also ruled Norway, rebuilt the city.  He then changed its name to Christiania in honor of himself.  In 1924, the Norwegian Parliament voted to restore to the city its original name of Oslo, and the city was so re-named in 1925.[15]

The skipper of the Theodor was Gjert Sanne Gjertsen, an experienced 56 year old seaman from Tønsberg, Norway, a small town 45 miles south of Christiania on the Tønsberg Fjord, which is an inlet of the Oslo Fjord.[16]  Tønsberg is considered Norway’s oldest city, as it was founded by the Vikings in 871.[17]  Captain Gjertsen had previously been skipper, from 1898-1902, of the iron barque Altavela, also homeported in Christiania.[18]  Theodor was a step up for him, as Theodor was significantly larger than the Altavela.[19]  Prior to the Altavela, he had also been skipper of an even smaller Norwegian barque: the Vesta.[20]

At the time Captain M’Donald sighted the Theodor, he observed that she was headed east, but did not know where she was bound.  She seemed to him, however, to be in good seaworthy condition.[21]

            By the end of January 1907, almost eleven months after the Theodor left Tampa, she had still not arrived in Yokohama.  On January 30, 1907, application was made by J. Matheson, as broker, to have her posted as missing, presumably so that the insurance on her cargo could be claimed.[22]  A few days later, on February 6, 1907, Lloyd’s List reported her as missing.[23]  On February 7, 1907, Lloyd’s Weekly Shipping Index, which had been regularly reporting Theodor as among those ships at sea since she left Tampa, also reported her as missing.[24]  Both reports said that Theodor had sailed from Tampa to Yokohama on March 2, 1906, and had not been heard of since.[25] 

            The publication of the notice that Theodor was missing, and had not been heard of since March 2, 1906, led Captain M’Donald to report his sighting of the Theodor that had occurred on March 17, 1906.  Now that he knew that she had been bound for Japan, which he had not known at the time he sighted her in the Bermuda Triangle, he realized that when he saw her she had been far off course.  Based on her location and course at the time of the sighting, he now believed that her voyage to Japan would take many months longer than the normal time.  He therefore believed, even in February 1907, that she could still be all right, and might arrive in Yokohama any day.[26]

            Unfortunately, the Theodor never reached Yokohama or any other port.  Nor was there any reported sighting of her after Captain M’Donald saw her in the Bermuda Triangle on March 17, 1906. 

            Was Theodor a victim of the hazards of the Bermuda Triangle?  It is possible, because that was where she was last seen.  On the other hand, she could have successfully transited the Bermuda Triangle, and been lost elsewhere in the Atlantic, or even in the Indian or Pacific Ocean.[27]  The circumstances and location of her loss remain a mystery today.

            Regardless of how or where the Theodor met her ultimate fate, her life deserves to be celebrated.  At the time she was lost, she had been in service for over 40 years.  During that time, she played a significant role in maritime history.  She also had other adventures and accomplishments that are worthy of recounting.

 

The Ship is Launched  

Theodor was built in 1861 on the banks of the Clyde River in Scotland.  The Clyde, which serves as the port for Glasgow, is Scotland’s most significant river.  When Theodor was being built, the Clyde was not only a place where ships loaded and unloaded their cargoes; it was also a center for shipbuilding.   The Clyde had been producing ships and boats for over 4000 years, beginning with prehistoric dugout canoes.  Although the river had originally been only 14 inches deep, it was dredged, beginning in the early 1600s, so that by the early 1800s, there were 27,000 sailings per year and 10,000 workmen employed on the docks.[28]

                        On October 8, 1861, the Theodor was launched from the building yard of R.S. Napier & Sons, one of the Clyde’s leading shipbuilders.  At that time, however, the Theodor was not a four masted barque, and was not even a sailing vessel. Nor was she named Theodor.  Rather she was a steamship known as S.S. China.[29]

The launching of China was reported in the October 10, 1861 Dumbarton Herald.  The Herald reported that the launch was most successfully completed, despite the disagreeable character of the weather.  According to the Herald, China was the finest screw steamer that the Clyde had yet produced.  When completed, the China was intended to join the other vessels already operating as part of Britain’s Cunard Line.[30]

                        Robert S. Napier, whose firm built the China, was one of the most distinguished shipbuilders on the Clyde.  He became known as the “Father of Clyde Shipbuilding.”[31]  Robert was born in Dumbarton, Scotland in 1791.  In 1815, he began working on his own in Glasgow as an engineer and blacksmith.  At first, his business involved the construction of boilers and engines to be used on land, but in 1823, he received his first order for a marine engine.  This engine was for a paddle boat named Leven, and was a great success.  Robert thereafter became well known as a marine engineer.[32]

            Robert opened a marine engineering works with his cousin David Napier on the Clyde in 1836.  Robert initially built engines for ships built by others, but after he acquired a shipbuilding yard at Govan on the Clyde in about 1840, he began to construct steamships of his own.  This is the yard where the China was built and launched.[33]

The Cunard Line

As reported in the Dumbarton Herald, the China was to become part of the Cunard Line, which was named after its founder, Samuel Cunard.  Cunard, born in 1787, was a merchant and shipowner in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  At the time the China was launched, Cunard was operating a fleet of steamships, known as the Cunard Line, that carried mail and passengers between North America and Britain.[34]

By the time that China joined the Cunard Line in the early 1860s, the Line had been operating across the North Atlantic for over twenty years.  China was the first screw steamship built expressly for the Cunard Line’s transatlantic mail service.[35]  She was also the first Cunard steamship to carry steerage passengers.[36]  

Cunard had begun his transatlantic mail service in 1840, after being the successful bidder on a contract that was offered by the government of Britain’s Queen Victoria.  By offering the contract, the British government was seeking to establish dependable and regular mail service to advance the commercial and governmental interests of the British Empire.[37]

As a result of his successful bid, Cunard entered into a contract on May 4, 1839 with the British Lords of the Admiralty to carry mail on a regular basis between Britain and North America.  The contract was for seven years, and provided for mail to be sent to Halifax, from which it would then be sent to Quebec and Boston.  Sailings were to be required twice each month.  One naval officer had to be aboard each ship, and Cunard was required to be prepared at any time to carry four naval officers and 10 enlisted men on the ships of the line.  Under the contract, Cunard was to be paid 55,000 British pounds per year.[38]

     Cunard chose Robert Napier to be the shipbuilder for three ships to carry out the work under the contract.  These were each to weigh 960 tons and have 375 horsepower, and were each to be built by Napier for 32,000 British pounds.  After beginning work on the project, however, Napier concluded that four ships were needed to provide the service that Cunard had promised the Admiralty, and that the ships had to be larger and more powerful to fulfill the contract.[39]

More funds were needed to finance the additional and larger ships.  Napier introduced Cunard to other investors from Glasgow, including Scottish shipowners George Burns and David MacIver.  These two investors also took an active role in the project, as Burns supervised ship construction on the Clyde River, while MacIver organized the operation in Liverpool where the ships were to begin their transatlantic journey.[40]  

After the additional funds had been raised, Cunard renegotiated his contract with the Admiralty.  There would now be four ships, and the ships would be larger than originally planned: 1200 tons and 420 horsepower.  In addition, the new contract provided for the service to continue on to Boston instead of stopping at Halifax.  The new contract was signed on July 4, 1839, and the mail service began in 1840.[41]

The resulting company was known as the British & North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company.  It  would later become known as the Cunard Steam-Ship Company, or the Cunard Line.[42]  The Cunard Line continues to provide passenger service across the Atlantic today, with its newest and most advanced liner being the Queen Mary 2, whose maiden voyage was in January 2004.

The first four ships of the Cunard Line were to be named the Acadia, Britannia, Caledonia and Columbia.  These ships were identical in design.  Each was 207 feet long.  They would be paddle wheel ships, and each would carry 115 passengers and 225 tons of cargo.[43]

     Although Robert Napier had the contract to build these four ships, he subcontracted the shipbuilding to four other shipbuilders on the Clyde River.  He nevertheless constructed the engines himself.  The ships were wooden and each had three masts for sails.  The engines burned 38 tons of coal per day, and gave the ships an average speed of 8.5 knots.  The two paddle wheels, located on either side of each ship, were 28.5 feet in diameter.[44]

     The first of these four ships to be completed was the Britannia.  On her first transatlantic voyage, which was from Liverpool to Halifax and Boston, she carried 63 passengers, including Samuel Cunard himself.  She left Liverpool on July 4, 1840, and arrived in Halifax on July 17. After being in port for eight hours, she left for Boston, where she arrived on July 19, having completed the voyage from Liverpool to Boston in 14 days 8 hours.  She was given a great welcome in Boston to celebrate the beginning of the regular mail service.  Cunard received 1,873 invitations to dinner, and was presented a silver loving cup as a gift from 2,500 citizens.  He was also the guest of honor at a civic banquet held in a pavilion built specially for the event.[45]

     The remaining three new ships also made their first transatlantic voyages in 1840.  The mail service continued on a regular basis thereafter.  The Columbia ran aground in July 1843 on the route from Halifax to Boston, and the ship was lost, but there was no loss of life, mail or cargo.  The other three ships continued to operate the service.[46]

     In the following years, the size of the Cunard fleet increased, both in number of ships and size and speed of the ships.  Throughout the 1840s and into the 1850s, Cunard continued to rely on wooden paddle steamers.  The last wooden paddle steamer in the Cunard fleet was the Arabia, which was launched in June 1852 and began her maiden voyage in 1853.  She was 285 feet long, and her Napier-built side lever engines gave her an average speed of 13 knots on 120 tons of coal per day.  However, the engines proved so powerful that they caused damage to the Arabia’s wooden hull.[47]

     Based on his experience with the Arabia, where the wooden hull did not hold up against the force of the engines, Cunard decided to build an iron ship.  There were some small iron hulled screw propelled steamers providing mail service in the Mediterranean, but the new ship was to be the first iron ship on Cunard’s North Atlantic service.[48]

     The first iron paddle steamer built by Napier for Cunard was the Persia.  The Persia was 376 feet long and her Napier-built side lever engines gave her an average speed of 14 knots.  However she burned 150 tons of coal each day, and it was estimated that it took 6 tons of coal to carry one ton of cargo.  Persia could carry 250 passengers and in 1856 was the fastest steamer on the transatlantic route, when it covered the route from Liverpool to New York in 9 days 4 hours 45 minutes at an average speed of 13.5 knots.  Although her speed and luxury accommodations made her popular, she was not economical, and the Cunard Line removed her from its fleet in 1868.[49]

     The last paddle steamer added to the Cunard fleet was the ScotiaScotia, like the Persia, was iron hulled, but Scotia was slightly larger than the Persia.  It had eight boilers, and its paddle wheels were 40 feet in diameter.  It carried only first class passengers and had capacity for about 300 of them.  She was launched on June 25, 1861.  She was the first to cross the Atlantic both ways in less than 9 days, and to average over 14 knots on each of these crossings.  Her last voyage in the Cunard Line was in 1876, and she was the last paddle vessel on the North Atlantic service.[50]

China Joins the Cunard Line

            China joined the Cunard fleet in 1862.  She was 326 feet long, 40 feet 6 inches in breadth, and 27 feet 6 inches in depth.  She had three decks, each eight feet in height.    She had two saloons.  The main saloon, in the after part of the ship, was about 70 feet long and 20 feet wide, and the forward saloon was shorter, but also 20 feet wide.  She had space for 268 first class and 771 second class passengers, although she was also fitted out with suspension rods so that hammocks could be slung if she were called into service as a troop ship, and she could then carry 1500 troops.[51]

 

China had two oscillating steam engines.[52]  These operated on the same principle as a locomotive steam engine.  In an oscillating engine, steam enters alternately from either end of a cylinder, driving a piston back and forth, and the piston in turn drives a flywheel.  China also had sails as a secondary means of propulsion.          

      The China’s sea trial from Glasgow to Liverpool in February 1862 had proved a success, as she faced a stiff headwind for part of her voyage, yet she averaged over sixteen statute miles per hour.  This performance led the Illustrated London News to state in April 1862 that “there can be little doubt that the China will prove a worthy member of the Cunard fleet.”[53]

            China’s home port was Glasgow, but she typically sailed from Liverpool.  Her maiden transatlantic voyage began on March 15, 1862, when she sailed from Liverpool to Queenstown (now known as Cobh) in Ireland and then to New York.[54]   In New York, she joined up with the steamer British Queen, and they went to Nassau.[55]

     On her return voyage from New York to Liverpool, she broke an intermediate shaft.  This required her to rely exclusively on her sails while repairs were made.  As a result, the return voyage took 14 days 23 hours 25 minutes, whereas it was supposed to be completed in 9 days.[56]  Later, she established a record as the fastest screw steamship, with an eastbound Atlantic crossing of 8 days, 14 hours and 8 minutes.[57]

     From May 1865 through November 1867, her route changed to Liverpool-   Queenstown-Halifax-Boston.  From 1868 through 1872, she again sailed to New York.[58]  The New York Immigration Report for the year 1871 reports that China made 8 trips to New York that year, landed 721 cabin passengers, and 1111 steerage passengers, for a total of 1832 passengers, and that there had been one death on these voyages.  Smallpox broke out on two of the China’s voyages to New York that year, with 1 sick person being sent to the hospital on each of the arrivals on March 9 and June 27.[59]

            In 1872, China suffered a cracked cylinder on her way to  New York, and she had to have a new engine installed in Glasgow in 1873.  The new engines were two cylinder compound engines by Barclay Curle & Co. of Glasgow.[60]  In a compound engine, steam which has been used in a high pressure cylinder is re-used in one or more larger and lower pressure cylinders.  With the compound engines, she was able to achieve similar speeds as before but with less fuel.[61]

          She again sailed on the New York route from 1874 until March 1878, when her last voyage on the Liverpool to New York route took place.  She was then withdrawn from service.[62]

China’s Significance

China’s legacy as a member of the Cunard Line was that she led the way for the use of screw steamships rather than paddle vessels in the transatlantic mail and emigrant trade.  The paddle steamer Scotia and China were contemporaries, but China was able to attain the same speed as Scotia with four times the passengers and half the coal consumption.[63]  Thus, the China achieved a speed of 12.5 knots while burning 82 tons of coal per day, while Scotia had a speed of 14 knots while burning 164 tons of coal daily.  The machinery of a screw steamer was also more compact than that of a paddle steamer, so there was more room for cargo, and the absence of paddles provided more room for passengers.[64]

 

China’s economic success led the Cunard company, from 1864 to 1866, to add to its fleet six more screw steamers, all with capacity to carry large numbers of emigrants .  In addition, in 1867, Cunard added to its fleet the Russia, a single screw steamer which was the first screw steamer to achieve the speed record for the transatlantic route by going from New York to Queenstown in 8 days 28 minutes in November 1867, thus taking the speed record from the ScotiaRussia and the other screw steamers gave the Cunard Line an extensive capability for carrying emigrants to America.[65]

            In 1865, Samuel Cunard died in London.  One of his last acts was to send a letter to his business partner George Burns, who had supervised shipbuilding on the Clyde for the Cunard company in its early years.  Prior to the addition of China to the Cunard Line, Cunard and Burns had disagreed about the relative merits of paddle and screw steamers, with Cunard preferring the reliability of paddle ships while Burns believed that screw ships were the wave of the future.[66]  In his letter to Burns, Cunard agreed that Burns’ preference for screw rather than paddle propulsion for steamships was correct, and that Cunard had been incorrect in preferring paddles.[67]

China Goes to War

After China had been retired from service in 1878, the Cunard Line had the opportunity in 1879 to charter her to the British government for use as a troop ship.  The Line took advantage of this opportunity, and China was used by the government to carry troops to South Africa for the Zulu War.[68]

The Zulu War was a six months long war between Britain and the Zulu Nation that took place in 1879 in eastern South Africa. Britain defeated the Zulus in the war, and as a result, acquired Zululand for the British Empire.[69]

The war was provoked by the British High Commissioner in South Africa, Sir Henry Bartle Frere.  Zululand and the British colony of Natal were adjacent, with the Tulega River forming the boundary between the two.  The British were attempting to consolidate their colonies in South Africa, and an independent Zululand was a potential threat to this objective. Cetshwayo had become King of the Zulus in the early 1870s, and he raised a force of 40,000-60,000 soldiers to resist British rule.[70]

In December 1878, the High Commissioner started a fight with King Cetshwayo, by demanding that he disband his army and pay reparations to the British for alleged insults.  The British apparently thought that their superiority in weaponry would quickly overwhelm the Zulus.[71]

     King Cetshwayo did not comply with the High Commissioner’s ultimatum, and the war began in January 1879 when British forces invaded the territory of the Zulus.  At first, the war did not go well for the British.  Rain prevented easy passage by the invading British forces, and there were tall grasses in Zululand which hampered visibility.  The British had also apparently been overconfident, so that they did not use standard procedures, such as the use of scouts and sentries, in their invasion.  As a result, in the battle at Isandlwana on January 22, 1879, the Zulus prevailed, and the British and their African allies lost over 1300 men.[72]

Following the British defeat, British troops were sent to South Africa from other parts of the empire.  This was apparently the period in which the China transported troops to South Africa.  The British, with their reinforcements, continued fighting until July 4, 1879, when they won the last major battle of the war at the Zulu capital of Ulundi.  Zululand lost its independence and became part of the British Empire.[73]  With the war over, China’s service as a troop transport was also over.

 

 

China Becomes the Spanish Ship Magallanes         

     Following its service in the Zulu War, China was sold by the Cunard Line in 1880 to Marques de Campo of Cartagena, Spain.  She was renamed Magallanes, and her new home port was Cartagena.  During the period of Spanish ownership, she steamed between Spanish ports and South America.[74]

A Steamer Becomes a Four Masted Barque

In 1889, the ship now known as Magallanes was sold to J.D. Bischoff of Vegesack, Germany, and was re-named Theodor. Her home port became Bremen, Germany.[75]

It was at this point that the Theodor’s propulsion changed from steam to sail.  Her engines were removed, and she was rebuilt and rerigged as a four-masted barque.[76]  During this period, the four-masted iron barque was replacing the three-masted wooden barque as the most common deep water cargo sailing vessel.  In the middle of the nineteenth century, the three-masted wooden barque had been the most common, but by the early twentieth century, the four-masted iron or steel barque had taken its place.[77]

Most four-masted barques ranged from 2000 to 3000 tons, and from 270 to 320 feet in length, so that Theodor was at the large end of these ranges.  There were a few larger ships built as five-masted barques, but they were not successful.[78]

    One might ask why a steamship such as China would be transformed into a sailing vessel, as that would seem to be taking a step backwards.  At the time of her conversion, however, sailing vessels had certain advantages over the steamships that were then in service.  Steamships were costly to operate in that they needed coal for power, and the coal took up valuable cargo space.   The space used to carry coal on a steamship could be used for cargo on a sailing vessel.[79]  In fact, in order to conserve fuel, most early steamships had sails they could use when appropriate for that purpose.[80]

    As time went on, steamships achieved complete superiority over sailing vessels. With greater independence from wind and weather, the steamship was generally more reliable than a sailing vessel.  Steamships also achieved greater speeds than sailing vessels.  By the end of the nineteenth century, steam engines had improved, with higher boiler pressures and compound engines.  As a result, their cost effectiveness increased, and when that factor was combined with their greater predictability, they generally won out over the sailing vessels.[81]

     However, for certain types of cargo, the sailing vessels could still hold their own, and they continued to be used well into the early twentieth century.  The sailing vessels were particularly efficient when their voyages took them along routes with prevailing wind patterns.[82]

Theodor’s Final Years as a Norwegian Ship

In April 1901, the Theodor was sold to a Norwegian owner, Akties Theodor, with J. Johanson & Co. of Christiania, Norway as managers.  Christiania became the Theodor’s new home port.[83]

       Captain Gjertsen took command of Theodor in 1906.[84]  It was in March of that year that Theodor began her last voyage from Tampa and was last seen in the Bermuda Triangle.

The Ship’s Legacy and Lessons

During her earlier life as China, the Theodor earned a place in history by ensuring that screw would win out over paddle as the means of propulsion for ships carrying mail and emigrants from Europe to America.  As China, she also took part in an important historical event by transporting troops to South Africa for the Zulu War.  And as Magallanes, she served to maintain the connections between Spain and its Spanish speaking former colonies in South America. 

But in her later life as Theodor, the ship was a maritime workhorse, transporting bulk cargoes for long distances.  The delivery of these bulk cargoes, unlike the delivery by China of mail for the British Empire, emigrants from Europe to a new life in America, or troops to the Zulu War, may be viewed by some as less important than her prior service.

Although Theodor’s carrying of cargo such as phosphate for long distances may not seem to be as important or prestigious as China’s transportation of mail, emigrants and troops, the Theodor has a legacy in her own right.  The  period of the ship’s life as Theodor should not be viewed as a form of retirement, or as being put out to pasture, but rather as a vital period in her history.

What legacy does the Theodor, as Theodor, leave us?  First, she teaches us that the global economy in which we live is not new, and that many years ago, ships carried bulk cargoes thousands of miles in international trade.  Second, she teaches us that recycling is also not new, as a steamship that was obsolete, as such, was recycled to lead a useful and productive life as a sailing vessel.  Finally, she teaches that newer is not always better, as the Theodor showed that sail continued to have some advantages over steam as late as the early twentieth century.

The Theodor demonstrates the nature of the extensive global economy that existed in the early twentieth century.  Theodor sailed to distant ports from her home port in Christiania, Norway.  Her captain and crew spent many months at sea without communications with their families or friends, risked their lives in a dangerous occupation, but by doing so helped connect people in far-apart countries with trade. 

Theodor was lost on a voyage from America to Japan that began far from her home in Norway.  Her cargo was phosphate, which was in abundant supply in Florida, where it was mined.  The phosphate had been formed in prehistoric times in the coastal areas of Florida from the minerals in the ocean and from the skeletons and other remains of dead sea creatures.  On the other side of the world in Japan, Japanese farmers needed phosphate for fertilizer for their crops.  The Theodor and other ships like her brought together one country’s supply with the other country’s demand. And they did this during a period when it would have been uneconomical to do so with steam vessels.  Although international trade was not new at that time, the fact that large quantities of mundane commodities such as phosphate could be transported many thousands of miles to make fertilizer, demonstrates how far international trade had come by the time of Theodor.

The Theodor also demonstrates a type of recycling that took place in the nineteenth century.  Although Theodor had a very advanced design as a screw steamship when she first went into service as China, she eventually became obsolete in this capacity, as newer vessels were built.  Although she apparently became uneconomical to operate to carry mail and emigrants across the Atlantic at the time she was taken out of service by the Cunard Line, she was nevertheless recycled into a four-masted barque that could continue to serve a useful function in maritime commerce.

Finally, the transformation of Theodor from steamship to sailing vessel shows that newer is not always better.  Although sail could not compete with advanced steamships for many types of jobs when Theodor changed her propulsion from steam to sail, sail remained a viable and economical mode of transporting certain types of bulk cargoes well into the twentieth century, despite the availability of the more advanced propulsion from steam.  From the standpoint of economy, a sailing vessel such as Theodor was better suited for such a cargo than a speedy steamship. 

Author’s Postscript    

With the exception of the skipper of the Theodor, this author does not know the names of the crewmen who perished when the Theodor sank. The skipper, Captain Gjertsen, came from a long line of seagoing Norwegians.  His earliest known seagoing ancestor was Ole Sorensen Kjøle of Vestfold County in Norway, who sailed in 1632 to Copenhagen with a cargo of barrelwood for the King of Denmark.[85]

Captain Gjertsen had ten children, five of whom were born of his first marriage, and five more were born after he re-married when his first wife died.[86]  One of his sons, Gustav Wilhelm Gjertsen, emigrated to America shortly after his father’s death, and he eventually settled in Chicago, Illinois.  He reversed and anglicized his first and middle names, so that Gustav Wilhelm became William Gordon.  Due to the difficulty of using the name Gjertsen in an English-speaking country, he changed his last name to the more English-friendly Nissen, which had been the name of his mother, Wilhelmine Mathilde Nissen.  William Gordon Nissen was this author’s grandfather.  He was proud of his father’s achievements as a sea captain, and kept alive the memory of the Theodor through his recounting of family history.

William Gordon Nissen’s daughter, Vivian Nissen Norris, also kept alive the memory of the Theodor. During her lifetime, she painted beautiful oil paintings of Theodor under full sail at sea, and thereby preserved the proud image of the ship.[87]

Captain Gjertsen was not the first person in his family to be lost at sea.  His great grandfather died on a sea voyage in 1802, and his great great grandfather was lost at sea in 1744.[88]  Despite the fact that the sea took the life of Captain Gjertsen and previous members of his family, his descendants continued to go to sea.  In the 1930s, his son Fredrik Gjertsen was captain of the Hektoria, a whale-factory ship that voyaged to the Antarctic to capture and process whales.  His sons Georg and Mauritz Gjertsen also served in the merchant marine.  Finally his grandson William G. Nissen, Jr. and his great grandson (this author) served on sea duty with the United States Navy.  Perhaps one of Captain Gjertsen’s seagoing descendants has passed near the place where he, his crew and the Theodor lie silently on the ocean floor.

 

  

 

                          



[1] Bermuda Triangle Fact Sheet, prepared by the U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters and the Naval Historical Center (Aug. 8, 2001).

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Lawrence David Kusche, The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved, pp. 17-23 (Harper & Row 1975).

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid., pp. 24-30, 36-43, 46.

[7] Lloyd’s List (Feb. 9, 1907).

[8] Ibid.

[9] Fredrik Sandström, Sailing Ships (2000), infa.abo.fi/~fredrik/sships.

[10] Edward Bowness, The Four-Masted Barque (Percival Marshall & Co. Ltd. 1955) p.1.

[11] Ibid., pp. 1-2.

[12] The amount of cargo and the number of crew are from the database on Theodor maintained by Norsk Sjøfartmuseums Bibliotek (Norwegian Maritime Museum Library) in Oslo, Norway.  (“Norsk Database”) The sailing date of March 2, 1906 is from Lloyd’s Weekly Shipping Index (Feb. 7, 1907), p. 11, and differs from the sailing date of March 4, 1906 in the Norsk Database.

[13] Norsk Database, op. cit.; John Strøms Genealogy located at freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com (“Strøm Genealogy”).

[14] Norsk Database, op. cit.

[15] Encyclopedia Americana (2000 ed.), vol. 21, pp. 107-08; The New Encyclopedia Britannica (15th ed. 2002) vol. 8, p. 1028.

[16] Gjertsen is pronounced: YAIRT-sen.

[17] Encyclopedia Americana (2000 ed.), “Tønsberg.”

[18] Norsk Database, op. cit., “Altavela.”

[19] Ibid.

[20] Record of American and Foreign Shipping, 1890.

[21] Lloyd’s List (Feb. 9, 1907).

[22] Lloyd’s Missing Vessels for 1906-13.

[23] Lloyd’s List (Feb. 6, 1907).

[24] Lloyd’s Weekly Shipping Index (Feb. 7, 1907), p.11.

[25] Ibid.; Lloyd’s List (Feb. 6, 1907). .

[26] Lloyd’s List (Feb. 9, 1907).

[27] The Norsk Database, op. cit., states that Theodor was lost in the Indian Ocean, but the author has not found any factual support for this statement.

[28] Gordon Borthwick, Colin Castle, Ian Johnston, Keith McKay, Richard Orr, Clydebuilt (2001) (“Clydebuilt”).

[29] Dumbarton Herald (Oct. 10, 1861).

[30] Ibid.

[31] Clydebuilt, op. cit.

[32] Glasgow Digital Library, “Memoirs and Portraits of 100 Glasgow Men,” gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk.

[33] Clydebuilt, op. cit.

[34] Grolier Encyclopedia (2001), “Samuel Cunard.” 

[35] Illustrated London News, April 12, 1862.  An article by John Malcolm Brinnin, et al., “The Cunard Steam-Ship Company Limited,” at www.merchantnavyofficers.com, contends that there were other screw steamers built by Cunard for the North Atlantic service prior to China, but the contemporary report cited states that China was the first.

[36] T.E. Hughes, “Cunard Cavalcade,” Sea Breezes (Jan. 1969).

[37] “Cunard Heritage,” www.cunardline.com.

[38] T.E. Hughes, op. cit.

[39] Ibid.

[40] Howard Johnson, The Cunard Story (Whittet Books, Ltd. 1987), pp. 23-24.

[41] T.E. Hughes, op. cit..

[42] Howard Johnson, op. cit., p. 24.

[43] T.E. Hughes, op. cit.

[44] Ibid.

[45] Ibid.

[46] Ibid.

[47] Ibid.

[48] Ibid.

[49] Ibid.

[50] J.H. Isherwood, “Cunard Liner ‘Scotia,’” Sea Breezes, vol. 11, pp. 382-84.

[51] Illustrated London News, April 12, 1862.

[52] Ibid.

[53]Ibid.

[54] www.theshipslist.com, “China/Magallanes/Theodor 1862.”

[55] Lloyd’s Register, Vessel Data Sheet: Full Ship History for China.

[56] T.E. Hughes, op. cit..

[57] Kevin R. Tam,Cunard Line,” home.swipnet.se/roland/cunard.html.

[58] www.theshipslist.com, op. cit.

[59] Annual Report of the Commissioners of Emigration of the State of New York for the year ending December 31, 1871, www.theshipslist.com.

[60] “Cunard Heritage China,” www.cunardline.com.

[61] T.E. Hughes, op. cit.

[62] Lloyd’s Register, Vessel Data Sheet, op. cit.; T.E. Hughes, op. cit.

[63] John Malcolm Brinnin, op. cit.

[64] Howard Johnson, op. cit., p.44.

[65] T.E. Hughes, op. cit.

[66] Howard Johnson, op. cit., p. 41.

[67] John Malcolm Brinnin, op. cit.

[68] Lloyd’s Register, Vessel Data Sheet, op. cit.

[69] The New Encyclopedia Britannica (15th ed. 2002), vol. 12, p. 941; Ian Knight, “The Zulu War,” www.kwazulu.co.uk.

[70] Ibid.

[71] Ibid.

[72] Ibid.

[73] Ibid.

[74] Lloyd’s Register, Vessel Data Sheet, op. cit.

[75] Lars Bruzelius, The Maritime History Virtual Archives (1997).  She was sold again, in 1898, to C. August Bunneman, of Bremen, Germany. Ibid.

[76] Ibid.

[77] Fredrik Sandström, op. cit.

[78] Edward Bowness, op. cit..

[79] C.M. Mason, Five Thousand Days, The Voyages of the Clydebuilt Barque Glenlee (renamed Islamount 1899) under the Red Ensign 1897-1919.

[80] Edward Bowness, op. cit.

[81] Ibid.

[82] .C.M. Mason, op. cit.

[83] Lloyd’s Register, Vessel Data Sheet, op. cit.

[84] Norsk Database, op. cit..

[85] Strøm Genealogy, op. cit.

[86] His first wife was Wilhelmine Mathilde Nissen and his second wife was Agnete Christiane Torgersen.

[87] There are also photographs of the Theodor and China available.  A photograph of the Theodor in port is available from the library of the Norwegian Maritime Museum.  A photograph of the Theodor under sail is available from the library of the British Maritime Museum.  A photograph of the China under sail is available from the University of Baltimore.

[88] Strøm Genealogy, op. cit.