3-082-222 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Loss of the North German Lloyd steam-ship "Elbe", 1895. 'The Elbe was built fourteen years ago by Messrs. J. Elder and Co., of Glasgow; it was an iron screw steamer of 4510 tons, with three decks and a spar deck, and was capable of a speed of sixteen knots an hour...At half-past five o'clock in the morning, the Elbe came into collision forty-seven miles south-west from Haaks light-ship off Lowestoft with another steamer, and in twenty minutes foundered. The Elbe had only left Bremen on the previous day for Southampton and New York, and carried 199 passengers and a crew of 149, most of the souls on board being of German nationality. There were only twenty survivors from this terrible disaster - five passengers, the chief engineer, the third officer, the purser, a German pilot, the English pilot, and ten of the crew...The Elbe was struck abaft the engine-room, and the inrush of water through the large hole soon caused the steamer to sink...Instantly the officers...commenced lowering the boats...only one boat survived the storm. This was picked up by a Lowestoft smack, the Wildflower, and reached Lowestoft safely'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.