RMS Pyrope

The RMS Pyrope was the tragic near-identical sister to RMS Ruby. She was launched in 1875, however, due to the Victoria Class being under construction at the same time, she was completed in 1878. Although completed years after her initial launch, she was still an innovative liner, however despite being a speedy and advanced vessel, her interiors were quite outdated. Her first voyage was successful, albeit a rather rough one, with Pyrope colliding with another steamer, the SS Freeland half of the way through her premier voyage. Both steamers were damaged, but nothing was life-threatening.

The Pyrope was put into dry dock and was repaired. Whilst being repaired, the Pyrope was given a costly refit, to upgrade her outdated looking, and rushed interiors.

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Sinking
On her third voyage, 2/3rds of Pyrope was booked when she departed from Liverpool on her final voyage. Her first two days at sea were extraordinarily calm- until her third day at sea, with her steaming into a ferocious Atlantic gale.

On her fourth day at sea, the gale worsened quite a bit. The steamship Pyrope was being battered by extremely large waves on her port side, by which her poor passengers were highly seasick at this point. At 1:30 PM that very day, luncheon was being served to passengers, where the usual seven-course meal was brought down to two courses, being only a platter of ham and beef broth. With each wave that battered the liner, her mahogany and teak wood interiors creaked and violently roared, being under stress due to the lack of expansion joints. As more saloon passengers made their way down the companionway and into the dining saloon, the ferocious storm rapidly became more violent at that point. According to passengers, who would survive the incident about to take place, they recalled hearing shouting and yelling amongst the crew, one and two decks above them, as if they were shouting orders. The steamship slowly began to list to her starboard side, when suddenly, a loud roaring noise was heard. Tables and chairs began sliding towards the starboard side, as an extraordinarily large wave overtook the entire ship. If one were to view this occurrence from above, they would notice that nothing but the funnels and masts remain above water, as the rogue wave crashes over the ship. Pyrope’s list reached 25 degrees to starboard, just about to capsize when suddenly, a near-deafening crackle and violent snap roared out through all decks of the doomed liner, just as the rogue wave began to pass the ship. Pyrope had completely snapped in half. Panic erupted from within the broken liner, as staircases were bottlenecked with passengers trying to get up on deck. The gas lanterns from the barely buoyant bow collapsed onto carved wooden flooring in the cabin, causing fires to erupt from within. Without the captain’s orders, crew members rushed to launch distress rockets at 15-second intervals, as the bow section began rapidly sinking. Knowing that the ship would not last long, crew members decided to detach lifeboats from the davits, so that rather than launching them, they would float off the deck when she eventually sank. Brutal and violent fights took place around the lifeboats in an attempt to gain a seat in the boat itself. Of the four lifeboats detached on the bow section, only one successfully floated off, with photographer Robert Payne aboard. A few photographs were miraculously taken by him as the ship sank, all of them surviving. The bow section of the liner rolled onto its side within five minutes, with hundreds trapped inside, and sank in an extremely quick manner, whilst her stern section stayed afloat for an extra few minutes before one of her bulkheads caved in, causing her to dramatically angle upwards. Afterwards, the stern, her propeller still turning, plunged and sank.

Only one lifeboat made it off of the liner before she sank. Of the 985 aboard her, only 8 survived the sinking, which took place in only eight fearful minutes. There were only 12 in the single lifeboat, but only 8 survived- the others dead from hypothermia. The few survivors were rescued by the 1855 steamship Iceland. Inquiries were held a week later, where only three survivors showed up, the rest refusing, too traumatised to give a testimony. It was found that the crew, although heroic during the sinking, failed to take proper action during the time in which the rogue wave hit. Her wreck today is in an unknown location. For 20 years afterwards however, pieces of wreckage washed ashore.