The Hurricane of 1861

Image: The Great Eastern during one of her regular stays at Milford Haven

The ship was then refitted back to a passenger vessel. During the ship’s next voyage (her fourth), in September 1861, and with her fifth captain, the Great Eastern encountered a hurricane. During the hurricane both paddle wheels tore away and the paddle-engine room was badly damaged. Two huge tanks of fish oil broke loose on deck and fell into the ship from a hatch. The tanks fell all the way down to the engine rooms showering hundreds of gallons of smelly fish oil throughout the ship. The oil leaked everywhere and along with the hurricane raging fiercely outside, even the strongest of stomachs were tested to breaking point as nearly all the passengers and crew became paralysed from seasickness! By the second day of the storm the rudder broke and having lost her paddle wheels earlier, the Great Eastern was at times listing up to 45 degrees. Her lifeboats broke loose and were shattered on the deck and water poured through the broken skylights and hatches saturating everybody and everything on board. The donkey engines that were designed to keep the inside of the hull from flooding were becoming totally submerged in water themselves as loosened life boats rampaged on the deck above smashing everything they came into contact with. By the end of the second day the loose rudder had begun to damage the propeller, which at the time was the Great Eastern’s only form of propulsion. The captain was compelled to stop the engines to prevent any more damage to the propeller. The Great Eastern’s sails were then set but were immediately ripped away by the Hurricane. Sliding furniture and grand pianos would make crossing the Grand Saloon a matter of life or death “chairs are frantically chasing those who but a few moments before had been their fair occupants. Velvet sofa, footstools and chairs marched to and fro, scouring the rug and ripping up the red silk portieres. The stewards are capturing various articles of furniture and binding them down as they would so many wild beasts,” described one passenger on board. The Great Eastern finally made it back to the port of Cork having endured 8 days of the punishing hurricane. During the whole event not one life was lost so it must have come as a particular tragedy when whilst in port a quarter-master was struck by one of the Great Eastern’s huge block and tackles and became the 25th person to be killed.