STELLA
Length 253 feet / Breadth 35 feet / Depth 15ft 8ins
Draft 12ft forward, 13ft aft
Displacement 1595 tons
Freeboard 14ft 3ins
Gross tonnage 1058.95
Boilers : two, 18ft 10ins long, / 15ft diameter, steel, / double-ended
furnaces 16 - revs 168.75
propellers : two, 3-blade, / diameter 11ft, bronze
Hull : steel, some iron
Max speed 19.28 knots
Cost £61,925 / Insurance £60,000 / Cost of hull £3594 / Cost of rivets £334
Cost of wood £ 2122
The Channel steamship Stella, Capt. W. Reeks, left Southampton for Guernsey on Thursday, March 30th, 1899. It was the first run of the season and the ship was full of Easter holiday-makers, as it was the day before Good Friday, there being in all 174 passengers and 43 crew. Soon after leaving England the weather thickened and most of the run was continued in fog. This circumstance did not prevent the Stella from proceeding at full speed, as Capt. Reeks desired to reach Guernsey before nightfall. The siren was blown at the usual intervals, but otherwise no precautions were taken, the captain being apparently easy in mind as his course.
At about 4 p.m. the lookout sighted rocks ahead and heard the sound of the foghorn on the Casquets lighthouse. The ship at once went hard-a-port and continued on a fresh course for a little distance when she struck on the Black Rock, one of the Casquets group, eight miles from Alderney. She recoiled from the first impact ans struck again, being holed amidships on both occasions. The discipline on board was good and much heroism was shown by crew and passengers, but little time was available for the saving of life. Within eight minutes of stricking the Stella foundered.
The Stella carried five lifeboats and two collapsible Berthon boats. One lifeboat, overcrowded with people, capsized as soon as launched. Four others got away in safety. Two of these boats were picked up at about 8 o’clock next morning by the steamship Vera of the same company, and two by Great Western Railway Co.’s steamship Lynx. The port lifeboat, which had floated away keel upward, was sighted by the Cherbourg tug Marsouin. The seas had righted her and eight persons had managed to clamber into her.
A feature of the disaster was that the lighthouse keepers on the Casquets were unaware of the wreck until the steamship Honfleur arrived in search of survivors, though some inhabitants of Sark, 17 miles away, heard the muffled explosion of the Stella’s boilers when she sank.
The number drowned was 112 included Capt. Reeks.
Image ,photos et dessins du STELLA / Draws and pictures of the STELLA
Poem and texts extracts from the book "the TITANIC of the Channel islands"