"On the 13th of November, 1965, the SS Yarmouth Castle – an American passenger steamship – was sailing from Miami to Nassau when a fire broke out on board..."
As always, THANK YOU to all my Patreon patrons: you make this channel possible.
https://www.patreon.com/fascinatinghorror
SOCIAL MEDIA:
► Twitter: https://twitter.com/TrueHorrorTales
► TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fascinatinghorror
► Suggestions: hello@fascinatinghorror.co.uk
MUSIC:
► "Glass Pond" by Public Memory
#Documentary #History #TrueStories
As always, THANK YOU to all my Patreon patrons: you make this channel possible.
https://www.patreon.com/fascinatinghorror
SOCIAL MEDIA:
► Twitter: https://twitter.com/TrueHorrorTales
► TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fascinatinghorror
► Suggestions: hello@fascinatinghorror.co.uk
MUSIC:
► "Glass Pond" by Public Memory
#Documentary #History #TrueStories
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00On the 13th of November, 1965, the SS Yarmouth Castle, an American passenger steamship,
00:18was sailing from Miami to Nassau when a fire broke out on board. On another ship this might
00:26have been a minor incident, but due to the condition of the Yarmouth Castle and the actions
00:31of those on board the fire spread until it endangered the entire ship. Six hours after
00:38the fire began the vessel sank with the loss of 87 lives. It was the worst disaster in North
00:46American waters in 15 years, and it was, it emerged, entirely preventable.
00:52By the time of its sinking the Yarmouth Castle already had a long history. It was launched in
00:591927 as the Evangeline, and served routes between New York and Boston, and Yarmouth in Nova Scotia.
01:08In its heyday it was a grand vessel with an on-board library, a writing room, a music room,
01:15a glassed-in promenade deck, a smoking room, two social halls, and a dancing saloon.
01:24As grand as she might have been when she was first launched the years were not kind to the
01:29Evangeline. During the Second World War she was pressed into service as a troop transport,
01:35and once the war was over she changed hands several times, spending years at a stretch
01:41out of service. She was refitted at least once during this time, but it was only a partial
01:48refit. Fully modernizing her would have made her too heavy, and so she was allowed to keep
01:53most of her original superstructure, even though it was made from outdated materials like canvas
01:59and wood. It was also during this time that the Evangeline was renamed, becoming the Yarmouth
02:06Castle. By 1964, slightly battered and shabby, she ended up in the hands of Yarmouth Cruise Lines,
02:15who used her for pleasure cruises between Miami and Nassau. The Yarmouth Castle was sailing this
02:21route when, on the 13th of November 1965, a fire began at approximately midnight.
02:29The exact cause of the fire has never been determined, but it started in room 610,
02:35which was being used for storage, and as such was full of flammable materials including wooden
02:41furniture, spare mattresses, and tins of paint. This room was lit by a bare light bulb suspended
02:48from a jewelry-rigged cable. It is thought by many that this bulb, or the wiring supporting it,
02:54might have been what started the fire. Whatever the cause, the flames quickly took hold. Smoke was
03:03carried by the ventilation system of the Yarmouth Castle from the room where the fire began to
03:08elsewhere in the ship. Between midnight and 1am several crew members and passengers smelled or
03:15witnessed this smoke, but could not find the source... not straight away, at least. At one stage the master,
03:23the chief mate, the first assistant engineer, the cruise director, the switchboard operator,
03:28the gift shop manager, and several passengers were all involved in the search for the fire.
03:36By the time they did eventually locate the fire it was already very well established. As the door
03:42to room 610 was opened flames burst out into the corridor and began spreading with astonishing
03:49rapidity. All attempts to subdue them with fire extinguishers failed, and the crew in the vicinity
03:56were forced to flee. At this point in time a general alarm should have sounded. At least one
04:04passenger had activated a manual fire alarm point, and the captain had given the order for an alarm
04:10to be raised. However, no alarm sounded throughout the ship. It is theorized that the fire had
04:17already damaged the single electrical circuit which controlled the alarm system, rendering it
04:22inoperable. Some passengers were awakened by the shouts of crew members in the corridors,
04:29or by frantic pounding on the doors of their staterooms. Others, fortunately, were still awake
04:35in the bar area following the conclusion of the evening's entertainment. They were alerted to the
04:41fire only when a screaming passenger ran into the room, followed shortly by a badly burned man.
04:49Chaos ensued. Passengers scrambled for lifeboats in several instances, struggling to launch them.
04:57In many cases smoke and flames forced passengers to jump over the side of the ship, plummeting into
05:03pitch-black water several stories below. When passengers were too afraid to jump crew members
05:10assisted by equipping them with life jackets and then throwing them bodily overboard.
05:15As this chaotic scene unfolded no SOS had been sent. The radio operator had found the radio room
05:23full of choking black smoke and had been unable to access emergency equipment. Luckily there were
05:31other ships nearby, the Finpulp and the Bahama Star. Crew on board these ships sighted flames
05:40on the deck of the Yarmouth Castle and sent out a call for help.
05:45They then converged on the Yarmouth Castle to offer what assistance they could.
05:51You might wonder where the captain was during all of this. As it transpired, far from going down
05:57with the ship, he had been among the first to escape, piling into a lifeboat along with several
06:03members of the crew. Once in the water they made a beeline for the nearby Bahama Star.
06:10The captain didn't receive a warm welcome when he got there. By some accounts the crew of the
06:16Bahama Star refused to take him on board, directing him instead to return to his ship and do his job.
06:25The Bahama Star approached the blazing Yarmouth Castle, pulling up so close to it that passengers
06:31on the Bahama Star could feel the heat of the flames. Survivors were pulled from the water
06:38until no more remained. At around 6am the Yarmouth Castle rolled over in the water
06:46and sank beneath the waves, finally extinguishing the flames. When the fire began there had been
06:54552 people on board the Yarmouth Castle. 87 did not make it off the ship alive.
07:04An investigation was launched into the disaster, revealing a catalog of errors,
07:09many of them egregious. There should have been a working sprinkler in room 610, but the sprinkler
07:16there had not been maintained. A patrolling crewman should have discovered the fire much earlier,
07:22but he had patrolled only some of the areas he was supposed to. A general alarm would have
07:28alerted passengers and given them a chance to evacuate, but the alarm system consisted of only
07:34a single electrical circuit and could easily be destroyed by fire. Firefighting equipment should
07:42have allowed crew to hold back the flames while an evacuation took place, but the equipment was
07:47poorly maintained and in fact contributed to the sinking by flooding parts of the ship.
07:54The captain should have remained on board the vessel or returned to it as soon as possible if
07:59forced off by flames so that his knowledge of the ship could be put to use evacuating passengers.
08:05Passengers should have been able to escape in extremis through the windows of their cabins,
08:10but these had been poorly maintained and often would not open. Lifeboats had been
08:16stacked on the deck, making them difficult to access, and some fastenings had been painted over,
08:23delaying the deployment of lifeboats. Inflatable lifeboats were missing, no fire or evacuation
08:30drill had been conducted, life jackets were not available in every cabin, and lastly and most
08:36decisively the Yarmouth Castle was fitted out with wooden fixtures and a wooden superstructure.
08:43The sheer flammability of the vessel, more than anything else, allowed the fire to spread quickly.
08:50This laundry list of obvious safety issues is so comprehensive that you might wonder why the
08:56Yarmouth Castle was allowed to sail at all. While maritime safety standards in 1965 weren't what
09:04they are today they were still relatively strict, and ships were subject to frequent inspections.
09:11However, inspections of the Yarmouth Castle were more relaxed than passengers might have realized.
09:18The ship, despite having owners based in the US, was registered in Panama. This was not an
09:25uncommon practice, and was known as sailing under a flag of convenience. From a ship owner's point
09:33of view using a flag of convenience conferred a number of benefits. Register your ship in Panama
09:40and you'd be able to enjoy reduced tax liability and more relaxed labor laws, and of course you'd
09:47have much less safety legislation to be compliant with. In the wake of the Yarmouth Castle fire
09:55safety standards outlined by the Safety of Life at Sea Convention were increased across the board.
10:02Vessels carrying more than 50 passengers on an overnight trip can no longer be constructed from
10:08combustible materials, fire drills are mandatory, and fire safety inspections are more rigorous.
10:16Moreover, these changes apply to ships registered in almost any country in the world.
10:2299% of merchant ships are now subject to these regulations.
10:28The practice of sailing under a flag of convenience does, however, still exist.
10:35Several popular flag of convenience states have opted out of the Safety of Life at Sea Convention.
10:41For ship operators these states offer the opportunity, still, to sacrifice safety in favor of convenience.
11:04you