{"id":1908,"date":"2012-12-12T00:00:18","date_gmt":"2012-12-12T05:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archives.nd.edu\/about\/news\/?p=1908"},"modified":"2012-12-12T00:00:18","modified_gmt":"2012-12-12T05:00:18","slug":"sorin-lost-at-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/sorin-lost-at-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Rev. Edward Sorin Lost at Sea"},"content":{"rendered":" <\/a>
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On a beautiful November 13, 1875, the steamship L’Amerique<\/em> left New York and set sail for Le Havre, France.\u00a0 Aboard were Rev. Edward Sorin, making one of his many journeys between America and Europe, and Catholic artist Miss Eliza Allen Starr<\/a>.\u00a0 They were supposed to arrive on November 23, but their plans took a great detour.<\/p>\n

Around 3:30am on Sunday, November 21, 1875, the shaft of the L’Amerique<\/em> broke and left her stranded <\/em>near the Scilly Islands in the Celtic Sea.\u00a0 The nearby Royal Mail Steamship China<\/em> was able to take on a few of L’Amerique’s <\/em>passengers and cargo, but many stayed behind.\u00a0 November 23rd newspaper reports claimed that <\/em>“L’Amerique<\/em> was proceeding under sail for Havre, all well” [The Patterson Weekly Press<\/em>, November 25, 1875<\/a>].\u00a0 Scholastic <\/em>reported similar news, not knowing yet that L’Amerique<\/em> and many of her passengers were still stranded, although not sinking.<\/p>\n

Father Sorin and Miss Starr were among the passengers left behind on the disabled steamer.\u00a0 They hoped a rescue ship would come by that Friday.\u00a0 The week’s weather was beautiful and calm:\u00a0 “On Friday evening the ship seemed actually to stand on a sea of glass, so profound was the calm.\u00a0 The sounds on board were as peaceful and domestic as those of a country-house.\u00a0 In fact the stillness was so deep as to be solemn, and almost oppressive; for no ship had come, as we had so confidently expected” [Starr, “Pilgrims and Shrines”].\u00a0 Then the weather turned and the sea became rough.<\/p>\n

A German rescue boat finally found L’Amerique<\/em> on Tuesday, November 29th.\u00a0 However, “the roughness of the sea and the darkness preclude all thoughts of a transfer. She could only take our dispatches to Southampton, and go on her way” [Starr].\u00a0 While the weather once again cleared, no ships arrived to the rescue.\u00a0 Fortunately, there were enough provisions on board to sustain the crew and passengers the extra week at sea.\u00a0 However, thoughts of not being rescued lingered in the minds of Starr and Sorin.\u00a0 They were comforted by prayer and both vowed to keep the devotion of a Thousand Hail Marys.<\/p>\n

On Sunday December 5th, L’Amerique<\/em> was approached by a group of fishermen from Newfoundland.\u00a0 Unfortunately, their boats were not capable of rescuing the steamer.\u00a0 L’Amerique<\/em> had no means of communication and they could only hope that a passing steamer would find them before it was too late.\u00a0 Back home, the Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s students worried greatly:\u00a0 “The non-arrival of the ‘Amerique’ causes great anxiety\u2014
\nTelegraphic reports from Paris and London describe the ‘Amerique’ as going slowly but surely to the destined port.\u00a0 But though these reports allay any extreme fears for the safety of our Venerated Very Rev. Father Sorin, and the other dear friends on board\u2014still, the suspense and anxiety will be very painful till certain tidings of the safety of her passengers reach us” [Scholastic<\/em>, 12\/11\/1875].<\/p>\n

The Ville de Brest<\/em> had gone in search of the incapacitated L’Amerique<\/em> on November 24 and finally spotted her on December 5th and approached closer at midnight.\u00a0 The weather and rough seas prevented a rescue for another week.\u00a0 On December 12th, the crew of the Ville de Brest<\/em> transferred the ninety passengers from L’Amerique<\/em> and towed the disabled steamer back to Ireland.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Father Edward Sorin (in the center with the long, white beard and black cassock), Miss Eliza Allen Starr, and other passengers being transferred to the Ville de Brest<\/em>, the steamer sent out by the French Transatlantic Steamship Company, which save passengers from the disabled steamer L’Amerique<\/em> and which towed her into Queenstown harbor, and thence to Havre, 1875.
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Father Sorin wrote to Scholastic<\/em> about the ordeal and said that during the transfer to the Ville de Brest<\/em> Miss Starr “went down bravely enough half the length of the rope ladder along the side of the big boat, but when she reached the lower boat I could see she was still alive by the sign of the cross she was making and repeating.\u00a0 Ah! she is a Christian woman” [Scholastic<\/em>, 01\/08\/1876].<\/p>\n

After the\u00a0Ville de Brest<\/em> rescued\u00a0L’Amerique<\/em>, the continued storms prevented a swift return to port.\u00a0 They wouldn’t arrive safely at Queenstown harbor until December 18, 1875, nearly three and a half weeks after their original anticipated arrival date in Le Havre.\u00a0 Ville de Brest<\/em> then took the passengers to Le Havre through more storms.\u00a0 From there, the travelers took the train to Paris, arriving on Christmas Day.\u00a0 They went to Mass at Notre Dame des Victoires<\/a>, where prayers and Masses had been said for weeks earlier for their safe rescue.<\/p>\n

In January of 1876, Fr. Sorin commissioned artist Luigi Gregori to paint a mural in the newly built Church of the Sacred Heart (now the Basilica) in thanksgiving of his rescue.\u00a0 The mural depicted Christ walking on water with Saint Peter sinking below the waves while the other apostles remain in the boat.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the murals on the southern wall on either side of the organ were painted over sometime between 1951 and 1977.<\/p>\n

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Sources:
\nScholastic
\n<\/em>“A Memorable Voyage” by Miss Eliza Allen Starr from “Pilgrims and Shrines,” as reprinted in Scholastic<\/em> issues 01\/31\/1885 and 02\/07\/1885
\n“Accident to the Amerique<\/a>,” The Patterson Weekly Press<\/em>, 11\/25\/1875<\/p>\n

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On a beautiful November 13, 1875, the steamship L’Amerique left New York and set sail for Le Havre, France.\u00a0 Aboard were Rev. Edward Sorin, making one of his many journeys between America and Europe, and Catholic artist Miss Eliza Allen Starr.\u00a0 They were supposed to arrive on November 23, but their plans took a great … Continue reading “Rev. Edward Sorin Lost at Sea”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"author":4370,"featured_media":2685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[32,42,70],"class_list":["post-1908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-catholic-history","category-nd-history","tag-events","tag-individuals","tag-sorin"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-07 14:14:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}