The Yarmouth Castle Disaster | A Short Documentary | Fascinating Horror

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"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..."

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Transcript

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01:53most of her original superstructure, even though it was made from outdated materials like canvas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

The Yarmouth Castle Disaster | A Short Documentary | Fascinating Horror

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