Ship That Tried to Warn Titanic About Deadly Iceberg Shared Tragic Fate

The Ship That Warned the Titanic

SS Mesaba has forever etched its name in history because of its association with Titanic. SS Mesaba reportedly warned the 'unsinkable' Titanic of the iceberg through a wireless radio signal, Newsweek reported. Six years after the Titanic tragedy, a German U-boat torpedoed Mesaba, causing it to sink to the depths of the ocean. It was on a voyage from Liverpool to Philadelphia when it was attacked. In 2022, Mesaba's wreckage was discovered and identified by researchers in the Irish Sea.

History of SS Mesaba

SS Mesaba was launched by Harland & Wolff, Belfast, Ireland, (Yard No. 319), for the Wilson & Furness-Leyland Line, Titanic Enquiry reported. Atlantic Transport Line purchased it along with five sister ships on July 21, 1897, to replace ships taken by the U.S. government for use in the Spanish-American war. The ship fetched a price of almost £140,000 during that time. Its maiden voyage took place on March 3, 1898. On September 1, 1918, Mesaba was torpedoed by a German U-boat in St. George's Channel, 21 miles from Tuskar Rock, Titanic Enquiry reported. Twenty people died in this disaster, including the ship's captain.

Last Message to Titanic

SS Mesaba was crossing the Atlantic on April 4, 1912, when its crew took notice of the iceberg, CNN reported. Following the rules in those times, the crew of SS Mesaba sent a radio signal about the iceberg to Titanic. The message from Mesaba did not reach the main control center (the bridge) of the Titanic despite a wireless officer receiving it. Titanic remained on its planned course, and four days into its maiden voyage struck an iceberg and sank, killing over 1,500 people.

Plans to Locate Mesaba

Michael Roberts, a maritime geoscientist at Bangor University, Wales, collaborated with Innes McCartney, to find ways to explore the shipwrecks in the Irish Sea. They were interested in finding Mesaba using technology. Both zeroed in on sonar navigation because it was less costly and time-consuming than diving. The cost of discovering and identifying each wreck was between £800 ($855) and £1,000 ($1,070). In 2022, the duo managed to locate the wreckage of Mesaba on the floor of the Irish Sea using their technology.

How Mesaba Was Found

SS Mesaba's shipwreck eluded researchers for over a century, Newsweek reported. Experts used sonar navigation to locate the wreck of SS Mesaba in the Irish Sea. Sonar navigation is a technique in which sound waves are used to measure the distance between objects and sound sources. Experts from Bangor University in Wales used advanced multibeam sonar, built on this technique to discover the shipwreck, CNN reported. Advanced multibeam sonar known as Prince Madog utilizes sound waves to enable seabed mapping in such detail, that the superstructure appears on the sonar images. Bangor University researchers used this to identify the shipwreck from the images without having to dive. Researchers then used records about the merchant vessel to identify it.

The Other 273 Shipwrecks

Sonar navigation increased the scope of this expedition by researchers from Bangor University, Newsweek reported. It helped the team find 273 other shipwrecks lying across 7,500 square miles of the Irish Sea. Most of these shipwrecks had been wrongly identified in the past because diving did not provide researchers with enough information. "Previously we would be able to dive to a few sites a year to visually identify wrecks," Innes McCartney, one of the researchers, said in a statement.