SALIER
- Name: Salier
- Type of vessel: cargo and passenger, mixed steamship
- Flag: Germany
- Date of sinking: 08 December 1896
- Cause: run aground during a storm
- Location: As Basoñas shallows, in front of Xuño beach (Porto do Son)
- Diving level: Still to be located
- GALP territory: Estuary of Muros-Noia
HISTORY
Tragedy with 281 casualties that were emigrating to the New World
The Salier was a liner steamer that carried cargo and passengers between Europe and South America during the time of emigration to the New World. It was 108 metres long and had an iron hull. It had been built in 1875 by Earle’s SB & E. Co. in Hull (England). The owner was Norddeutscher Lloyd.
It left the port of Bremen (Germany) and, after a stopover in A Coruña, was bound for Vigo and La Plata. The passage was composed of mostly Russian, Polish and Galician emigrants. It had sailed on the 7th and in the early hours of the 8th, in very bad sea conditions. The wind and currents dragged the ship to its last and fatal destination.
The Salier ran aground off Cape Corrubedo, claiming the lives of its 281 crew and passengers. There were no survivors.
None of the bodies recovered were wearing life jackets, suggesting that the sinking occurred without warning, probably while the passengers were asleep.
The loss of the Salier was blamed on an alleged poor condition of the ship or even, as in other cases, on an alleged local magnetic variation. The explanation, as in the cases produced by south-west storms in the area, is due to drifting and overturning caused by winds and currents.
GALLERY
