The Postcard
A carte postale bearing no publisher's name. The postmark is illegible, but the sender has dated the card on the message side of the divided back.
"11 Octobre 1907."
The card was sent to:
Miss Catherine Trew,
North Wales Training College,
Bangor,
N.W.
Angleterre.
La Rochelle
La Rochelle is a town on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department.
With 75,735 inhabitants in 2017, La Rochelle is the most populated commune in the department, and ranks fifth in the New Aquitaine region after Bordeaux, the regional capital, Limoges, Poitiers and Pau. Its inhabitants are called "les Rochelaises" and "les Rochelais".
La Rochelle is connected to the Île de Ré by a 2.9-kilometre-long (1¾ mile) bridge completed in 1988.
Since the Middle Ages the harbour has opened onto a protected strait, the Pertuis d'Antioche, and is regarded as a gateway to the ocean because of the presence of its three ports (fishing, trade and yachting).
La Rochelle has a strong commercial tradition, having an active port from very early on in its history. La Rochelle underwent sustained development in the middle ages, and has maintained a standing in modern times because of its port, La Pallice, the only deep water port of the French Atlantic coast; it is ranked as the sixth most important port of France.
The city traces its origins to the Gallo-Roman period, attested by the remains of important salt marshes and villas. The Dukes of Aquitaine granted it a charter as a free port in 1130.
With the opening of the English market following the second marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, the presence of the Knights Templar and the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem quickly made this small town the largest port on the Atlantic.
To this day, the city still possesses a rich historical fabric, including the Saint-Nicholas tower, and an urban heritage. The capital of Aunis, it has become the most important coastal city between the Loire and Gironde estuaries.
La Rochelle's urban activities are many in number, and strongly differentiated, being a city with port and industrial functions that are still important, but also including a predominantly administrative and tertiary sector that is reinforced by the university and a rapidly developing tourism industry.
In the early 21st. century, the city has consistently been ranked among France's most liveable cities.
La Rochelle in WW II
During the Second World War, Germany established a submarine naval base at La Pallice (the main port of La Rochelle).
A German stronghold, La Rochelle was the last French city to be liberated at the end of the war. The Allied siege of La Rochelle took place between the 12th. September 1944 and the 7th. May 1945.
The stronghold, including the islands of Ré and Oléron, was held by 20,000 German troops under German vice-admiral Ernst Schirlitz.
Following negotiations by the French Navy frigate captain Meyer, the general German capitulation occurred on the 7th. May 1945, and French troops entered La Rochelle on the 8th. May.
The submarine base became the setting for parts of the movie Das Boot. The U-boat scenes in Raiders of the Lost Ark were also shot in La Rochelle.
The base is featured in the computer game Commandos 2: Men of Courage. It was also chosen in 2018 for the location shooting of the German television series Das Boot (a sequel to the 1981 classic).
The SS Cyprus
So what else happened on the day that the card was written?
Well, on Friday the 11th. October 1907, the SS Cyprus foundered and sank during a gale, 55 days after she was launched.
SS Cyprus was a lake freighter that sank on Lake Superior. She went down in 460 feet (140 m) of water, about 8 miles (13 km) north of Deer Park in Luce County, Michigan. All but one of the 23 members of the crew perished.
Construction of the SS Cyprus
Cyprus was built in Lorain, Ohio, and launched on the 17th. August 1907. She was a 420-foot-long (128 m), 15,000 ton steel-hulled steamer.
She was owned by the Lackawanna Steamship Company, and based out of Fairport, Ohio, northeast of Cleveland, on Lake Erie. A marine trade publication described Cyprus as a very seaworthy vessel in an article published after her sinking.
The Sinking of the SS Cyprus
On only her second voyage, Cyprus was hauling iron ore from Superior, Wisconsin to Buffalo, New York when a moderate gale arose off Deer Park. The gale, according to contemporary accounts, was reported as nothing that Cyprus couldn't have handled.
According to Second Mate Charles G. Pitz who was the sole survivor, Cyprus had been pounded by north-westerly waves all afternoon which caused an increasing list to port.
At around 7:45 p.m. the ship lurched to port and capsized. Pitz and three others, including Captain F. B. Huyck secured themselves on a raft. By 2:00 a.m. the raft and its occupants were within 300 feet (91 m) of shore when breaking waves flipped the raft, and all but Pitz drowned in the surf.
Pitz staggered ashore, just a half-mile east of the Deer Park Life-Saving Station. All but two bodies were eventually recovered.
It was never clear what caused the ship to list in the first place. Another steamer, George Stephenson out of Pittsburgh, had passed Cyprus that afternoon, and had noted that Cyprus was trailing a red wake, indicating that water was mixing with iron ore dust in its cargo hold before being pumped out.
Speculation on the source of the leak has centered on the type of Mulholland sliding hatch cover the nearly new ship had been outfitted with. With a steel on steel seal, this type of hatch was prone to allowing water past unless special tarpaulins were fitted on the hatches. It was not clear if Captain Huyck had ordered these tarpaulins to be deployed or not.
Some alternate theories propose that the engine or rudder failed, leaving Cyprus without the maneuverability needed to avoid wave troughs where ships are most vulnerable to rolling, or propose that labor unrest in Lorain during Cyprus’ construction may have contributed to other, as yet undiscovered flaws. The vessel was a $280,000 loss.
Discovery of the SS Cyprus Wreck Location
In early August 2007 members of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society were using side-scan sonar to search for wrecks off Deer Park when they detected a large object on the bottom of Lake Superior.
According to their best guess, it was the SS D.M. Clemson, which sank in that area with all hands on the 1st. December 1908. A follow-up visit to the vessel with a submersible ROV was made on the 18th. August 2007.
Attempts to identify the vessel as D.M. Clemson were frustrated when the ship’s name was not on the bow in the place where searchers expected to find it.
They then sent the ROV to the stern, where they made the startling discovery that it was, in fact, the Cyprus they had located. The Shipwreck Society had previously believed that Cyprus was some ten miles (16 km) north of where it was found.
Cyprus was discovered lying on her port side in about 460 feet of water. Her hull is totally intact, which is surprising considering the rather violent manner in which she foundered. Wreckage consisting of wall panelings, doors, railings, pipes, and her cargo of iron ore are scattered about the bottom up to 270 feet away from the wreck. Her name and port of call remains completely legible on her stern.
The Shipwreck Society has plans to return to the wreck in the future for forensic research in order to answer some of the lingering questions relating to the sinking of Cyprus.
