Catastrophe struck the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific on this day in 1889. Civil war had broken out in Samoa, which Germany, America and Britain were all keen on colonising. When Germany intervened in the war, American public opinion was outraged and by March 1889 warships had been sent: three American, three German and one British. A tense stand-off followed as the warships anchored close to each other at the harbour in Apia, on the Samoan island of Upolu.
And then the unmistakeable signs of a great storm began to brew. Barometer readings dropped, seas grew heavy and the local people sought shelter. The harbour was highly exposed to the approaching storm, and the best action would have been to sail into the open sea. But the ships failed to take action, and the merchant ships accompanying them also refused to set sail, leaving a total of 13 ships anchored close to each other in the harbour. On March 15, 1889 a tremendous cyclone struck. At the last minute, the ships started to run for the open sea but it was too late. In scenes of utter devastation, two of the American ships were wrecked on reefs and the other one thrown onto a beach and badly damaged. Two of the German warships smashed into each other at the mouth of the harbour, sinking one ship in deep water and the other left on her side on a reef. The third German ship was hurled high onto a beach and wrecked but most of her crew survived. All six merchant ships were wrecked and more than 200 men from all the ships were killed. Only the British ship, HMS Calliope, just managed to steam out of the harbour in the face of the storm, possibly because of her more powerful engines. The captain and his crew were later lauded as heroes.
But why did the ships fail to take action in time? The answer was national pride — none wanted to lose face in front of the other nations by fleeing the scene first, one of the most appalling blunders in naval history.
