SS Atlantic (1870)

SS Atlantic was a transatlantic ocean liner of the White Star Line, the second ship of the Oceanic class, built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast in 1870 for the route between Liverpool and New York. Her primary propulsion was a four-cylinder compound condensing steam engine of 1,990 indicated horsepower driving a single propeller at 14 knots, with auxiliary rigging as a four-masted barque, and she measured 3,707 tons register, with cabin class passengers amidships and provision for 1,000 in steerage. She sailed on her maiden voyage on 8 June 1871 and completed 18 crossings without serious trouble. On her 19th voyage, on 1 April 1873, after diverting toward Halifax out of concern over her coal, she struck rocks and sank off Nova Scotia, killing at least 535 people, the deadliest civilian maritime disaster in the North Atlantic until 1898 and White Star Line's greatest before Titanic.