Historical eventOctober 91913

SS Volturno (1906)

Carrying a cargo hold full of highly flammable chemicals, the ocean liner SS Volturno caught fire in the north Atlantic and sank, resulting in 136 deaths.

Everything on October 9Original source

In context

When
Thursday, October 9 1913113 years ago
Category
Historical eventA dated happening — a battle, treaty, launch, discovery, disaster or decision — recorded on this calendar day.
Era
20th century · 1910s
Recorded from
Wikipedia “On this day” feed

Russia, Greece and some other countries used the Julian calendar into the early 20th century, so local records may show a date up to 13 days earlier.

At a glance

Dates: From 1913.

Type: ocean liner.

What happened

Description Volturno was 340 feet 0 inches (103.63 m) long, with a beam of 43 feet 0 inches (13.11 m) and a depth of 31 feet 3 inches (9.53 m). She was powered by two triple expansion steam engines rated at a total of 450 nhp , 2,750 ihp . The engines drove twin screw propellers giving her a speed of 14 knots (26 km/h). They were built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company , Govan , Renfrewshire . [ 1 ] ^ "Volturno" .

History SS Volturno departing from Rotterdam (1913) Volturno was built as yard number 448 by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company. Ordered by Navigazione Italo-American, Naples , Italy , she was launched on 5 September 1906 and completed on 6 November. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Her first owner was the Volturno Steamship Company, London and she was operated under the management of D. G. Pinkney & Co. Ltd., London. In 1910, she was sold to Canadian Royal Steamships Ltd., which traded as the Royal Line.

SS Volturno was an ocean liner that caught fire and was eventually scuttled in the North Atlantic in October 1913. She was a Royal Line ship under charter to the Uranium Line at the time of the fire. After the ship issued SOS signals, eleven ships came to her aid and, in heavy seas and gale winds, rescued 521 passengers and crewmen. In total 135 people died in the incident, most of them women and children in lifeboats launched unsuccessfully prior to the arrival of the rescue ships.

October 9 through the years

Other entries on the same calendar day, in order.

  1. 1913SS Volturno (1906)
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  3. 1995Amtrak
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  9. 2019Syrian civil war
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  11. 2024Hurricane Milton

Also in 1913

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  • June 17DetroitIn Detroit, autoworkers for car manufacturer Studebaker went on strike in the American auto industry's first major strike action.
  • October 27General strikeA rail workers' strike in Chile escalates into a general strike, organized by the Regional Workers' Federation of Chile.
  • October 2Shubert Theatre (Broadway)The Shubert Theatre opened on Broadway with a production of Hamlet.
  • December 14Japanese battleship HarunaHaruna (pictured), the fourth and last Japanese battlecruiser of the Kongō class, was launched and went on to serve in both world wars.
  • March 31Arnold SchoenbergArnold Schoenberg conducted the Vienna Concert Society in a concert of expressionist music that so shocked the audience that they began t…
  • February 2Grand Central TerminalNew York City's Grand Central Terminal, the world's largest train station by number of platforms, opened immediately after midnight.

Everything we record for 1913 →

Sources

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“SS Volturno (1906)”, What's On This Date, https://whatsonthisdate.com/app/event/ss-volturno-1906-1913-october-9, accessed October 27, 2026.

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Questions about this entry

When did SS Volturno (1906) happen?

October 9 1913 — 113 years ago, on a Thursday.

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