Disappearance of BV Juan Palafox Mendoza
 | |
| Date | c. 4 October 1915 |
|---|---|
| Location | Southern Ocean, approximately 1,180 nautical miles east of Cidade Rica, Atlántida |
| Type | Maritime disaster |
| Cause | Unknown |
| Outcome | Disappearance of BV Juan Palafox Mendoza |
| Deaths | 4,201 (presumed) |
| Missing | 4,201 |
| Inquiries | Juan Palafox Mendoza Loss Inquiry |
In October 1915, Creeperian ocean liner BV Juan Palafox Mendoza disappeared in the Southern Ocean while sailing from Salvador to Cámarillo. The ship, then the largest in the world, was operated by the Gold Star Line and was transporting 4,201 people on the voyage's third leg from Cidade Rica, Atlántida to San Estefano (modern-day Paluri, Lurjize).
Intended to sail between Nuevo Xichútepa and San Nicolás, Juan Palafox Mendoza was assigned to sail a large, hastily organized route between Salvador and Cámarillo—making four stops along the way—after its sister ship BV Cristóbal Colón Cámarillo was damaged in September 1915 following a collision with a Creeperian Navy ship. Juan Palafox Mendoza was fitted to carry an unusually large amount of passengers as the ship would be carrying two voyages worth of passengers between mainland Creeperopolis and the San Carlos Islands between 29 September 1915 and 12 October 1915.
Juan Palafox Mendoza departed Cidade Rica for San Estefano on 2 October 1915. The ship was last visually sighted by Atlántidan cargo ship BV Ulla on 3 October 1915 and the last radio contact with the ship was made on 4 October 1915, after which, contact with Juan Palafox Mendoza was lost. Various efforts to restore communication with the ship failed. On 11 October 1915, four days after it was scheduled to arrive in San Estefano, the Gold Star Line notified the Creeperian Navy that Juan Palafox Mendoza was missing and the navy launched a search operation of the Southern Ocean. The search area covered 100 nautical mile (115 miles; 185 kilometer) radius around the ship's estimated last position when it made its last radio broadcast, but the search ultimately found no trace of Juan Palafox Mendoza.
Contents
Background
On 13 September 1907, the Gold Star Line ordered the construction of two-large ocean liners, designed to be the largest ships in the world. The first, BV Cristóbal Colón Cámarillo, entered service on 11 June 1911, making it the largest ship in the world at 965 pies 4 pulgadas (882 feet 6 inches; 269 meters). The following year, on 10 April 1912, sister ship BV Juan Palafox Mendoza entered service, surpassing Cristóbal Colón Cámarillo as the largest ship in the world by 5 pulgadas (3 inches; 0.1 meters). Both ships were built by Díaz–Mori Shipbuilding.
The Gold Star Line intended to use both ships for service between ports in the Bay of Salvador and the San Carlos Islands, a volcanic island chain owned by Creeperopolis located in the Southern Ocean near Ostlandet. Due to the role the ships were intended to serve, both ships were named after two important figures from San Carlos Islands history. The former ship was named after Cristóbal Colón Cámarillo, a Creeperian admiral who discovered the islands and claimed them for Creeperopolis in 1381, while the latter ship was named after Juan Palafox Mendoza, a Creeperian bishop who served as the islands' captain general (governor) from 1685 to 1736.
Cristóbal Colón Cámarillo completed its first voyage to the San Carlos Islands in August 1911, sailing directly from Salvador to Cámarillo (the capital city of the San Carlos Islands); Juan Palafox Mendoza completed its first voyage to the San Carlos Islands in July 1912, sailing directly from Nuevo Xichútepa to San Nicolás. The Salvador–Cámarillo route was considered to be the more important of the two and was assigned to Cristóbal Colón Cámarillo, while the Nuevo Xichútepa–San Nicolás route was assigned to Juan Palafox Mendoza. Eventually, two extra stops were added to the Nuevo Xichútepa–San Nicolás routes, occurring in Cidade Rica, a city in the Kingdom of Atlántida, and in San Estefano (modern-day Paluri), a city in the Creeperian department of San Esteban (modern-day Lurjize).
Preparations to sail
Cristóbal Colón Cámarillo collision
Every year, Cristóbal Colón Cámarillo sailed the Salvador–Cámarillo route between 3 October and 12 October to celebrate the Day of Colón, a San Carlos Islander regional holiday which celebrated Colón Cámarillo's discovery of the San Carlos Islands. Before Cristóbal Colón Cámarillo could prepare to sail the Salvador–Cámarillo route in October 1915, however, the ship collided with BIC Potonico, a Creeperian naval vessel, at Salvador on 7 September 1915. The collision inflicted serious damage to both ships, and Díaz–Mori estimated that it would take an estimated two months for Cristóbal Colón Cámarillo to be fully repaired.
The Gold Star Line wanted to proceed with the annual ceremonial crossing as many tickets had already been sold, but it was unable to simply assign the Juan Palafox Mendoza to the route as it was already assigned to the Nuevo Xichútepa–Cidade Rica–San Estefano–San Nicolás route around the same time, and many tickets had also already been sold. Many passengers on Cristóbal Colón Cámarillo were politicians, journalists, military officers from the San Carlos Islands who wished to return to celebrate the Day of Colón. The ship was also carrying members of Club de Fútbol Real de Cámarillo who were retuning after an exhibition tour in mainland Creeperopolis. Meanwhile, Juan Palafox Mendoza was carrying Atlántidan businessmen, San Estebañero politicians, and various Díaz–Mori employees. The passengers of both ships placed heavy pressure on the Gold Star Line to figure out a solution to ensure that both voyages would be completed.
Juan Palafox Mendoza's assignment
Salvador – 29 September 1915- Nuevo Xichútepa – 29 September 1915
Cidade Rica – 1 October 1915- San Estefano – 7 October 1915
- San Nicolás – 11 October 1915
- Cámarillo – 12 October 1915
Some Gold Star Line executives suggested assigning Juan Palafox Mendoza to the Salvador–Cámarillo route to sail on schedule and that two or three other ships would be assigned to fulfill the Nuevo Xichútepa–Cidade Rica–San Estefano–San Nicolás route. The suggestion met opposition from other executives as they believed that the other ships would not be prepared in time. A small group suggested simply canceling one route, but the suggestion was rejected.
On 9 September 1915, the Gold Star Line announced that Juan Palafox Mendoza would sail both routes at the same time. The voyage would begin slightly ahead of schedule on 29 September 1915 at Salvador and end on time at Cámarillo on 12 October 1915. After the ship's departure from Salvador, it would complete the Nuevo Xichútepa–Cidade Rica–San Estefano–San Nicolás route along the way, arriving at Nuevo Xichútepa on 29 September 1915, at Cidade Rica on 1 October 1915, at San Estefano on 7 October 1915, and at San Nicolás on 11 October 1915. The company assured that Juan Palafox Mendoza would be able to complete the voyage on time and on schedule.
Prior to the start of the voyage, Juan Palafox Mendoza was hastily prepared by the Gold Star Line to accommodate a higher capacity than usual. The ship had a capacity for 3,448 people (2,538 passengers and 910 crew), but as two voyages were merged into one, the ship was now expected to exceed its capacity. The Gold Star Line made space for an additional 1,000 people by adding hundreds of bunk beds into the ship, as well as reducing the amount of space assigned to first class passengers.
Voyage
Salvador to Cidade Rica
The Gold Star Line selected officers from the crews of both Juan Palafox Mendoza and Cristóbal Colón Cámarillo to command the voyage, as the officers of Juan Palafox Mendoza was not as familiar with the Salvador–Cámarillo route as the officers of Cristóbal Colón Cámarillo were. The officers selected by the Gold Star Line consisted of Captain Alfonso Moreno Salinas, Chief Officer Agustín Morelos Gómez, First Officer Enrique Payés Muñoz, Second Officer Jorge Sánchez Videla, Third Officer Fernando Valdéz Gaitán, Fourth Officer Carlos Infantes Ramírez, Fifth Officer Néstor Juárez Lacasa, Sixth Officer Adolfo Rubacalva Quiñónez, Seventh Officer Eduardo Bermúdez Zaldívar, and Eighth Officer Roberto Casablanca Pérez. Moreno Salinas, Sánchez Videla, Valdéz Gaitán, Juárez Lacasa, and Casablanca Pérez and were officers of Juan Palafox Mendoza while Morelos Gómez, Payés Muñoz, Infantes Ramírez, Rubacalva Quiñónez, and Eduardo Bermúdez Zaldívar were officers of Cristóbal Colón Cámarillo. Juan Palafox Mendoza typically only sailed eight officers, but two additional officers were assigned due to the special nature of the voyage.
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On 28 September 1915, the 30 boilers of Juan Palafox Mendoza were turned on to begin producing power for the ship ahead of its voyage. The ship left Salvador on 29 September 1915 at 9:30 a.m. and embarked for Nuevo Xichútepa. It arrived at Nuevo Xichútepa at 1:14 p.m. and embarked for Cidade Rica five hours later after allowing for more passengers to board. The ship was ordered to sail at maximum ahead (an emergency speed higher than full ahead which was typical on Creeperian ships during the early 20th century) for most of the voyage to remain on schedule, as the Gold Star Line was concerned that Juan Palafox Mendoza would fall behind schedule and not arrive at Cámarillo on 12 October 1915. Juan Palafox Mendoza arrived at Cidade Rica on 1 October 1915. While the ship was moored at Cidade Rica, the ship offloaded many passengers whose final destination Cidade Rica, but also boarded others who were sailing to San Estefano or San Nicolás.
Juan Palafox Mendoza's officers sent various messages to the Gold Star Line via the ship's onboard wireless radio telegraph during the second leg from Nuevo Xichútepa to Cidade Rica voicing concerns that the ship would be consuming its coal supplies faster than usual and that its firemen would be overworked as the ship was consuming coal at a faster rate than normal due to it sailing continuously at maximum ahead rather than full ahead. The Gold Star Line responded to the officers' concerns by assuring that the ship was designed to be able to sail at maximum ahead for 12 days without needing to resupply. The company told the crew to not resupply on coal while at Cidade Rica as it would delay the ship's departure from Cidade Rica. Ignoring the company's instructions, the ship's crew loaded more coal into the ship's coal bunkers.
After departing Cidade Rica
Juan Palafox Mendoza departed Cidade Rica on 2 October 1915 at 7:26 a.m., beginning the third leg of its voyage from Cidade Rica to San Estefano, which it was expected to reach by 7 October 1915. A total of 4,201 people—3,299 passengers and 902 crew—were on board the ship. At 7:47 a.m., the ship sent a message to the Gold Star Line confirming that it had left Cidade Rica, and also informed the company that it had taken on more coal before it departed. The company responded by informing the crew that their pay would be cut as punishment for disobeying the company's instructions and that they will be reprimanded when they return to Salvador in late-November.
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Throughout 2 and 3 October 1915, Juan Palafox Mendoza was in consistent communication with the Gold Star Line, Cidade Rica, and other vessels in the Southern Ocean. At 7:24 p.m. on 3 October 1915, Atlántidan cargo ship BV Ulla, traveling from San Estefano to Pontevedra, passed by Juan Palafox Mendoza and exchanged signal lamp flashes to communicate with each other. The contact made by Ulla was the last confirmed sighting of Juan Palafox Mendoza, located around 790 nautical miles (910 miles; 1,465 kilometers) from Cidade Rica.
On 4 October 1915 at 11:55 a.m., Juan Palafox Mendoza sent its last verified radio transmission. The signal was sent to the Gold Star Line informing the company that it would need to load more coal at San Estefano and that the firemen were complaining of being overworked. The ship's final confirmed message to the Gold Star Line read:
Necesita[mos] más carbón en San Estefano. Fogoneros stán trabajando mucho [y] necesitan descanso. No podemos continuar a máximo adelante. LEOX02
[We] need more coal at San Estefano. Firemen are overworked [and] need rest. We cannot continue at maximum ahead. LEOX02[note 1]
— Final confirmed message from BV Juan Palafox Mendoza[note 2]
The Gold Star Line responded to Juan Palafox Mendoza's message three minutes later by ordering them to not load more coal at San Estefano and to keep sailing at maximum ahead. The company warned the ship's officers and firemen that all of them would be fired if they disobeyed the company's instructions again at San Estefano, adding that they would message their offices in San Estefano ahead of time to not allow the ship to resupply with coal as to not delay the ship's voyage to San Nicolás and Cámarillo. Juan Palafox Mendoza never responded to the Gold Star Line's message.
Throughout 4 and 5 October 1915, the Gold Star Line made several efforts to contact Juan Palafox Mendoza, but never heard back from the ship. The company assumed that the ship's crew had decided to cease all communication with the company after the threats they made in the messages shortly after Juan Palafox Mendoza's final contact. The company sent a message to its offices in San Estefano to order the ship to resume communications with the company, but the ship failed to arrive on 7 October 1915. The company assumed that the ship's officers had disobeyed orders and reduced the ships speed, but as the ship still failed to arrive at San Estefano by 10 October 1915, the company began to grow concerned that the ship may have gone seriously off course, either intentionally or accidentally.
On 11 October 1915, the Gold Star Line notified the Creeperian Navy of Juan Palafox Mendoza's failure to arrive at San Estefano. The navy mobilized various ships under the command of Rear Admiral José Salinas Tejón to begin a search operation for Juan Palafox Mendoza. Additionally, the Gold Star Line ordered all of its ships in the Southern Ocean to look out for Juan Palafox Mendoza and notify the company if they found any sign of the ship, as did other Creeperian and Atlántidan shipping companies. Radio operators from San Esteban, the San Carlos Islands, the Kingdom of Atlántida, the Creeperian Navy, and other ships in the Southern Ocean sent out radio messages throughout the search operation in an attempt to make contact with Juan Palafox Mendoza.
The last known position of Juan Palafox Mendoza was where it was when it encountered Ulla on 3 October 1915. Assuming the ship continued to travel at maximum ahead until its final radio message, Gold Star Line navigators estimated that the ship would have sailed an additional 390 nautical miles (450 miles; 725 kilometers) from its last known position. Most of the search operation was conducted in a 100 nautical mile (115 miles; 185 kilometer) radius around the ship's estimated final position at the time of its last radio broadcast. After eight days of searching, the Creeperian Navy did not find any trace of Juan Palafox Mendoza or the 4,201 people on board. Additionally, no other vessel passing through the area reported sighting the ship or its occupants either.
On 19 October 1915, Salinas Tejón ordered his ships to return to port. He sent a radio telegram to naval offices in San Esteban that the search produced no results and that no wreckage was found; he stated that he canceled the search operation and was returning to port. The naval offices responded to Rivas Albeño confirming that they received his message that the search was canceled. The navy sent a message to the Creeperian national government in San Salvador informing it that Juan Palafox Mendoza was lost at sea and that a week-long search was unable to find the ship, its wreck, or its occupants.
Juan Palafox Mendoza Loss Inquiry
On 22 October 1915, the Creeperian National Parliament ordered the formation of an inquiry to investigate the cause of Juan Palafox Mendoza's disappearance. Parliament established the Inquiry on the Loss of Juan Palafox Mendoza (Creeperian: Consulta en la'Pérdida del Juan Palafox Mendoza), or the Juan Palafox Mendoza Loss Inquiry, the following day with support from both the Creeperian Conservative Coalition (CCC) and the People's Social Coalition (CSP), the two largest parliamentary groups. The inquiry was led by a board of twelve members of parliament; Julio Alda Miqueleiz was appointed by Prime Minister Antonio Sáenz Heredia to serve as the board's chairman.
The inquiry board ordered representatives of the Gold Star Line to testify what occurred prior to the ship's disappearance. The representatives told the inquiry board that the ship had been routed to sail between Salvador and Cámarillo and make four stops along the way, and that the ship was ordered to sail at maximum ahead to save as much time as possible as to not arrive late to Cámarillo. As ordered by the inquiry board, the company handed over all messages sent to and from Juan Palafox Mendoza throughout the voyage. Radio operators from the San Esteban and the Kingdom of Atlántida, Gold Star Line employees who helped load the ship in Cidade Rica, and the crew of Ulla who were the last to visually see the ship were also summoned to testify regarding their interactions with the ship prior to its disappearance.
Although the ship's wreckage had not been found, after a one-year long investigation, the inquiry board concluded that the ultimate fate of Juan Palafox Mendoza was "unknowable" ("desconocido") on 9 November 1916. From the messages transmitted to and from Juan Palafox Mendoza, the lack of any wreckage or bodies, and the general lack of any information regarding the ship's actions after 12 p.m. on 4 October 1915, the Juan Palafox Mendoza Loss Inquiry deemed that the ultimate fate of the ship could not be determined unless the wreck was discovered.
Despite the inquiry board's judgement that the fate of Juan Palafox Mendoza could not be determined, it placed blame on the Gold Star Line for rushing to organize the ship to sail an unusually busy route on very short notice, and for making threats to the crew for potentially delaying the ship's arrival in Cámarillo, and for ordering the crew to maintain the ship on maximum ahead rather than allowing them to reduce speed to full ahead. The inquiry board ordered the Gold Star Line to pay a ₡250,000 peso fine to the Creeperian government for violating the 1909 Worker's Rights Act and also ordered the company to pay compensation to the families of the 4,201 people on board the ship, who were all declared dead in absentia. In response to the inquiry's ruling, Emmanuel Bosque Castañeda resigned from his position as the owner of the Gold Star Line.
Bottled message hoaxes
On 12 October 1915, the day after the Gold Star Line notified the navy of Juan Palafox Mendoza's failure to arrive at San Estefano, a package was delivered to the headquarters of San Esteban Hoy, a newspaper based in San Estefano, containing a message in a bottle and a note attached to the package claiming that the bottled message was recovered from the ocean and was written by a member of Juan Palafox Mendoza's crew before the ship disappeared. The newspaper published the contents of the message the following day; the message, supposedly written by a fireman named José Gabriel Murillo y Agüero, claimed that Juan Palafox Mendoza collided with another ship and that both were sinking at a very fast rate. The message was refuted by the Gold Star Line, which stated that a no fireman named José Gabriel Murillo y Agüero was onboard the ship or was employed by the company. The bottled message has since been widely discredited as a hoax as ocean current models suggest that it would have been near impossible for a message in a bottle to reach the coast of San Esteban within one week from the ship's estimated last position.
In October 1923, three bottled messages were sent to the headquarters of El Diario de San Nicolás, a newspaper based in San Nicolás, claimed to have been written by passengers of Juan Palafox Mendoza. All three messages claimed that Juan Palafox Mendoza collided with another ship, causing both to sink at a rapid rate. Although all three messages claimed that Juan Palafox Mendoza sank because of a collision with another ship, each account differed as to what occurred; one claimed that a navy cruiser impacted the ship's mid section, another claimed that the ship impacted a small cargo ship, and the last claimed that a large ocean liner impacted Juan Palafox Mendoza's propellers. The letters' contents were published by the newspaper but were quickly refuted as hoaxes by the Gold Star Line, the Creeperian Navy, the government of the San Carlos Islands, and historians who studied Creeperian sailing history. The ensuing scandal led to the reputation of El Diario de San Nicolás being damaged, resulting in the newspaper's dissolution in 1925.
Since the 1950s, various bottled messages have been sent to newspapers in the San Carlos Islands and Salvador, as well as in Lurjize, an independent country formed from San Esteban in 1918. All messages have been dismissed as hoaxes by historians due to various factual inconsistencies, the implausibility of the location the messages were supposedly recovered or lack there of, and conflicting claims made by the messages. Although several hoaxes have occurred since the ship's disappearance, only the hoaxes of 1915 and 1923 led to significant news coverage.
Subsequent search efforts
As the initial search by the Creeperian Navy in October 1915 did not locate the ship or any wreckage, several searches have been conducted since the conclusion of the Creeperian Navy's search attempting to find the wreckage of Juan Palafox Mendoza with improved technology and using new estimations and theories to help narrow search areas. No follow up search has ever been officially conducted by the Creeperian government or navy; all subsequent searches have been conducted by private companies and foundations, but sometimes they received navy assistance.
The first major renewed search occurred in 1975 when the Gold Star Line commissioned a group of oceanographers to utilize unmanned submersibles attached to ship and equipped with lights and cameras to search the ocean floor for Juan Palafox Mendoza. From October to November 1975, the group searched thousands of acres of ocean floor around the final estimated position of Juan Palafox Mendoza but failed to find the ship's wreckage. In the aftermath of the failed 1975 search, the oceanographers involved in the search established the JPM Search Association (AEJPM), a foundation dedicated to discovering the wreck of Juan Palafox Mendoza.
The first search conducted by the JPM Search Association occurred in 1983. The Creeperian Navy wanted to search for the wrecks of various warships lost during the Creeperian Civil War (1933–1949) and wanted to observe how the wrecks and cargo of the ships affected the ocean floor environment. The navy contracted the JPM Search Association to use their improved unmanned submersibles and deep ocean cameras to look for the wrecks of warships in the Southern Ocean and allowed the foundation to search for Juan Palafox Mendoza while it looked for sunken warships.
During the search from September to October 1983, the JPM Search Association discovered the wrecks of six ships: BIC Águila Real, a light cruiser sunk by a submarine in 1935; BV Jaisco, a cargo ship which disappeared in 1928; BV Mundo Grande, a cargo ship sunk by a submarine in 1936; BV Orlando, a cargo ship which disappeared in 1942; BV Puerto del Sur, a cargo ship sunk by a submarine in 1942; and BNC Victoria del Mar, a destroyer sunk by a submarine in 1937. Although the search found six ships, who of which disappeared similar to Juan Palafox Mendoza, it failed to find Juan Palafox Mendoza itself, and by mid-October 1983, the search did not have the funding to continue searching for the ship as the Creeperian Navy was satisfied with the discoveries that had been made.
Theories on the ship's fate
Boiler explosion
Terrorist bombing
Rogue wave
Iceberg collision
Conspiracy theories
Crew instigated hijacking
Gold Star Line insurance fraud
Creeperian Navy sinking and coverup
Ship collision
In popular culture
See also
Notes
- ↑ LEOX02 (
) was Juan Palafox Mendoza's identification call sign.
- ↑ Original transmission: -· · -·-· · ··· ·· - ·- -- ·- --- -·-· ·- ·-· -··· --- -· · -· ··· ·- -· · ··· - · ··-· ·- -· --- ·-·-·- ··-· --- --· --- -· · ·-· --- ··· ··· - ·- -· - ·-· ·- -··· ·- ·--- ·- -· -·· --- -- ··- -·-· ···· --- -· · -·-· · ··· ·· - ·- -· -·· · ··· -·-· ·- -· ··· --- ·-·-·- -· --- ·--· --- -·· · -- --- ··· -·-· --- -· - ·· -· ··- ·- ·-· ·- -- ·- -··- ·· -- --- ·- -·· · ·-·· ·- -· - · ·-·-·- ·-·· · --- -··- ----- ··---
