CS Minia

CS Minia was a British ship used for laying and fixing undersea cables. It became well-known for one important job.

After the sinking of RMS Titanic, it was the second ship hired by the White Star Line to help look for those who had passed away. This work was a key part of the recovery efforts, showing how ships like Minia helped in times of need. The ship was also chartered for its special abilities in handling undersea cables, which were important for communication before modern technology.

Construction

The ship Minia was launched on July 12, 1866 at the London and Glasgow Shipbuilding Company in Glasgow, United Kingdom. It was finished later that same year. The ship was 100.1 metres long, with a beam of 10.87 metres and a depth of 7.65 metres. It weighed 2,061 gross register tons and had three masts and one funnel.

Early career

After five years working with Western Union, the ship Minia was sold to the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company in 1871 and became a cable-laying vessel. Minia began by working in shallow waters. Under Captain J. H. Martin, it helped lay cables between places like Saigon and Hong Kong in 1871, Porthcurno, Vigo, and Lisbon in 1873, and between Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Saint Croix in 1874. Later, Minia was sold again and got ready for deeper water cable repairs. From 1885 to 1895, the ship fixed cables 120 times, mostly in the Atlantic Ocean. In 1912, Minia was leased back to Western Union, its original owner.

Titanic disaster

Minia was sailing towards Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on 15 April 1912 when RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic Ocean. RMS Carpathia picked up all 712 survivors of the sinking of RMS Titanic and made way for New York. At the time, people on land did not know the full extent of the Titanic disaster and many hoped that the nearly 1,500 missing passengers and crew of Titanic had been saved by another ship. When Minia arrived at Halifax on 17 April 1912, it was revealed that the ship had not been close to Titanic's wrecksite and therefore had not picked up any more survivors. By this time, the cable ship Mackay-Bennett was chartered by the White Star Line to recover the bodies of the Titanic's dead.

Recovery of bodies

Minia was chartered by the White Star Line to recover additional bodies on 22 April 1912. Minia, under the command of Captain William George Squares deCarteret, was loaded with 150 coffins, 20 tons of ice and 10 tons of grate iron and departed Halifax within hours of being chartered. Minia reached Titanic's wrecksite on 26 April and joined up with Mackay-Bennet. Minia's crew were shocked by the amount of debris that was present at the wrecksite.

Minia recovered her first body the same day she arrived at the wrecksite. The victim was identified as First Class passenger and Grand Trunk Railway president Charles Melville Hays. The search for bodies was hampered by bad weather, and Minia only retrieving 17 bodies following a week of searching. On 3 May 1912, Minia began her voyage back to Halifax with the bodies she had recovered, arriving there on 6 May. All bodies were sent to the temporary morgue at the ice rink of the local Mayflower Curling Club for identification.

Final years

The ship Minia stayed in service until it was sold for scrap in 1922. By then, it had laid a long distance of cable—50,000 nautical miles—and helped fix many more cables around the world.