page_title: SS Atlantic (1870)
section_title: Recovery of the dead
hierarchical_section_title: SS Atlantic (1870) / Recovery of the dead
caption_attribution_description: English: Burial service of Victims of Wreck of SS Atlantic, at Lower Prospect, Hfx. Co., N.S., April, 1873. Shows the Rev. W.J. Ancient, C. of E. rector of Turns (Terence) Bay, reading the service before an open trench in which can be seen about 14 rough wooden coffins while gathered by are fisher folk of the district &amp; a very [sic] visitors from Halifax.
context_page_description: RMS Atlantic was a transatlantic ocean liner of the White Star Line that operated between Liverpool, United Kingdom, and New York City, United States. During the ship's 19th voyage, on 1 April 1873, she struck rocks and sank off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, killing at least 535 people. It remained the deadliest civilian maritime disaster in the North Atlantic Ocean until the sinking of SS La Bourgogne on 2 July 1898 and the greatest disaster for the White Star Line prior to the loss of Titanic in April 1912.
context_section_description: Recovery and burial of the large numbers of victims took weeks. Divers were paid rewards for recovering the many bodies trapped within the hull. According to one newspaper account, a body of one of the crew members was discovered to be that of a woman disguised as a man. "She was about twenty or twenty-five years old and had served as a common sailor for three voyages, and her sex was never known until the body was washed ashore and prepared for burial. She is described as having been a great favorite with all her shipmates, and one of the crew, speaking of her, remarked: 'I didn't know Bill was a woman. He used to take his grog as regular as any of us, and was always begging or stealing tobacco. He was a good fellow, though, and I am sorry he was a woman."
caption: Burial service for victims of Atlantic shipwreck, April 1873, Lower Prospect, Halifax County, N.S.
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