DENMARK'S TITANIC

Most people know the story of the Titanic. A modern ship, built to be unsinkable, sinks on its maiden voyage after hitting an iceberg, with huge loss of life.

Denmark has its own Titanic, the Hans Hedtoft. The ship was built by the Government in 1958 to supply Greenland. In an age of limited air transport, the ship was designed to be able to supply the then Danish colony all-year round instead of via the normal summer only schedule. It was an icebreaker, with a double hull, divided (shades of the Titanic) into seven watertight compartments, so that if one got punctured, the ship could still float. At the time, it was considered unsinkable. Yet on 30 January 1959, on its maiden voyage to Greenland, the Hans Hedtoft hit an iceberg and sank. All 95 on board lost their lives; despite a week-long search, no trace of either them or the ship was ever found, with the exception of a single lifebuoy that was washed up in Iceland some nine months later. It was one of Denmark's worst ever shipping disasters.

After the accident, it emerged that a number of captains with experience of sailing to Greenland had warned the Government not to go ahead with the plan, since the seas were too rough in winter, and there was extremely limited visibility because of the darkness. Political pressure forced a number of captains to withdraw their letter, so that the eventual presentation to Parliament by the relevant Minister downplayed the risks. Thereafter, the ship was doomed; as one captain put it, it was sign of man's hubris to think that such a wild force of nature could be tamed.

Walter Blotscher