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German Gunboat SMS Adler
Overturned on the reef, on the western side of Apia Harbor, Upolu, Samoa, soon after the March 1889 Apia cyclone.
Note her battered hull, well for hoisting propeller, rescue bouy mounted on her stern, and decorative windows painted on her quarters.
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Samoan Hurricane of 15-16 March 1889
Wrecked ships in Apia Harbor, Upolu, Samoa soon after the storm. The view looks northwestward, with the shattered bow of the German gunboat Eber on the beach in the foreground. The stern of USS Trenton is at right, with the sunken USS Vandalia alongside. The German gunboat Adler is on her side in the center distance. Trenton’s starboard quarter gallery has been largely ripped away.
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“When anyone asks me how I can best describe my experience in nearly forty years at sea, I merely say, uneventful. Of course there have been winter gales, and storms and fog and the like. But in all my experience, I have never been in any accident… or any sort worth speaking about. I have seen but one vessel in distress in all my years at sea. I never saw a wreck and never have been wrecked nor was I ever in any predicament that threatened to end in disaster of any sort.” – Edward John Smith, Captain of the RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic
