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SS Athena (1864)

NOTES:
Infinite Electricity is NEEDED
This is hopefully one of my LAST ships for this game
This is a FICTIONAL SHIP of a FICTIONAL COMPANY (SS Titan company)

STORY:
The Steamship Company was founded in November 1862 by a man and his brother, where they planned to make the fastest and most luxurious vessels, and eventually the largest. Their first ship, SS Athena, was ordered in May 1863, laid down June 1863 and launched in September 1863. She was to be finished by late October, though issues with the luxury furnishings delayed it to be December. She took to sea for the first time on sea trials, making an impressive 13.5 knots, impressive for a screw steamship of her day. Unlike a lot of English steamers of the time, the Athena was not a mail steamship, as the thinner bow design with the larger coal bunkers required for a higher speed and larger machinery had resulted in less room available than would be idea.

Athena had a great arrival in New York where she established the reputation for luxurious ships. Unfortunately, on her return trip she had ran down a small sailing vessel with 6 on the packet losing their lives. Athena steamed into Liverpool with a damaged prow, where she was refitted. This includes refitting her steerage into second cabin, as well as swapping the vibrating four bladed propeller for a three bladed one.

In January of 1875, the Athena departed New York for the final time, and recently was refitted once more to a twin bladed propeller to compare performances, which currently was proving to be worse than the three blades. Combined with the two bladed propeller, pitching and rolling issues, she was prone to severely being tossed off course, which would prove fatal on this voyage.

Mid-Atlantic, she had started taking on water due to the damage of her engine skylight, allowing a large amount of sea water to repeatedly pour down and weigh the ship down more. She had no steam pumps, but only manual ones which proved futile, and after thirty five minutes of battling to keep the tiny steamship afloat, with the destruction of her foremast and smashing of a lifeboat, she had sunk with all hands, though two boats were launched, one of these was found capsized and empty two weeks after she was last spotted. The second was spotted a month and a half, at a far distance from the other lifeboat. This boat was upright with two deceased bodies of a crew member and a second cabin passenger, a sorrow and sickening sight. They were buried at sea, and the fate of the steamer remained unknown to the public.