on 1 July 1871) she was advertised for all classes as being "unrivalled in safety, speed and comfort". She carried "surgeons and stewardesses". Atlantic completed 18 crossings with no problems other than a minor incident on August 23rd, 1871 when she was hit by SS Alexandria. Disaster On 20 March 1873, Atlantic departed on her 19th voyage from Liverpool with 952 people on board, of whom 835 were passengers, and 14 stowaways. En route, because of heavy seas and strong headwinds slowing their progress, the captain, James Williams, became concerned that they would run out of coal for the boilers before reaching New York. They in fact had more than enough remaining fuel, but the ship's engineer had been purposefully under-reporting coal reserves to increase the margin for error in favor of safety. Thus convinced they were short of coal—and unable to hoist sail as a backup because of the strong headwind—the captain decided to divert to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to refuel. During the approach to Halifax on the evening of 31 March, the captain and third officer were on the bridge until midnight while Atlantic made her way through a storm, proceeding at for the entrance of Halifax Harbour, experiencing intermittent visibility and heavy seas. Unbeknownst to the crew or passengers, winds and currents had put Atlantic approximately off-course to the west of the harbour. Because almost none of the crew had ever been to Halifax before, they were unaware of the dangers of the approach; no one took soundings, posted a masthead lookout, reduced speed, or woke the captain as they approached the unfamiliar coast. They did not spot the Sambro Lighthouse, the large landfall lighthouse which warns mariners of the rocky shoals to the west of the harbour entrance. As the night wore on without any sight of the lighthouse, the helmsman—the only crew member familiar with Halifax—became convinced that something was wrong, and relayed his concerns to the officers on duty, but was ultimately ignored. At 3:15 a.m. local time on 1 April 1873, Atlantic struck an underwater rock ("Golden Rule Rock") off Marr's Head, Meagher's Island (now Mars Head, Mars Island), Nova Scotia. All 10 lifeboats were lowered by the crew but were all washed away or smashed as the ship quickly filled with water and partially capsized. Survivors were forced to swim or climb ropes first to a wave-swept rock and then to a