The Shipwreck Archives

On the 9th of September, 1803 Commander Flinders wrote to Governor King of New South Wales a letter that included the following passage: “I think it proper to notice to your Excellency that the great extensions of Lieutenant Fowler and his officers and company, as well the passengers belonging to the Investigator, in saving His Majesty’s stores, have been very praiseworthy; and I judge that the pr...

The New York Times reported the following on the 19th of March, 1897: “Monday found the old iron vessel buffeted about at the mercy of a full gale and turbulent seas. That night the elements broke out in a wild frenzy. The combers made a breach over the decks, they ripped off the hatches, and under their terrific bombardment the doors of the cabin were battered in. Water flooded the saloon, filled...

In a somewhat fiery interview with the chief officer of the Oceanic to a reporter from the Daily Alta on the 23rd of August, 1888 he issued the following statement to the press: “The men of the Chester,” he said, “say they lowered our boats. Do you think it at all likely that a true sailorman will leave his own vessel, clamber up into a strange ship, and proceed to lower her boats? The men who say...

The Lethbridge Herald on March 26, 1931, announced the following on its front page: “Marooned on a loose ice-pack in the North Atlantic, surviving members of the crew of an unidentified vessel, believed to be the sealing ship “Viking”, were drifting seaward with the floe off White Bay, it was stated in messages reaching the government from that point today. The vessel had burned to the water’s edg...

Peter Barker, second mate on the Antelope wrote in his introduction to his story of the shipwreck: “However fatal and unfriendly the dreadful rocks round the Pelew islands may have proved to the navigators, it does not appear that anyone capable of relating his own misfortunes, with sufficient accuracy to claim public attention, ever before escaped from thence.” Ship Name: Antelope  Nationality: B...

War Chronicle from June 1916 documented the detailed statement made by the German Government on the subject of the sinking of the Tubantia: “According to the opinion of expert German naval authorities it can happen owing to technical failures, regrettable as this is, that torpedoes which have missed their aim, do not always sink. Experience has proved that these torpedoes often float about for day...

On the 5th of May, 1893 the Western Mail reported on a Reuter’s telegram from Aden: “There is much anxiety here regarding the steamship Khiva, which left Bombay for Jeddah and other ports on April 12 with a very large number of Mussulman pilgrims aboard, who were going to Mecca, and has been several days overdue. News has just been received here that the steamer has been destroyed by fire off Ras...

The Illustrated Usk Observer and Raglan Herald reported on the 27th of September, 1862 that “The Golden Gate had on board 1,400,747 dols. 273,100 dols were consigned to England 13,000 dols to Panama, and the remainder, 1,114,647 dols to New York. On the news of the catastrophe reaching San Francisco, Lloyd’s agents communicated with the representatives of the Pacific mail steam packet as to the me...

The Brisbane Courier on the 15th of April, 1887 carried the following report from a correspondent who had gone to great lengths to find out what had happened in the latest maritime disaster: “Today I disembarked at Pauillac from the Pacific Steam Navigation Company’s steamship Patagonia, which had on board most of the survivors of the ill-fated immigrant ship Kapunda…I joined the vessel at Lisbon,...

In the History of the Navigation of the Great Lakes, published in 1911, Ralph Gordon Plumb: “Then followed the first disaster of magnitude that occurred on Lake Michigan. This was the burning of the Phoenix off Sheboygan on November 21, 1847. This boat, too, had 250 emigrants from Holland on board in route to Milwaukee. The lake had been rough and the boat had remained in Manitowoc Harbor until it...

The Cardiff Times reported the following story on the 2nd of March, 1895: “She was awakened by the crash about 5:30. People were rushing about on deck, and the water was coming into her cabin. She made her way on deck and went to the port side. The sea was then very rough, and it was dark but starlight; there was no fog and, and no confusion on board. The crew was making efforts to launch the boat...

The Straits Budget on the 24th of January, 1929 reported the following: “The Hsin Wah had wireless on board, but did not carry an operator. Four steamers passed the scene of the disaster within an hour of the sinking, but owing to the pitch darkness did not observe any signs of the wreck. A police launch, a tugboat, and several junks are searching the vicinity under very difficult conditions, as a...

The Victoria Daily Colonist on January 23rd, 1977 reported the following statement by a salvage operation from 1932: “On first descending to the Islander on November 1st. I found the ship easily and stood in bewilderment to see her decks caved in. Tons upon tons of sea growth, shells, and silt which had settled upon the decks had caved them in and carried them down into the holds in an awful mess...

On September 30th, 1876 The Sydney Morning Herald began an article with the following statement: “It was hardly to be expected that the destructive effects of the terrific gale would be confined to the land; but little was it anticipated that such a heartrending catastrophe as that which befell the Dandenong, and which sent a thrill of horror through the community, would have to be chronicled.”  S...

The London Lloyd Evening Post on July 22nd, 1793 wrote the following: “The Count Bernstorff, Indiaman, lately arrived from the Cape of Good Hope, learnt from a country vessel, that she had seen at sea last November a large vessel, answering to the description of the Winterton, supposed to be bearing to the Mauritius. The Winterton left the cape the 2nd of August.”  Ship Name: Winterton Tonnage:711...

On July 5th, 1904, the New York Times wrote: “In the number of its victims, the terrible wreck of the Danish steamer Norge off the coast of the stormy Hebrides comes near to that of the General Slocum in the placid waters of the East River. No disaster so extensive has happened on the high seas for many years, to remind men that there remains perils of the deep which human science has not yet succ...

In the book Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents in the United States, written by Southworth Allen Howland the following statements were made: “We have no evidence that in her model or timbers any reference was had to a capacity for encountering the perils of the ocean...those who had charge of her construction should never again attempt to plan a vessel.” Ship Name: Home Year Built: 1836 To...

The Strait Times from the 10th of July, 1925 contained the following report: “Perhaps the most remarkable story in connection with the loss of the Ban Lee Guan off Pulau Pisang on Monday night is that of a Malay woman and her ten months old child, who were rescued after clinging to a wooden raft for eighteen hours. According to the tales of the survivors the Malay gunner, Adam bin Ali, did very go...

On February 18th, 1876 Mrs. Wordsworth sat down and wrote a letter to her daughter, which was later published in The Sailors’ Magazine and Seaman’s Friend, it included the following statements: “I was sick the whole way, and if the sickness stopped, I had nausea. I could not eat, I loathed everything; and when we got to the line, ‘low fever’ set in. In short, I thought I should never reach New Zea...

An English passenger named Charles Sansom on board the Ercolano gave the following statement to the Newspaper the Parlamento of Turin: “After having supped with Sir Robert Peel, I went on deck to smoke a cigar. The night was very dark, and the sea exceedingly rough. I was walking backwards and forwards, and was astonished at not seeing anyone at the helm. The captain was in his cabin. I perceived...

In their story about the explosion of the Omar D Conger the Port Huron Times Herald on March 27th, 1922 ran the following statement made by an enthusiastic member of the public: “ ‘I don’t see how people can go out pleasure-riding this afternoon when they have a wreck like this to look at.’ said a spectator Sunday afternoon. He went on to say that he had notified all his friends that he could reac...

On the 23rd of December 1662, Joan Maetsuycker wrote a letter from Batavia: “We hoped that the other four missing vessels would have been found at St. Helena but the contrary has been the case; and this has caused us great anxiety and almost made us believe that some disaster from storms had befallen them, for shortly afterwards - god help us - we received news from Ceylon that the Arnhem had, in...

The Glasgow Herald on July 4th, 1883 started a lengthy account with the following statement: “The list of appalling disasters which have recently shocked the public mind received yesterday a lamentable addition by the sinking of a vessel in the Clyde while in course of launching. The catastrophe was as sudden as it was unexpected, and has proved to be unspeakably sad in its results.” Ship name: Da...

The following was quoted in the World’s News on August 6th, 1927: “Suddenly, without a soul on board hearing the warning sound of breakers ahead, or the awful reverberations of rollers on the lee shore - the ship struck. Not a dead blow forward against the treacherous rocks, but with a grating crash along her iron hull, causing the ship to quiver from stem to stern, and on a sunken reef that slope...

The following was reported in the South Wales Echo on the 16th of March, 1897: “The Secretary of State for War on Monday promulgated a special army order, making known to the army the substance of a report received from the general officer commanding at the Mauritius recording the remarkable courage and exemplary discipline displayed by the troops under most trying circumstances on board the Royal...