The PS Lady Elgin was a wooden-hulled sidewheel steamship that sank in Lake Michigan off the fledgling town of Port Clinton, Illinois, whose geography is now divided between Highland Park and Highwood, Illinois, after she was rammed in a gale by the schooner Augusta in the early hours of September 8, 1860. The passenger manifest was lost with the collision, but the sinking of Lady Elgin resulted in the loss of about 300 lives in what was called "one of the greatest marine horrors on record". Four years after the disaster, a new rule required sailing vessels to carry running lights. The Lady Elgin disaster remains the greatest loss of life on open water in the history of the Great Lakes.
Kilkee is a small coastal town in County Clare, Ireland. It is in the parish of Kilkee, formerly Kilfearagh. Kilkee is midway between Kilrush and Doonbeg on the N67 road. The town is popular as a seaside resort. The horseshoe bay is protected from the Atlantic Ocean by the Duggerna Reef.
Events from the year 1836 in Ireland.
SS Montrose was a British merchant steamship that was built in 1897 and wrecked in 1914. She was built as a cargo liner for Elder, Dempster & Company. In 1903 the Canadian Pacific Railway bought her and had her converted into a passenger liner.
The Edmond was a chartered passenger sailing vessel that sank off the coast of Kilkee, County Clare on 19 November 1850. It was built in 1833 in Granville, Nova Scotia, a small community near Annapolis Royal, a town that became famous for wooden shipbuilding during the 1800s. At the time of the disaster it was owned by John Arnott and George Cannock, who co-owned the Arnotts department store. Today there is a commemorative plaque engraved on the sea wall just beside the wreck site, in an area now known as Edmond Point.
The Inishtrahull was a passenger cargo vessel that sank off the coast of Kilkee, County Clare between 28 and 29 December 1894. After leaving Glasgow, Scotland with a consignment of coal for Limerick city on 27 December 1894, the ship ran into difficulty somewhere near Kilkee and foundered due to the heavy gales reported along the west coast of Ireland in late December of that year. This was confirmed on 3 January 1895 when a section of a port bow marked "Glasgow" was picked up near Kilkee.
Wacousta was a steam cargo ship built in 1908 by the Archibald McMillan & Son of Dumbarton for the Wacousta Dampskibskompani, originally managed by Peter Anton Grøn of Sandefjord, and subsequently transferred to Christensen & Stenseth in March 1915. She was named after a fictional character from a novel Wacousta by John Richardson, published in 1832. The ship was primarily employed as a collier during her career.
West Ridge is a merchant ship that was lost in July 1883 carrying coal between Liverpool and Bombay. In May 2018, it was reported that the wreck of the ship had been found in 2015 during the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. A maritime archaeologist at the Western Australia Museum said that the evidence indicated that the likely cause of the loss of the ship was an explosion.
SS Myola was a 655-ton screw steamer, 55 metres long, built in Middlesbrough in the United Kingdom. Myola, could unfurl sails on her two tall masts and gain a knot or so of additional speed when the wind suited.
United Kingdom
Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire