Orion was a G & J Burns paddle steamer, built by Caird & Co in 1847, which struck a submerged rock and sank off Portpatrick Lighthouse, [1] Wigtownshire, Scotland, on 18 June 1850 on her way from Liverpool to Glasgow, with the loss of 41 of the 200 passengers on board. [2] [3] [4] The eminent surgeon John Burns was one of the passengers killed in the accident. Some of the survivors were rescued by the Isle of Man vessel Fenella, others by boats from Portpatrick. [2] [3] [4]
Her captain was found guilty of the "culpable bereavement of the lives of the passengers" and was imprisoned for 18 months. Her second mate was transported. [5]
The incident was described in the 1851 book The wreck of the Orion, a Tribute of Gratitude by Reverend Joseph Clarke, who was one of the survivors.
The Caledonian Railway (CR) was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively extended its network and reached Edinburgh and Aberdeen, with a dense network of branch lines in the area surrounding Glasgow. It was absorbed into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923. Many of its principal routes are still used, and the original main line between Carlisle and Glasgow is in use as part of the West Coast Main Line railway.
The Portpatrick and Wigtownshire Joint Railways was a network of railway lines serving sparsely populated areas of south-west Scotland. The title appeared in 1885 when the previously independent Portpatrick Railway (PPR) and Wigtownshire Railway (WR) companies were amalgamated by Act of Parliament into a new company jointly owned by the Caledonian Railway, Glasgow & South Western Railway, Midland Railway and the London & North Western Railway and managed by a committee called the Portpatrick and Wigtownshire Joint Committee.
RMS Amazon was a wooden three-masted barque, paddle steamer and Royal Mail Ship. She was the first of 5 sister ships commissioned by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company to serve RMSP's routes between Southampton and the Caribbean.
HMS Forfar (F30), formerly the ocean liner SS Montrose, was an armed merchant cruiser commissioned into Royal Navy service in 1939 and sunk in 1940.
SS Arctic was a 2,856-ton paddle steamer, one of the Collins Line, which operated a transatlantic passenger and mail steamship service during the 1850s. She was the largest of a fleet of four, built with the aid of U.S. government subsidies to challenge the transatlantic supremacy of the British-backed Cunard Line. During its four-year period of service, the ship was renowned both for its speed and for the luxury of its accommodation.
John Burns MD FRS MIF was a Scottish surgeon.
The SS Dresden was a British passenger ship which operated, as such, from 1897 to 1915. She is known as the place of the 1913 disappearance of German engineer Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the Diesel engine. The ship was built in 1897 by the Earle Company at Hull for the Great Eastern Railway. She operated on the North Sea route between Harwich and the Hook of Holland. She was renamed HMS Louvain in 1915 and was used by the Royal Navy in World War I. until her loss in 1918.
SS Northerner was the first paddle steamer lost in operations by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company.
HMS Princess Irene was a 5,394 GRT ocean liner which was built in 1914 by William Denny and Brothers Ltd, Dumbarton, Scotland for the Canadian Pacific Railway. She was requisitioned by the Royal Navy on completion and converted to an auxiliary minelayer. On 27 May 1915, she exploded and sank off Sheerness, Kent, while being loaded with mines prior to a deployment mission, with the loss of 352 lives.
Castalia was a 1,533 GRT twin-hulled paddle steamer that was built in 1874 by the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Leamouth, London for the English Channel Steamship Company. She was acquired by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) in 1878 but had already been laid up by then and was not operated by the LCDR. In 1883, she was sold to the Metropolitan Asylums Board and converted to a hospital ship. She served until 1904 and was scrapped in 1905.
SS Rowan was a British passenger steamer of the Laird Line which was sunk off Corsewall Point on the west coast of Scotland on 9 October 1921.
Events from the year 1850 in Scotland.
Events from the year 1825 in Scotland.
TrSS St Petersburg was a passenger vessel built for the Great Eastern Railway in 1910.
Charkieh was an iron screw steamer launched in 1865. Built at Leamouth near London, she was purchased by the Khedivate of Egypt as a mail steamer. She was in a collision in the River Thames in 1872 and was eventually wrecked off Greece in 1900.