SS Drummond Castle

Last updated

SS Drummond Castle.png
Drummond Castle
History
Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg
NameDrummond Castle (1883–1895)
Operator
Builder John Elder & Co., Govan, Glasgow, Scotland
Yard number246
Launched17 February 1881
FateRan aground and sank 16 June 1896
General characteristics
Tonnage3,706  GRT
Length365 ft (111 m)
Beam43.5 ft (13.3 m)
Draught31.3 ft (9.5 m)

SS Drummond Castle was a steamship built in 1881 by John Elder & Co. of Govan, Glasgow, Scotland, for D. Currie & Co. and later operated by the Castle Mail Packet Company. The ship sank on 16 June 1896 off Ushant.

Contents

Sinking

The Drummond Castle departed Cape Town, South Africa, on 28 May 1896 for London via Delagoa Bay, Natal and Las Palmas, with 143 passengers and 102 crew. [1] On 16 June the Drummond Castle was off Ushant, the sea was calm but foggy. [2]

The safe passage past Ushant is to the north, but for an unknown reason the Drummond Castle sailed between Ushant and Molène. [3] Around 23:00 the Drummond Castle struck rocks at the south entrance to the Fronveur Sound, within four minutes the ship had sunk. [4]

Two crew were rescued by Breton fishermen; one passenger managed to reach Molène. [3] The other 242 crew and passengers were drowned. [1] The main cargo was 1,943 bales of wool, skins, hides and horns, weighing 450 tons; the rest was 250 tons of coal. [1]

A Board of Trade wreck inquiry was held in July 1896 in Westminster. [1] The inquiry concluded that the loss was due to "careless or unskillful navigation". [5]

Related Research Articles

SS <i>Waratah</i> Ship lost off South Africa in 1909

SS Waratah was a passenger and cargo steamship built in 1908 for the Blue Anchor Line to operate between Europe and Australia. In July 1909, on only her second voyage, the ship, en route from Durban to Cape Town along the coast of what is present-day South Africa, disappeared with 211 passengers and crew aboard. No trace of her has ever been found, and her fate remains unknown.

SS <i>Mount Temple</i> Passenger cargo steamship built in 1901

Mount Temple was a passenger cargo steamship built in 1901 by Armstrong Whitworth & Company of Newcastle for Elder, Dempster & Co Ltd of Liverpool to operate as part of its Beaver Line. The ship was shortly afterwards acquired by the Canadian Pacific Railway. She was one of the first vessels to respond to the distress signals of RMS Titanic in 1912.

RMS <i>Carpathia</i> Ocean liner known for rescuing survivors of RMS Titanic

RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson in their shipyard in Wallsend, England.

Queen of Nations United Kingdom merchant ship

Queen of Nations was a wooden-hulled, three-masted clipper that was built in Scotland in 1861 and wrecked on the coast of New South Wales in 1881. She spent her entire two-decade career with George Thompson, Junior's Aberdeen White Star Line.

SS <i>Dakota</i>

Dakota was a steamship built by the Eastern Shipbuilding Company of Groton, Connecticut for the Great Northern Steamship Company owned by railroad magnate James J. Hill to enhance and promote trade between the United States and Japan.

SS Jeddah was a British-flagged Singaporean-owned passenger steamship. It was built in 1872 in Dumbarton, Great Britain, especially for the Hajj pilgrim trade, and was owned by Singapore-based merchant Syed Mahomed Alsagoff. In 1880, the officers onboard the Jeddah abandoned it when it listed and appeared to be sinking, leaving more than 700 passengers aboard. The event later inspired the plot of Joseph Conrad's novel Lord Jim. The vessel was retrieved and continued to sail, later being renamed Diamond.

SS <i>Egypt</i> Ocean liner which sunk in 1922

SS Egypt was a P&O ocean liner. She sank after a collision with Seine on 20 May 1922 in the Celtic Sea. 252 people were rescued from the 338 passengers and crew aboard at the time. A subsequent salvage operation recovered most of the cargo of gold and silver.

SS <i>Oceana</i> (1887) Cargo and passenger ship sunk off Beachy Head after a collision

SS Oceana was a P&O passenger liner and cargo vessel, launched in 1887 by Harland and Wolff of Belfast and completed in 1888. Originally assigned to carry passengers and mail between London and Australia, she was later assigned to routes between London and British India. On 16 March 1912 the ship collided in the Strait of Dover with the Pisagua, a 2,850 GRT German-registered four-masted steel-hulled barque. As a result Oceana sank off Beachy Head on the East Sussex coast, with the loss of 17 lives.

SS <i>Rosecrans</i>

Methven Castle was a steam iron passenger cargo ship built in 1882–1883 by Barclay, Curle & Company of Glasgow for Donald Currie & Co. with intention of serving as cargo, passenger and mail carrier on their existing route from England to South Africa. The vessel was later sold to the North American Mail Steamship Co. of Tacoma to work on their Oriental trade routes and renamed Columbia. In 1899 the ship was chartered by the United States Army to transport troops and supplies to various overseas destinations. In 1900 the Army bought out the ship placing it in service as the United States Army Transport Rosecrans but sold it two years later to Matson Navigation Company. The vessel was then converted into an oil tanker to carry oil from the West Coast to Alaska and Hawaii. Subsequently she was sold in 1905 to Associated Oil Co. to carry oil from California to various ports along the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii. In January 1913 while on one of her regular trips, the ship was wrecked off the mouth of the Columbia River with the loss of almost her entire crew.

SS <i>Langton Grange</i> (1896)

Langton Grange was a refrigerated steam cargo ship built in 1896 by the Workman, Clark & Co. of Belfast for Houlder Brothers & Co. of London to transport meat and other produce from Australia and South America to United Kingdom.

The Pomona was a fast packet clipper ship constructed in 1856 for Howland and Frothingham. She operated for just over two and a half years transporting emigrants and cargo from Liverpool, England to New York City. Pomona sank in the early morning of April 28, 1859 after a navigation error caused the ship to strike the Irish coast. 424 of the 448 people on board died.

Anglo-African was a steam cargo ship built in 1900 by the Short Brothers of Sunderland for Lawther, Latta & Co. of London with intention of operating on their Australian routes. The vessel operated mostly on South America to North America route during her career and was wrecked on one of her regular voyages in January 1909.

SS <i>Birma</i> Transatlantic passenger ship in service 1895–1924

SS Birma was a British-built transatlantic passenger ship. She was built in 1894 by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Govan, United Kingdom, as Arundel Castle and later went through numerous ownership and name changes, including coming into the hands of the Russian American Line. In 1912, Birma was one of the ships to respond to the sinking of RMS Titanic. She was broken up in 1924 following acquisition by a German line after a liquidation sale.

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.

<i>Castle Huntly</i> (1812 EIC ship) Sailing ship of the East India Company launched in 1812

Castle Huntly was launched at Calcutta in 1812. She then made 11 voyages for the British East India Company as an East Indiaman. After the EIC ceased its shipping business in 1833, new owners continued to sail her between the United Kingdom and China until October 1845 when she was wrecked in the South China Sea.

SS <i>Bywell Castle</i> (1869) Passenger and cargo ship

Bywell Castle was a passenger and cargo ship that was built in 1869 by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow, County Durham. She was involved in the Princess Alice Disaster in September 1878 in which more than 600 people died. She disappeared in February 1883 whilst on a voyage from Alexandria, Egypt to Hull, Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Wreck Inquiry". The Times . London, England. 14 July 1896. p. 13. Retrieved 17 September 2023 via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Wreck Inquiry". The Times . London, England. 15 July 1896. p. 15. Retrieved 17 September 2023 via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 "Struck on a Sunken Reef". The Times (Philadelphia). 19 June 1896. p. 9. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  4. "Wreck Of A Castle Liner". The Times . London, England. 18 June 1896. p. 10. Retrieved 17 September 2023 via Newspapers.com.
  5. "The inquiry ordered by the Board of Trade into". The Times . London, England. 28 July 1896. p. 11. Retrieved 17 September 2023 via Newspapers.com.