Translate

Saturday, 7 April 2012

British navy transport Eurydice wrecked according to the Dutch newspaper Middelburgsche Courant dated Wednesday 27 March 1878

An item reported that the British navy transport Eurydice returning with more as 300 passengers and a crew of nearly 100 men from the West Indies underway to Spithead Saturday afternoon suddenly sunk off the island Wight just after she was some minutes earlier seen from Ventnor on Wight.(1) The disaster was probably caused by a whirlwind when she was with all sails set by sailing in a snow storm. Just five men were saved by a schooner which was nearby although three died of them and the other two including a lieutenant were in a very worse condition.

Note
1. She was originally a very fast 26-gun frigate of which the building was ordered on 27 August 1841, laid down at the Portsmouth dockyard in April 1842 was she on 16 May of the next year launched, commissioned on 27 June and completed on 1 ! September. In 1861 converted into a stationary training ship was she in 1877 refitted into a seagoing training ship. The wreck was salvaged and broken up. With a measurement of 910 81/94 tons burthen were her dimensions 117’9.5” (keel)-141’2” (gundeck) x 38’10”. Originally her crew numbered 190 men.