Acadia

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shipstamps
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Acadia

Post by shipstamps » Mon Sep 08, 2008 6:27 pm


Built as a wooden cargo vessel at Clifton, Nova Scotia (not a builder given) for Mr George Burk Crow of Rock Ferry, Cheshire, U.K., and others, managed by Crowe & Bogart, Liverpool.
October 1872 completed under the name ACADIA.
Tonnage 1213 ton, dim. 188 x 37 x 23ft.
Ship rigged. Homeport Liverpool.
She is given that she sailed after completing under command of Capt. S. Fowler. In which trade she was used after completing I could not find, but her last voyage is well documented.
27 July 1880 she sailed from Cardiff under command of Fowler, with a full cargo of coal for Callao, Peru.
She discharged her cargo at Chimbote, Peru. After discharging she sailed for San Francisco in ballast.
On arrival Capt. Fowler was relieved by his first mate Stephen George, Capt Fowler left her to take command of a larger ship in the company.
29 April 1881 she sailed from San Francisco with a cargo of 1.788 tons of wheat a crew of 21 hands all told, with a mean draught of 21.10ft.
She was bound for Queenstown or Falmouth for orders.
Up to the 5th June they had moderate weather, and all went well. At noon on that day they got a good observation, which placed the ship in latitude 23 51S and longitude 125W. The master then estimated his distance from Ducie Island to be from 52 to 53 miles. He set a course S.E. ½S., nothing to the leeward, which would be S.E. by S.S. true. The wind was N.E. by N., hauling round to N. all the time, and they made from 5 to 6 knots per hour. The master was aware of the position of Ducie Island, and had studied his chart (Imray’s South Pacific, 1876) and the accompanying book of sailing directions, and he calculated that on the course he took he should pass from 15 till 20 miles E. of the island.
At 6 p.m. the first mate took charge, and soon after when darkness came on, an A.B. (able seaman) named Osborn was placed on the look-out, but no particular directions were given to him as to keeping any special look-out for land, the master giving as his reason that he had no expectation of being sufficiently near the island to see it all, and certainly not before 8 p.m. at the speed the ship was sailing at which hour the watch would be changed. The night was fine, with a bright moon, about one day past the first quarter. By 7 p.m. the wind had become more northerly, and about 7.30 p.m. orders were given to square the yards. While this was being done the mate thought he saw a white line on the water across the ship’s bows, and for a moment he thought it was white or phosphorescent water common enough in those seas, but almost immediately came to the conclusion that it was land, and he at once ordered the helm hard-a-starboard, and was about half way down when the ship struck. At the same time he called to the master, who was in the chart room, and who, as he came out, heard a low rumbling noise, which was caused by the ship cutting through the coral reef, which the master, on going forward, saw plainly enough all along. On asking the look-out man why he did not report it, he said he did not see it, and that even when he did see something two or three ship’s lengths off, he thought it was a cloud. The master ordered the sails to be clewed up and the boats to be got out. Two were got out, and an anchor was carried out astern, with a thick manilla hawser, of which 90 fathoms were let out, in order to try to haul the ship off. On sounding they got 5½ fathoms under the stern, and from 3 to 3½ fathoms from the main rigging forward; they then threw over some cargo to lighten the vessel forward, and in from three to four hours the ship floated, and up to that time she had made no extra water. They were unable to carry the anchor further astern, as the water deepened so rapidly, and so the master determined to make sail, setting everything but royals; but as they were passing a spring from forward the anchor came home, and she went broadside on the rocks. This was about midnight. Soon after she began to strike heavily, and to leak badly, and both pumps were set to work, but they could not keep the water under, and at 2 a.m. on the 6th there were 8 feet of water in the ship. About 6 p.m. they left the vessel which was then breaking up, and took to the boats, going away in three, but shortly slipping one, and in those two boats they made for Pitcairn Island a distance of nearly 300 miles from Ducie Island and they reached it on the 13th. They were hospitably received there, and the master, mate and some others came home in the EDWARD O’BRIEN, an American ship which touched there leaving some of the crew still on the island.
Some were taken off later by various ships. One who elected to stay was Philip Coffin, the sail maker, who married and raised a large family one of whom remains on Pitcairn today.
Another, Lincoln Clark (ex cabin boy), returned to the island with his son Roy, in 1909. Roy married Hyacinth May Coffin, a daughter of his father’s old shipmate, and served as a teacher and Postmaster on Pitcairn, subsequently followed in the latter post by his half-brother, Oscar. SG452



Source: http://www.mysticseaport.org/library/in ... erList.cfm but mostly copied from http://www.plimsoll.org/resources/SCCLi ... /14690.asp and http://www.stamps.gov.pn/shipwrecks.htm

Anatol
Posts: 1037
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 2:13 pm

Re: Acadia

Post by Anatol » Sun Apr 30, 2017 8:15 pm

Acadia- cargo vessel 1872. Tchad 2013;350f.
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Acadia.jpg

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