Massowah Voyage History

Launched as Massowah: Official No. 60898.
Owners: 1867 Ryde & Co, London-renamed Borneo; 1869 Edward Backhouse (Darlington) London; 1870 Richardson & Co, London.
Masters: 1869 Fudge; 1870 Edwin Cole (b. 1837 Portsmouth C.N. 94272 London 1867).
The Borneo left the Thames on 22 October 1870 with a cargo of railway iron & machinery bound for Buenos Aires & calling at Antwerp & Montevideo. On her homeward bound journey she had been chartered to carry the Brazilian mail. She left Montevideo on 22 December with a crew of 72 & seven passengers including two children. The officers, except those on duty, & passengers all dined together in the saloon on Christmas day & talked about looking forward to the New Year in Rio de Janeiro. In the early hours of 26 December the Borneo struck ground a few miles south of Cape St Martha, Santa Catarina on the coast of South America. The engines were reversed but the brig remained, striking again & again. The boats on the starboard side were lowered but were smashed when a huge wave hit. It was decided to wait until daylight to lower the remainder of the boats. The wind was growing in strength & the sea was rising with an incessant roar. The mainmast & the maintopmast fell tearing up the deck on their way over the side of the vessel. About 4am it began to get light & the shore could be seen about a mile off. The quarter boat & the port cutter were lowered & filled with some of the crew. The port lifeboat was larger so was to take the passengers & the remainder of the crew. She was lowered but broke adrift before she could be filled leaving 25 aboard the now almost completely wrecked Borneo. There was one tiny boat left but it would only hold seven people at the most so it was decided to build a raft & lash this small boat to the middle of it. The female passengers & the two children were helped onto the raft & the remainder followed, 25 in all. The 2nd engineer lashed himself to the raft which had been held to the side of the brig by two ropes while everyone was got aboard. One of the ropes was let go & the raft started to drift but as it did so a huge breaker washed over it & swept all but four into the sea. They tried to cut the other rope to free the raft from the side of the brig but before this was accomplished another breaker turned their craft completely over & only the 2nd engineer & one other survived. One of the other boats had also capsized with about half of the 18 occupants drowning & the others managing to swim to shore. The master, five officers, the doctor, one passenger & some of the crew survived. Mrs Walker, the mother of the two young girls, was the only passenger to float to shore & survive. In all 37 lives were lost.

At the subsequent inquiry the master was found to have deviated many miles to the west of his proper course & was found to blame for the casualty. His certificate was suspended for 12 months.