Hartlepool History Then & Now

Rangoon - a general history

Completed August 1860; Official No. 28867; Code Letters QCHL.

Owners: Calcutta & Burma Steam Navigation Co, London & Glasgow; 1871 Tan Kim Tian & Co, Singapore.

Masters: 1861-72 G Greig; 1873 Frederick Marshall Darke (b. 1840 Bristol C.N. 92488 London 1870).

Voyages: 1861-1871 Hartlepool & Glasgow for India.

Bound from Singapore for Glasgow with a cargo of cotton seed, a total crew of 34 & one passenger, after experiencing heavy weather, Rangoon arrived at Alexandria on 22 December 1872 with her pumps choked. A survey found she had four feet of water in her fore-peak & two feet in the fore-hold so it was recommended that the after-hold be discharged. She left Alexandria on 2 January 1873, Malta on 8 January & arrived at Gibraltar on 13 January. She sailed for Glasgow on 15 January but, in a heavy gale, sprang a leak which extinguished her fires &, in a sinking condition, the decision was taken to abandon her. The crew left in four boats but one was swamped drowning the seven occupants. The remaining three boats made it to Corunna after a gruelling 16 hours at sea. The Rangoon subsequently foundered off Cape Finisterre in the North Atlantic in 43.20N/10.00W on 21 January 1873.

Lives lost January 1873:

Booth, Beckwith, 2nd mate, Dumfries

Masson, Alexander, 3rd engineer, Elgin

Five firemen