Ralph Tinkham, one of the passengers who had been on the City of Honolulu, wrote a letter to the newspaper of the University of Michigan College of Engineering, from which he had graduated: “Replying to your inquiry relative to my experience at the burning at sea of the SS City of Honolulu, I am free to admit that the episode has considerably more serious and interesting features in retrospect than was the case at the time. The ‘City of Honolulu’ was a splendid ship of 17,000 tons, equipped well above the average of Pacific shipping, for the convenience and comfort of passengers, and providing excellent service. These facts only add to the shock of realization that this fine vessel has been another contribution to Davy Jones’ locker.”

Ship Name: City of Honolulu 

Tonnage: 10,688

Ship Type: Twin Screw Oil Burning Steamship 

Year Built: 1896

Nationality: United States of America 

Year Wrecked: 1922

Location Wrecked: 670 Miles from San Pedro, California 

Reason for Wreck: Electrical Fire 

Lives Lost: None

Sources: 

https://newspaperarchive.com/altoona-mirror-oct-23-1922-p-12/

https://newspaperarchive.com/van-nuys-news-oct-17-1922-p-1/

https://newspaperarchive.com/corona-courier-oct-13-1922-p-3/

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/23876928

https://books.google.com/books?id=z4DNAAAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=city+of+honolulu+ship+fire+1922&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://books.google.com/books?id=l4GyXktqZ3gC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=city+of+honolulu+ship+fire+1922&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://books.google.com/books?id=IGpOAQAAIAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=city+of+honolulu+ship+fire+1922&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://books.google.com/books?id=TeM1AQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=city+of+honolulu+ship+fire+1922&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://books.google.com/books?id=zd4jAAAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=city+of+honolulu+ship+fire+1922&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://books.google.com/books?id=Ao2Y6Z3drUMC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=friedrich+der+grosse+ship+seized&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/10/13/107073361.html?pageNumber=2

Mr. Falk, who had been an Ablebodied Seaman on the Gothenburg, remembered his experience to the Adelaide Express and Telegraph on the 4th of April, 1911: “I don’t think,” he said, “I should have been saved had it not been for one of the others. He came to me as I stood aft, and said I had better leave as the engine-room was full of water, and there was no hope of saving the vessel. As we pulled over the reef to shore we could see sharks and turtles beneath us. The boat was smashed up eventually.”

Ship Name: Gothenburg 

Ship Tonnage: 459

Ship Type: Iron Hulled Screw Steamship 

Year Built 1855

Nationality: Australian 

Year Wrecked: 1875

Location Wrecked: Great Barrier Reef, Near Holbourne Island 

Reason for Wreck: Navigational Error in Storm 

Lives Lost: 100

Sources:

https://books.google.com/books?id=jDUZAAAAIAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=ss+celt+1855+gothenburg&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/209927669

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/197679252/22387500

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/169481418?searchTerm=gothenburg

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/202135279?searchTerm=gothenburg

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/200631741?searchTerm=gothenburg

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18335564?searchTerm=gothenburg

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/224358488?searchTerm=gothenburg

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/8935760

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/40089615

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1875/05/09/79085610.html?pageNumber=2

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1875/04/27/88160790.html?pageNumber=6

The Malacca Weekly Chronicle from the 19th of January 1889 reported the following: “That navigation in the Straits of Malacca is attended with difficulties and dangers of no mean order is fully borne out by the sad history of the past few years. One more collision, disastrous in its consequences, has just been added to the already too long list of casualties in Malayan waters…”

Please note that we were not able to find a picture of either ship and therefore we selected a picture of the Port of Singapore around the correct time period.

Ship Name: Pyah Pekhet 

Year Built: 1875

Tonnage: 319

Ship Type: Iron Hulled Screw Steamer 

Nationality: British Singapore 

Year Wrecked: 1889

Location Wrecked: Near the Entrance of Klang Strait 

Reason for Wreck: Collision with the Chow Phya 

Lives Lost: 14

Sources: 

https://hhtandn.org/notes/399/chow-phya-general-history

https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/singdailytimes18780316-1.2.7

https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/stweekly18901029-1.2.15?qt=pyah,%20pekhet&q=pyah%20pekhet

https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/malaccawkchronicle18890119-1.2.3?qt=pyah,%20pekhet&q=pyah%20pekhet

https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/pinangazette18890208-1.2.18

https://books.google.com/books?id=1TUSAAAAYAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=pyah+pekhet+ship&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://www.marhisdata.nl/docs/_docs/9277-Chow-Phya--1858--aanvaring.pdf

https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/pinangazette18890122-1.2.7?qt=pyah,%20pekhet&q=pyah%20pekhet

https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes18890202-1.2.22?qt=pyah,%20pekhet&q=pyah%20pekhet

https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes18890204-1.2.22?qt=pyah,%20pekhet&q=pyah%20pekhet

https://books.google.com/books?id=qqDhrLBNZrkC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=burmah+steamship+line+pyah&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/malaccawkchronicle18890629-1.2.11.1?qt=pyah,%20pekhet&q=pyah%20pekhet

https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/pinangazette18890219-1.2.13?qt=pyah,%20pekhet&q=pyah%20pekhet

https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/malaccawkchronicle18890119-1.2.9?qt=pyah,%20pekhet&q=pyah%20pekhet

The Evening News from Monday the 9th, 1854 included the following speculation: “Doubtless the Yankee Blade was heavily insured: and steamboating business on the Pacific has not been of late so lucrative as in times past, and with little future prospects of its ever becoming what it has been; it therefore suggests itself to us that this running of steamers on rocks -- far away from their due and proper course, is a ready means of turning ships into money, regardless of the loss of human life.”

Ship Name: Yankee Blade 

Year Built: 1853

Tonnage: 1,000

Ship Type: Side Wheel Steamship 

Nationality: United States of America 

Year Wrecked: 1854

Location Wrecked: Point Conception, California 

Reason for Wreck: Navigation Error in Fog 

Lives Lost: 30 

Sources: 

https://newspaperarchive.com/nevada-city-journal-oct-13-1854-p-2/

https://newspaperarchive.com/warren-mail-nov-25-1854-p-1/

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1854/11/15/88145793.html?pageNumber=3

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1854/11/10/88145284.html?pageNumber=1

https://newspaperarchive.com/muscatine-tri-weekly-journal-nov-17-1854-p-2/

https://newspaperarchive.com/shasta-courier-oct-14-1854-p-2/

https://newspaperarchive.com/columbia-gazette-oct-14-1854-p-2/

https://books.google.com/books?id=ZCdIyR8wtYYC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=yankee+blade+shipwreck&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://books.google.com/books?id=Gq0nIm8B22EC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=captain+randall+yankee+blade&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://books.google.com/books?id=W2MxAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=captain+randall+yankee+blade&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The New York Times of April 7, 1884, quoted Fritz Vick, the second boatswain of the Daniel Steinmann, in the following statement: “The weather was bad on Wednesday and Thursday. I went on duty at 8 o’clock Thursday night. It was foggy and blowing heavily, with rain and snow. About 9 o’clock the rain held up, and it looked as though it was going to clear up. The Captain had been on the bridge two days and nights.”

Ship Name: Daniel Steinmann 

Tonnage: 1790 

Ship Type: Iron Hulled Steamship 

Year Built: 1875 

Nationality: Belgium 

Year Wrecked: 1884

Location Wrecked: Sambro Island, Nova Scotia 

Reason for Wreck: Navigational Error 

Lives Lost: 124 

Sources:

https://books.google.com/books?id=_a0EAAAAQAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=daniel+steinmann+1884+shipwreck+halifax&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://books.google.com/books?id=L59YMBXkAZoC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=daniel+steinmann+1884+shipwreck+halifax&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://books.google.com/books?id=EAz84yBQ8kUC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=daniel+steinmann+1884+shipwreck+halifax&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://newspaperarchive.com/biddeford-daily-journal-apr-07-1884-p-2/

https://newspaperarchive.com/the-fairbury-gazette-apr-12-1884-p-7/

https://newspaperarchive.com/elkhart-weekly-review-apr-10-1884-p-1/

https://newspaperarchive.com/dixon-daily-telegraph-apr-05-1884-p-1/

https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-daily-globe-apr-05-1884-p-11/

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1884/04/05/issue.html

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1884/04/07/106149206.html?pageNumber=1

Second Engineer Preacher of the Abyssinia gave a complete statement to the newspapers, including the following: “This is the third time I have been in a fire at sea. On previous occasions we were able either to completely subdue the flames, or at any rate keep them under control until the vessel reached port. Then, however, the outbreak was discovered when we were only three or four hundred miles from home. On this occasion we were 1,500 miles from land.”

Ship Name: Abyssinia 

Year Built: 1870

Tonnage: 3651

Nationality: British 

Ship Type: Iron Hulled Screw Steamship 

Year Wrecked: 1891 

Reason for Wreck: Cargo Fire 

Location Wrecked: Mid Atlantic 

Lives Lost: None 

Sources: 

https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3428758/3428762/74/abyssinia

https://newspapers.library.wales/view/4428826/4428829/29/abyssinia

https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3984039/3984044/74/abyssinia

https://books.google.com/books?id=BR5cAAAAQAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3984030/3984035/51/abyssinia

https://books.google.com/books?id=PPJRAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=abyssinia+ship+1891&source=gbs_navlinks_s

The San Francisco Call on January 15, 1902, contained the following statement: “Captain Hall stated that he had discharged five members of his crew the previous trip for drinking on shipboard. He made the amusing statement that when he found two officers drunk during that voyage he went below in search of two quartermasters to promote to their places and found them drunk also. The captain admitted that he saw two waiters drunk on the steamship’s last voyage.”

Ship Name: Walla Walla

Year Built: 1881

Ship Type: Steamship 

Nationality: United States of America

Tonnage: 3,069

Year Wrecked: 1902

Location Wrecked: Cape Mendocino, California    

Reason for Wreck: Collision with the Max

Lives Lost: Estimated at 40 

Sources: 

https://books.google.com/books?id=fJk3803V-qYC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=walla+walla+steamship+1881&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://open.library.ubc.ca/viewer/bcbooks/1.0222484#p314z-6r0f:walla%20walla

https://newspaperarchive.com/san-francisco-call-jan-15-1902-p-7/

https://newspaperarchive.com/san-francisco-call-jan-11-1902-p-3/

https://newspaperarchive.com/skagway-daily-morning-alaskan-feb-19-1902-p-1/

https://newspaperarchive.com/san-francisco-call-jan-26-1902-p-27/

https://newspaperarchive.com/portland-morning-oregonian-jan-10-1902-p-5/

https://newspaperarchive.com/san-francisco-call-jan-16-1902-p-7/

https://newspaperarchive.com/san-francisco-call-jan-14-1902-p-12/

https://newspaperarchive.com/san-francisco-call-jan-06-1902-p-2/

https://newspaperarchive.com/portland-morning-oregonian-jan-16-1902-p-5/

https://newspaperarchive.com/san-francisco-call-jan-05-1902-p-18/

https://newspaperarchive.com/portland-morning-oregonian-jan-08-1902-p-5/

https://newspaperarchive.com/the-evening-times-jan-03-1902-p-1/

https://books.google.com/books?id=j95HAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=walla+walla+shipwreck+1902&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://books.google.com/books?id=Iq4PAQAAIAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=walla+walla+shipwreck+1902&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MG19020111.2.2&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------

Tales of Shipwrecks and Adventures at Sea, edited by James Lidnridge and published in 1846, opened its story about the wreck of the Droits de l’Homme with the following passage: “The action which was fought between the Droits de l’Homme, a large French two-decker, and two British frigates, under the command of Sir Edward Pellew, and Captain Robert Reynolds, on the 13th of January, 1797, was one of the most remarkable in naval history, both from the singularity of its circumstances, and the appalling nature of its result.”

Ship Name: Droits de l’Homme

Nationality: French

Year Built: 1794

Ship Type: Ship of the Line 

Year Wrecked: 1797

Location of Wreck: Audierne Bay. France

Reason for Wreck: Ran Aground in Sea Battle 

Lives Lost: No Solid Number but Possibly Over a Thousand

Sources: 

https://books.google.com/books?id=YD3FnOwPgBkC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=droits+de+l%27homme+shipwreck&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://books.google.com/books?id=ymYyAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=droits+de+l%27homme+shipwreck&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://books.google.com/books?id=sM09AAAAcAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=droits+de+l%27homme+shipwreck&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://books.google.com/books?id=oXxrAAAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=droits+de+l%27homme+shipwreck&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-11974

https://books.google.com/books?id=Qy0-NE5lXOUC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=french+shipwreck&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://books.google.com/books?id=rTFFAAAAYAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=droits+de+l%27homme+shipwreck&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Volume Two of the Mariner’s Chronicle, published by James Cundee in 1804, contained the following information about the wreck of the Jonge Thomas: “ The surge rose to an amazing height on the shore, and Zoul River was so swollen as to be almost impassable. It is true, from the middle of May to the middle of August, the Company’s ships are prohibited from lying in the road; yet it sometimes happens…”Ship Name: Jonge Thomas

Ship Built: 1764

Tonnage: 1150

Nationality: Dutch Republic 

Ship Type: East Indiaman 

Year Wrecked: 1773

Location Wrecked: Table Bay, South Africa

Reason for Wreck: Driven Aground in a Storm 

Lives Lost: 149

Sources: 

https://books.google.com/books?id=2HYcAAAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=jonge+thomas+shipwreck&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://books.google.com/books?id=x1DZsCwxpxcC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=jonge+thomas+shipwreck&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://books.google.com/books?id=qCpDAAAAcAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=jonge+thomas+shipwreck&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://books.google.com/books?id=ErsrAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=wolraad+woltemade&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://www.vocsite.nl/schepen/11028/

https://books.google.com/books?id=x7BWAAAAcAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=french+shipwreck&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://books.google.com/books?id=YmtHAAAAYAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=jonge+thomas+shipwreck&source=gbs_navlinks_s

On the 3rd of January, 1919 the New York Times included the following editorial: “Where, or rather on whom, the responsibility for the grounding lies it is now too soon to discuss, but it is a grave one, and its nature is hinted by the wonder why the steamer was so far out of her course and why she went ashore that has been expressed by the fishermen and other seafaring folk who know the nature of the bottom off Fire Island. The fog was the immediate cause, but it is not an adequate explanation, for several other vessels successfully found their way through it and into port.”

Ship Name: Northern Pacific 

Ship Type: Steam Turbine Transport 

Tonnage: 8225

Year Built: 1914

Nationality: United States of America 

Year Wrecked: 1919 

Location Wrecked: Fire Island, New York 

Reason for Wreck: Faulty Navigation in Fog 

Lives Lost: 2 

Sources: 

https://books.google.com/books?id=LeNHAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=Northern+Pacific+William+Cramp+and+Sons&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/n/northern-pacific.html

https://books.google.com/books?id=iDwtdGXDjR8C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=northern+pacific+1919+court+martial&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-daily-globe-jan-02-1919-p-3/

https://newspaperarchive.com/altoona-mirror-jan-04-1919-p-1/

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/01/02/issue.html

https://newspaperarchive.com/iowa-city-citizen-jan-02-1919-p-1/

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/01/03/issue.html

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/07/19/97102132.html?pageNumber=3

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/01/04/102843993.html?pageNumber=1

https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-daily-globe-jan-03-1919-p-2/

https://newspaperarchive.com/north-adams-transcript-jan-02-1919-p-1/