Maud

Official No. 58789; Code Letters KSBG.

Owners: T Morton, Whitby; 1872 William Henry Marwood & Co, Whitby; 1874 T Marwood & Sons, Whitby.

Masters: 1872-75 Francis Brittain (C.N. 14496); 1876-81 Mark Smith; 1882 Dryden; 1883 Mark Smith; 1885 R Forth; 1887 Mark Smith.

Miscellaneous: 9 October 1874 she stranded on Stenshufoud Reef, Island of Gotland, Sweden. The inquiry attributed the stranding to a strong current & inaccuracy of compasses. The master would have ascertained his true position had he taken his longitude as well as latitude the day preceeding the casualty. He was reprimanded for a slight error of judgement.

The Maud left Penarth on 26 November 1887 bound for Savona with a cargo of coal, after discharging her cargo she sailed to Sulina in ballast where she took on a bulk cargo of 8,241 tons of barley. She left Sulina on 27 December with a crew of 18 bound for Gibraltar. The vessel was already sailing with a slight list to port when, on 29 December, the wind changed to WNW & became strong. In the early hours of the following morning a heavy sea took away the chocks of her jollyboat & her list had increased. She was struck again by heavy seas which threw her over on her beam ends & she lay gunwale under & with the water up to her hatchways on the port side. The master gave orders to cut away the main-mast & then the fore-mast to see if she could be righted. By this time the water was finding its way below. The two lifeboats & the jollyboat on the port side were smashed leaving only the starboard lifeboat which the crew shifted onto the top of the after hatchway in the hope that it would float off as the ship went down. Finding there was no plug in the lifeboat the chief officer went to the cabin to get one but when he returned he found the lifeboat had floated off with 11 of the crew in her. He jumped into the sea & swam after her & managed to get aboard. The remaining six men on the Maud refused to follow his lead. The lifeboat remained nearby until the Maud foundered at about 10am taking the six remaining crew with her. The lifeboat was kept with her head to the wind & on the morning of 30 December, when the weather had moderated, she stood away to the west hoping to make land. They were without water & provisions & on the night of 31 December the chief engineer & a fireman were taken with extreme cramps & were rolling round on the bottom of the boat in agony until death took them both. Their bodies were thrown overboard. The following morning the 2nd engineer & the steward died through drinking salt water. That morning they sighted the Greek steamer Theodora & by 2.30pm on 1 January 1888 were taken aboard. On leaving the boat they found that the master & the cook had also died. The survivors were taken to hospital at Pera suffering from exposure & frostbite. Eventually they were well enough to sail back to England in the James Groves. In total 12 lives had been lost. The Court of inquiry held in May 1888 found the master to blame for the casualty as the vessel had been over laden. The owners were also found culpable for not directing the master to lighten the load. The vesselwas insured for £7,800 in East Coast clubs but her cargo, worth over £1,000, was uninsured.

The Board of Trade awarded a gold watch to Captain Aristide Pouliese, master of the Ithica barque Theodora in recognition of his humanity and kindness to the shipwrecked crew of the steamer Maud. They also awarded silver medals to four seamen of the Greek vessel who assisted in the rescue of the shipwrecked men.