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Bosphorus - a general history

Official No. 58751; Code Letters HRJG.

Masters: 1867 Farrer; 1868-70 Murrel; 1870-71 R Blacklin; 1872-73 Pearson; 1877 Shields; 1880-81 Petersen; 1882 H Dinsdale; 1883-86 JJ Kelly.

Ferntower left Saigon on 26 August 1886 bound for Hong Kong heavily laden with rice. She had a crew of 42 & was carrying Chinese passengers including one woman. On clearing the river she encountered a typhoon with heavy seas. Two of the crew were washed overboard & the steering gear was disabled. The vessel was thrown on her beam ends & another of the crew was swept into the sea. During a lull in the storm the vessel was bailed but she had a heavy list to port. The storm’s violence then increased again & the vessel sprang a leak taking on water. The pumps were set in motion & the crew thought that they were getting the situation under control when suddenly, on 29 August, the vessel gave a violent plunge & sank stern first. There was no time to launch the only undamaged boat that remained & most of those on board were thrown into the sea & others went down with the vessel. A Lascar & a Chinese boy floating on a raft were picked up four days later by a British vessel, Vindobala, which landed them at Shanghai. 40 crew & about 10 passengers were lost.

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