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Harpley - a general history

Masters: 1847-52 Thomas Buckland; 1853-55 R Carey; 1856-57 Leighton; 1857-59 W Sheffield; 1860 W Saunders; 1861-62 T Heseltine.

Voyages: 1851-54 London for Adelaide; 1857 Hartlepool for the Mediterranean; March 1861 Milford for the Clyde.

1861 September arrived Adelaidefrom London with 261 emigrants; February 1861 she was hauled out of the dry dock at Haking after having undergone long & extensive repairs.

Bound from Glasgow for San Francisco with a cargo of iron pipes for San Francisco’s waterworks Harpley ran out of provisions & water. In charge of a pilot she attempted to enter the port of Realejo, Nicaragua on 12 May 1862. She was carried out of the channel on the strong flood tide & struck on the sands where she broke in two on the ebb tide. As the bottom the vessel was extremely foul she was slow to answer her helm which may have contributed to the loss.

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