List of shipwrecks in 1885

The list of shipwrecks in 1885 includes some of the ships sunk, foundered, grounded, or otherwise lost during 1885.

table of contents

1885
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr
May	Jun	Jul	Aug
Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

January

3 January

List of shipwrecks: 3 January 1885

Ship	Country	Description
Mary Celeste	United States	The brigantine was deliberately wrecked on the Rochelois Bank, off Gonâve Island, Haiti.

8 January

List of shipwrecks: 8 January 1885

Ship	Country	Description
René	France	The barque struck the Helwick Bank, in the Bristol Channel and subsequently drove ashore at Overton, Glamorgan, United Kingdom with the loss of four of her nine crew. She was on a voyage from Cardiff, Glamorgan to Arcachon, Gironde.[1]

15 January

List of shipwrecks: 15 January 1885

Ship	Country	Description
Admiral Moorsom	United Kingdom	The passenger paddle steamer collided with the Santa Clara (flag unknown) and sank in the Irish Sea off Arklow, Ireland.

25 January

List of shipwrecks: 25 January 1885

Ship	Country	Description
Elise	Belgium	The steamer ran aground at Killard Point, Ballyhornan, Ireland, and was wrecked.[2]

February

1 February

List of shipwrecks: 1 February 1885

Ship	Country	Description
Petrellen	Norway	After the new Penzance lifeboat Dora ( Royal National Lifeboat Institution) on the lifeboat′s first "shout" (rescue) took her crew off on 31 January and left her riding at anchor in ballast at Long Rock, the Porsgrunn barquentine beached near Chyandour, Mount's Bay, Cornwall, England.[3][4][5]

March

5 March

List of shipwrecks: 5 March 1885

Ship	Country	Description
Tonquin	France	The ocean liner, chartered to the French Government as a troop transport, sank off Málaga, Spain, after colliding with another French steamer. The master and 23 of the crew drowned.[6][7]

13 March

List of shipwrecks: 13 March 1885

Ship	Country	Description
Kate	Isle of Man	The fishing lugger – registered in Peel, Isle of Man, owned by John Tear and others, and crewed by Scotsmen, the majority of them from Skye and unable to speak English – left Peel on the evening of 12 March heading to Kinsale, Ireland, to fish there, but sometime during the night collided with the steamer Caledonian ( United Kingdom – apparently bound for Silloth in Cumbria, England – some miles west of the Calf of Man. The force of the collision was so great that Kate sank in a few minutes, carrying down with her four of her crew. The remainder were picked up by Caledonian and landed at Silloth.[8]

April

17 April

List of shipwrecks: 17 April 1885

Ship	Country	Description
Ransome	United Kingdom	The 85-ton steamer hit the Low Lee rocks off Mousehole, Cornwall, England. With pumps working on full, she sank just a few metres short of Penzance harbour, her captain′s home town. Within six days bad weather had destroyed the wreck.[4]

23 April

List of shipwrecks: 23 April 1885

Ship	Country	Description
Charles George	United Kingdom	The 193-ton brigantine – owned by Charles Odell – collided with the 2,983-ton P&O liner Cathay ( United Kingdom) at 2:50 a.m. in the English Channel off Beachy Head, East Sussex, England. She sank within four minutes with the loss of her captain William Thomas Odell (Charles Odell′s brother), William Penn Odell (son of William Thomas Odell), crew members Henry Woodford and Ernest Adams, and a passenger, John Kearley; all the dead were from Newport, Isle of Wight. Three men were rescued; Fred Churchill of Sandown swam to Cathay and was picked up, James Wallace of Cowes and Henry Jennings of Landport were rescued by boats from Cathay.[9]

May

8 May

List of shipwrecks: 8 May 1885

Ship	Country	Description
Helvetia	Belgium	The steamer sank in the Atlantic Ocean near Scatarie Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.[2]

June

8 June

List of shipwrecks: 8 June 1885

Ship	Country	Description
Earl of Lonsdale	United Kingdom	The Newcastle ship was carrying cotton seed from Alexandria, Egypt, to Portishead, Somerset, England, and was wrecked in Smith Sound, off the Troy Town maze, St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, in thick fog.[10][11] The master had thought his ship was to the west of, and ten miles south of, the Bishop Rock in the Isles of Scilly.[12]

July

22 July

List of shipwrecks: 22 July 1885

Ship	Country	Description
Unidentified		The yawl Zephyr launched to the aid of a stranded schooner on the Lower Barber Sand by the crew of the Caister Lifeboat resulting in the loss of eight out of the fifteen crew.

23 July

List of shipwrecks: 23 July 1885

Ship	Country	Description
Corisco	United Kingdom	The Elder Dempster 1,856-grt passenger-cargo ship was wrecked at the mouth of the River Cess in Liberia.[13]

September

29 September

List of shipwrecks: 29 September 1885

Ship	Country	Description
Elizabeth Graham	United Kingdom	The London barque grounded on the Seven Stones Reef between Cornwall, England, and the Isles of Scilly. She later was refloated.[12]

Unknown date

List of shipwrecks: Unknown date 1885

Ship	Country	Description
Sweepstakes	Canada	The wreck of Sweepstakes on 30 May 2009. The schooner sank at Big Tub Harbour, Tobermory, Ontario following damage sustained at Cove Island in August 1885.[14]

November

7 November

List of shipwrecks: 7 November 1885

Ship	Country	Description
Algoma	Canada	The wreck of Algoma The steamer was wrecked in Lake Superior off Isle Royale, Michigan, United States, with the loss of 46 lives.[15]

December

4 December

List of shipwrecks: 4 December 1885

Ship	Country	Description
Wakefield	United Kingdom	The passenger-cargo ship collided with the passenger-cargo ship Chester ( United Kingdom) and sank. Her stewardess drowned.[12]

17 December

List of shipwrecks: 17 December 1885

Ship	Country	Description
Sussex	United Kingdom	The cargo ship was stranded on Seal Rock in the Isles of Scilly near the Maiden Bower while travelling at normal cruising speed in heavy fog. Her crew abandoned ship safely, and she broke up in heavy seas during the night of 4–5 January 1886.[12]

30 December

List of shipwrecks: 30 December 1885

Ship	Country	Description
Unidentified cutter	United Kingdom	A local cutter capsized off Yellow Ledges in the Isles of Scilly with the loss of one life while on her way to the assist the stranded steamer Sussex ( United Kingdom) at Seal Rock.

Unknown date

List of shipwrecks: Unknown date 1885

Ship	Country	Description
J.W.J.	United Kingdom	The pilot vessel collided with Sea Fisher ( United Kingdom) in the Bristol Channel and sank. Sea Fisher rescued her four crew members.[1]
Red Jacket	Portugal	The clipper ship was driven ashore at the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean in a gale.[16]

References

1. Tovey, Ron. "A Chronology of Bristol Channel Shipwrecks" (PDF). Swansea Docks. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
2. "Belgian Merchant A-G" (PDF). Belgische Koopvaardij. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
3. Leonard, Alan (2008). "Profiting from Shipwrecks". Picture Postcard Annual: 14–16.
4. Larn, R. and Larn, B. (1991) Shipwrecks around Mounts Bay. Penryn: Tor Mark Press.
5. Corin, J and Farr, G (1983) Penlee Lifeboat. Penzance: The Penlee and Penzance Branch of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
6. Gibbs, C. R. Vernon (1957). Passenger Liners of the Western Ocean: A Record of Atlantic Steam and Motor Passenger Vessels from 1838 to the Present Day. John De Graff.
7. "Fatal Collision at Sea". Manchester Times (1443). Manchester. 7 March 1885. p. 5.
8. Isle of Man Examiner, Saturday March 21, 1885, page 5
9. "Charles George". Clyde Built Ships database.
10. Noall, Cyril (1968). Cornish Lights and Ship-Wrecks. Truro: D Bradford Barton.
11. Ratcliffe, J (1989). The Archaeology of Scilly. Truro: Cornwall Archaeological Unit.
12. Larn, Richard (1992). The Shipwrecks of the Isles of Scilly. Nairn: Thomas & Lochar. ISBN 0-946537-84-4.
13. "Loss of SS Corisco". Retrieved 4 September 2013.
14. Reilly, Jill (28 March 2014). "World's most beautiful shipwreck: Haunting hull of Sweepstakes lies just TWENTY FEET below clear blue water of Ontario lake where it sank in 1885". Daily Mail. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
15. "Algoma Shipwreck". Superior Shipwrecks. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
16. Bruzelius, Lars (2001-02-23). "Sailing Ships: Red Jacket (1853)". Red Jacket. The Maritime History Virtual Archives. Retrieved April 19, 2010.

Ship events in 1885
Ship launches:	1880	1881	1882	1883	1884	1885	1886	1887	1888	1889	1890
Ship commissionings:	1880	1881	1882	1883	1884	1885	1886	1887	1888	1889	1890
Ship decommissionings:	1880	1881	1882	1883	1884	1885	1886	1887	1888	1889	1890
Shipwrecks:	1880	1881	1882	1883	1884	1885	1886	1887	1888	1889	1890