The Stranding of the S.S. Great Britain in Dundrum Bay

Abstract

On the 22nd September 1846, at the start of a routine transatlantic voyage from Liverpool, the SS Great Britain, then the largest in the world, narrowly missed rocks to run ashore on the beach in Dundrum Bay. The author analyses accounts given at the time and also detailed contemporary weather and tidal data in order to examine the causes of the accident. He concludes that it resulted from incompetence on the part of the captain who underestimated the speed of his ship, ignored published advice about tidal flows in the Irish Sea and mis-identified a light that he observed just before the stranding.

Credit NM: PAD8988

Join Today To Read The Full Article

Filed under: Irish Sea | Other (Nineteenth C) | Shipwrecks
Subjects include: Ocean Liners & Passenger Craft | Ship Handling & Seamanship