 |
|
Official Number
93175 |
|
|
|
Official Number
93175 |
The Kinkora was an iron ship built by R.Ritson at Maryport and launched in 1888. She was owned by William Porter & Sons, a Liverpool shipping company.
The Kinkora was abandoned at sea on the 1st May 1897, due to being flooded. She was wrecked soon after on Clipperton Island, a coral atoll about 700 nm SW of Mexico.
From the New York Times 6th June 1897, page 1.
DISASTERS ON THE SEAFrom the New York Times 4th July 1897, page 15.Wrecked Crew of the Kinkora on Clipperton Island Have No Means of Leaving It.
LONDON, June 5.-Capt.McMurtry of the British ship Kinkora, wrecked on Clipperton Island, has twelve members of the ship's company with him. They are in need of provisions and want other assistance.
The mate, who is in charge of part of the crew which reached Acapulco June 3, has sent a cablegram saying that the ship went ashore on Clipperton Island. She is dismasted and so complete a wreck that there is nothing left salvable. All the boats had been smashed, excepting the one used by him, and the Captain and remainder of the crew were on the island with no means of leaving it.
SHIPWRECKED CREW RESCUED.
Warship Comus Takes the Kinkora's Men Off Clipperton Island.From the New York Times 25th August 1897, page 1.ACAPULCO, Mexico, July 3.-The British warship Comus has brought to this port from Clipperton Island the remainder of the crew of the British ship Kinkora, Capt.McMurtry, from Vancouver, B.C., on March 25, for London, which was wrecked in the Northern Pacific Ocean on May 1. Part of the Kinkora's crew reached Acapulco on June 3.
The Kinkora, loaded with lumber, was struck and dismasted by a squall on May 1 and driven on Clipperton reef, some 200 miles northwest of Acapulco. Another storm drove the vessel off the reef the same night, but her crew, consisting of twenty-seven men, landed and camped on the reef. After vainly waiting some days for a passing sail, the First Officer and six men of the crew volunteered to make the trip to Acapulco, which they reached on June 3, more dead than alive. The First Officer reported that when he left Clipperton Island there was sufficient food to last the remaining twenty men about four months. The British Consul at Acapulco took the matter up, and so soon as possible the British warship Comus was sent to the rescue of the shipwrecked men.
CLIPPERTON ISLAND AMERICAN.Despite this Anglo-American dispute, Clipperton Island belonged to France. It is a coral atoll 6 miles across with some vegetation, lots of sea birds and crabs, and a stagnant lake at the centre. Named after a pirate of the 1700's, it was invaded and claimed for itself in 1897 by Mexico (I don't know whether before or after the Kinkora wreck). Although settled in the early part of the 20th century, it is today uninhabited, and is administered by the French.Paul J.Hending Says the Stars and Stripes Are Floating There.
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug.24.-It is learned from Paul J.Hending, an employee of the Pacific Phosphate Company, that the American flag is flying on Clipperton Island. He has been living on the island with two other men, and they successfully resisted the attempt of Capt.McMurtry of the ship Kinkora to hoist the British flag there three months ago.
The Kinkora was wrecked and the three Americans held as wreckage nearly 1,000,000 feet of lumber which was washed ashore. The British warship Comus visited the island, but did not disturb the Stars and Stripes, or enter a claim for the valuable lumber.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sources :
|
|
|
|