Banda

Official Number
44658

The Banda was a full-rigged ship built by Lumley Kennedy & Co. at Whitehaven, launched on the 5th November 1861, initially with the name Sonora. She was bought by McDermaid & Co., renamed, and was registered at Liverpool. She operated in the trade to the Far East, both to India and China. In about 1873 she was sold to Trinder, Anderson & Co., and was registered at London.

The Banda, described as a barque, left Newcastle NSW for Shanghai with a cargo of 725 tons of coals on the 7th May 1877, under the command of Captain Joseph Stollery. She was wrecked on the evening of the 21st May, in fine weather, on the Chesterfield Reef at the eastern edge of the Bampton Shoals, Coral Sea. The barque began to break up within five hours of striking, and then filled rapidly. Three boats were available, and these were got ready and the barque was abandoned at 8 am on the 22nd. The gig, with two men in it, was overturned whilst searching for an entrance to the reef. After a day and a half waiting in the shelter of a sandbank, the other two boats set sail. The master, his wife, child and eight seamen went in the longboat, and the mate and four men went in the pinnace. For three days the pinnace was towed, but then the weather and the leaking longboat forced them to part, about 300 miles from the mainland coast. The pinnace landed at Bowen on the 2nd June and the longboat was picked up off Shoalwater Bay on the 6th June, by the schooner Albatross. All aboard were safe. The master ascribed the loss to the strong current carrying him away from his course, and the strong moonlight preventing him seeing the shoal. The Banda was owned by Trinder, Anderson & Co., was registered at London and was insured.

At the subsequent official inquiry into the wreck the master was not blamed for the incident, it being judged that a faulty chronometer and a poor lookout were to blame. The chronometer was supposed to have been damaged by vibrations caused by the long drop of the coal into the hold of the vessel at Newcastle.

Name
Year Built
Gross Tons
Length (feet)
Breadth (feet)
Depth (feet)
Masts
Figurehead
Stern
Lloyd's Classn.
Banda
1861
 481
 148.3
27.6
 17.8
3
 
 
A1, 13 years, Special Survey

Sources :

  1. "Shipbuilding at Whitehaven - a Checklist" by Harry Fancy, pub. Whitehaven Museum (1984) - notes vessel as a barque, 481 tons.
  2. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1861-2 (Supplement): Banda, ship, 481 tons, built by Kennedy at Whitehaven, Nov.1861, YM in 1861, owned by McDermaid & Co., registered at Liverpool, master Capt.R.Glass jun., voyage Liverpool-China.
  3. Shipping intelligence reports from the Liverpool Mercury newspaper.
  4. Mercantile Navy List 1867: Banda, 482 tons, official no.44658, signal letters TWCF, owned by J.McDiarmid, 2, Drury Lane, Liverpool, and registered at Liverpool.
  5. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1874-5: Banda, barque, 481 tons, built by Kennedy at Whitehaven, Nov.1861, YM in 1872, official no.44658, signal letters TWCF, owned by Trinder, Anderson & Co., registered at London, master Capt.R.Evans.
  6. See National Library of Australia website for newspaper reports - full account of the wreck reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, 20th June 1877, page 4 (citing the Rockhampton Bulletin, 12th June) and the inquiry reported in the Brisbane Courier, 14th July 1877, page 4.