Edderside

Official Number 78834

The Edderside was an iron ship built by the Whitehaven Ship Building Company and launched in December 1878. She was initially registered at Liverpool, owned by J.B.Sprott. Her maiden voyage was from Liverpool for Sydney with a general cargo, arriving 2nd June 1879.

The Edderside was reduced to barque rig in about 1895. She was sold to Norwegian owners in 1903, but retained her name.

At midnight on the 3rd July 1919 the barque was run down by the steamship Thermistocles off Cape Agulhas, South Africa. The Edderside was bound from Durban to Buenos Ayres with a coal cargo, and the collision happened bow to bow, at night and in dense fog. The barque sank within five minutes of the collision, taking with her seven crew. Thirteen survivors were picked up by boats from the Thermistocles, which was transporting 1,500 Australian troops and some passengers from Devonport, having put into Cape Town. She was a 11,231 gross tons screw steamer, and carried 172 crew. The damaged steamer returned to Cape Town within 48 hours of her departure.

At the subsequent court case neither vessel was found to have been negligent.

Sources :

1. "Shipbuilding in Whitehaven - A Checklist" by Harry Fancy, Whitehaven Museum (1984) - states that the vessel was renamed Laurvi, which does not tie-in with wreck reports.
2. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1878-9 (Supplement): Edderside, iron ship, 1352 grt, 1306 nrt, built by the Whitehaven S.B.Co. in December 1878, owned by J.B.Sprott, registered at Liverpool, master Capt.J.C.Dixon.
3. Mercantile Navy List 1880: Edderside, ship, 1306 tons, built at Whitehaven in 1879, official number 78834, signal letters SGLN, owned by Johnston B.Sprott, of 32 Tower Buildings, Liverpool, and registered at that port.
   
4. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1895-6: Edderside, iron barque, 1352 grt, built by the Whitehaven S.B.Co. in December 1878, official number 78834, signal letters SGLN, owned by Staveley Taylor & Co., registered at Liverpool, master Capt.J.James.
5. Return to Australia - the history of B Company of the 41st Battalion - gives an eye-witness account of the wreck, and states that the Court of Inquiry into the collision was reported in the Cape Town Argus newspaper on the 10th July, 1919.
6. Reports of first voyage and of wreck in Australian newspapers at the website of the National Library of Australia.
   
7. Summary of court case brought against the owners of the Thermistocles by the owners of the Edderside, reported in the Times, Tuesday, 2nd December, 1919, page 4.

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