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.

The Edderside was later owned in Norway. 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 at night and in dense fog. The barque sank within five minutes of the collision, taking with her about eight crew. Thirteen survivors were picked up by boats from the Thermistocles, which was transporting Australian troops from Devonport, having put into Cape Town. The damaged steamer returned to Cape Town within 48 hours of her departure.
 

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. Record of American and Foreign Shipping, 1885 : names master as Capt.Lane, vessel registered at Liverpool and owned by J.B.Sprott.
3. Record of American and Foreign Shipping, 1890 : names master as Capt.T.Evans, vessel registered at Liverpool and owned by C.F.Bell.
4. Record of American and Foreign Shipping, 1895 records that the vessel had been re-rigged as a barque (same master and owner as in 1890).
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.