Annie Jane shipwreck Memorial at Bagh Siar or West Bay Isle of Vatersay, Hebrides. SCO 6573
We regret to announce one of the most terrible catastrophes that has come under our notice for some time,- the total loss of the ship Annie Jane, Mason commander, belonging to Liverpool, which was driven ashore on the iron-bound coast of Barra Island, during the recent gales, on the night of Wednesday, the 28th ult., when no fewer than 348 passengers - men, women, and children - met with a watery grave. Intelligence of the disaster was first received at Lloyd's through a communication from the editor of the Shipping Gazette, who placed it at the disposal of Captain Halstead, the secretary. The advices which had been forwarded from their agent at Tobermory, and, subsequently, the report of the loss, were confirmed by a telegraphic message from Liverpool. The accounts, although somewhat brief, place the loss, it is feared, almost beyond a doubt. It is presumed that she had made some progress across the Atlantic, when she en- countered the late fearful south-westerly gales, which disabled her and rendered her unmanageable, and in that hopeless condition she was driven back and dashed on the terrible coast of Barra, one of the Hebrides. With a point called Vatersay, where the wreck occurred, the island is six miles in length and two and a-half broad, and lies some five miles south-west of the next island, Uist. There is a lighthouse on the head, which is the highest in the united kingdom, being 680 feet above the level of the sea. Such is the terrible character of the coast, however, that there is little chance of a vessel being rescued when once it is entangled among the reefs. Several of the survivors contrived to get a passage from the island over to Tobermory, a small seaport in the Isle of Mull, and from them the authorities learned that 348 passengers were drowned, and 102, with Mr. Bell, the chief officer, and 12 of the crew, saved. A message states that the master, Mr. Mason, was also preserved.
Size: 5620px × 3733px
Location: Bagh Siar, West Bay, Vatersay, Outer Hebrides, Western Isles, Scotland.
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., 348, 1853., 1853, annie, baddeck, barra, bluff, boat, bodies, buried, canada, claimed, coast, commemorate, concrete, consternation, disasters, drown, emigrant, event, experienced, fall, hebrides, history., island, jane, kind, lives, loss, marked, marking, memorial, monument, nova, outer, passenger, passengers, pit, place, produced, registered, sail, sailing, schooner, scotia, scotland, seafaring, ship, shipwreck, single, stands, storm, story, terror, total, victims, weather, worst, wreck, wrecks
