# PRINCIPIA lost 1895 in the Faroes



## skipari (Jan 30, 2009)

I am urgently looking for more information and an authentic picture/photo of

*PRINCIPIA*
_Arrow Shipping Co.; 1881; Palmer's Co.; 2,749 tons; 316-7X
39-2x26-7; 269 n.h.p.; compound engines._

The British cargo ship Principia, Capt. Stannard, caught fire and
sank when she subsequently struck a rock off the Faroe Islands on
November 21st, 1895. The captain and 27 others were drowned and only
one man was saved.

In the Faroes they have recently saved two anchors of PRINCIPIA and they are preparing to built a memorial place.
http://img521.imageshack.us/my.php?image=20080719154044qe9.jpg

I received the following information from the British Maritime Museum:

_"Unfortunately, the National Maritime Museum does not hold any relevant photographs.
The sisterships Darien and Principia were built by Palmers' Shipbuilding & Iron Co Ltd at Jarrow (Yard Nos 442 and 448). There are some constructional plans attached to the relevant first entry Lloyd's Survey Reports in our archive (numbered NWC 15457 and NWC 15731), including a longitudinal section which shows the hull shape, positions of the masts and funnels, turtle back forecastle, etc. Let me know if you wish to receive order forms for photocopies of the plans.
Tyne & Wear Archives Service (http://www.tyneandweararchives.org.uk/) might possibly have a photograph. The Arrow Line was managed by Dent & Co of Newcastle and Capt R.B. Stannard was from Newcastle. See the article in the 10 December 1895 issue of The Times newspaper."_

I received the following information from the Tyne & Wear Archives Service:

_"You can see brief details of the records we hold for Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company Ltd in user guide 5, Shipbuilding, Outfitting, Registration and Repair' available on our website, (www.tyneandweararchives.org.uk/userguides.htm).
Unfortunately, we do not hold any records relating to the Darien or Principia. The Local Studies Section of South Tyneside Central Library holds a large collection of photographs of local interest and may hold some of locally built ships. Their email address is [email protected]."_

I received a negative answer from the library:
_"We have searched our collections and can find no references to the vessel "Principia" or "Darien"."_

May I ask you to give me advice, how to find a picture of PRINCIPIA?


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## benjidog (Oct 27, 2005)

Welcome from Lancashire.
I hope you will enjoy the site.

I am afraid it is difficult to get hold of photos of ships from that era unless they were particularly famous in their time. Persistence is the only answer. It is possible that one of our members may be able to help and it is also possible that there will be an illustration in a book. I presume the urgency you refer to is related to the timescale of preparing for the memorial.

Good luck with your quest - I am sure that our members will help you if they can.


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## melliget (Dec 3, 2006)

Hello and welcome.

I cannot locate a photo, I'm sorry, but I do have some more information, the following report from The Times. Though the headline says loss of 28 lives, I count only 27 - 26 crew and 1 passenger. So one casualty is unnamed or the number of crew reported for the Principia was out by one (perhaps the crew total was 27, i.e. 26 casualties and 1 survivor).

regards,
Martin


The Times, Tuesday, Dec 10, 1895
WRECK AND LOSS OF TWENTY-EIGHT LIVES

The Danish steamer Laura arrived at Granton yester-
day from the Faröe Islands with mails and passengers,
including a German seaman belonging to the steamship-
Principia, trading between Leith, Dundee, and New
York. The Principia sailed from Dundee on Novem-
ber 16 with a general cargo for New York, but when
she was about 120 miles out at sea a fire broke out in
the forehold. The outbreak, however, was kept under
control, and efforts were made to reach the west coast
of Scotland, but on the 21st ult. the vessel ran ashore
on the island of Sandö and sank within five minutes. The
crew of 28 hands and one passenger were lost, with the
exception of the German sailor above-mentioned, who
was rescued by the natives after he had been clinging to
a piece of wreckage for 18 hours. His name was
Heinrich Anders.

The Principia was an iron three-masted steamer, built
at Jarrow in 1881 by Palmer's Company, and had a
gross tonnage of 2,749. She was classed 100 A1 at
Lloyd's. She was commanded by Captain R. B. Stannard.
The Principia was one of the Arrow Line and
was owned by Messrs. Dent and Co., of Newcastle.
Captain Stannard lived in Newcastle, where he was
well known. He leaves a widow, but no family. Cap-
tain Stannard was in command of the steamer Crystal,
which a few years ago caught fire in mid Atlantic and
was safely navigated to port.

The news of the loss of the Principia created much
excitement in Dundee, as several of the crew belonged
to that port, while others were well-known there.
In addition to the crew of 28 Harry Jackson, a
draughtsman, of Dundee, was on board as a pas-
senger. He was on his way to Chicago to fill an
important post. The names of the crew who have been
drowned in addition to Mr. Jackson are as fol-
lows:- R. B. Stannard, master, Newcastle; J. S.
Goddard, chief officer, Leith; R. Edmiston, second
officer; John Falconer, third officer; D. M'Gregor,
carpenter; N. Nielsen, steward; W. Lee, mess-
room steward; the following A.B.'s:- H. Wessman,
N. Kenney, R. Kirkpatrick, M. Morrin, C. Troop,
A. Morrison, and P. Jamieson; S. M. Stuart,
first engineer, Banff; D. Shaw, second engineer,
Dundee; T. Penman, third engineer, Sunderland; J.
Will, fourth engineer, Dundee; T. Coates, donkeyman;
and the following firemen:- T. Noble, J. Murray, J.
Cruickshanks, W. Ogilvie, J. Arundel, G. C. Weir, and
J. M'Kenzie.

A letter from Faröe to a resident in Dundee dated
November 30 gives the following account of the disaster
to the Principia taken from the lips of the sole sur-
vivor:- "The fire broke out from the hatches in the
forehold, and was so fierce that it was impossible to
extinguish it. The watch, consisting of eight men, were
below at the time of the outbreak, and when they
rushed on deck they found themselves hemmed in by the
flames. Six of them at once jumped overboard, this
being their only means of escape, and two of these were
rescued by their comrades. The other four were
drowned, and the remaining two were supposed to have
been burnt. Two boats were lowered, but were both
lost, together with two of the crew, the weather being
very stormy and a heavy sea running. The rest of the
crew retired aft, and while some endeavoured to play
on the flames in order to check their advance others
worked hard in extracting the coal from the
afterhold and throwing it overboard. The vessel
was kept running before a southerly gale with-
out any one knowing whither she was going, as
nothing could be seen owing to the flames. .
. . The cause of the fire is unknown. There
is no lighthouse on the west side of the Faröe
Islands, where the Principia ran ashore. No one lives
there and the rocks are high and dangerous. Owing to
the weather being very bad, no boats were out on the
day following the occurrence, as otherwise more of the
sailors might have been rescued."


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## skipari (Jan 30, 2009)

Thank you very much for contact and information.

I should have mentioned, that there had been some research in the years before by our Faroese friends and by the German-Faroese forum (http://forum.faroe-islands.de/phpBB2/index.php). We collected the international press articles from 1895 to 1936, mainly U.S., British, Danish and first of all Faroese Information.
PRINCIPIA hadn't been the only loss oft his Line, and the final havary hadn't been the only calamity of this vessel. This shipwreck would have been part of long ago history in the archives, if there hadn't been this outstanding rescue and survival of the sailor Heinrich Anders from Rostock.
Due to this spectacular survival the PRINCIPIA is part of the Faroese common memory still today.
Our problem is, that we lack two informations:
1. We traced the Anders family until 1942, when the street with their house in Rostock was bombed
2. There is no photograph nor drawing from the PRINCIPIA

If anybody is interested in the above PRINCIPIA information, I'd be happy to help, but most of it is in German and not yet digitalised but printed.

Thanks again!


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## MSP (Jan 27, 2010)

*Picture of Principia, etc.*



skipari said:


> Thank you very much for contact and information.
> 
> I should have mentioned, that there had been some research in the years before by our Faroese friends and by the German-Faroese forum (http://forum.faroe-islands.de/phpBB2/index.php). We collected the international press articles from 1895 to 1936, mainly U.S., British, Danish and first of all Faroese Information.
> PRINCIPIA hadn't been the only loss oft his Line, and the final havary hadn't been the only calamity of this vessel. This shipwreck would have been part of long ago history in the archives, if there hadn't been this outstanding rescue and survival of the sailor Heinrich Anders from Rostock.
> ...


Dear Sirs.
We are a stone factory situated in the town Skopun on Sandoy, Faroe Islands. 
We have just finished making a memorial for the s/s Principia. 
The memorial was ordered by the town Sandur on Sandoy. Sandur is close to the site Søltuvík, where the British cargo ship s/s Principia, after having caught fire sank when she subsequently struck a rock off the Faroe Islands onNovember 21st, 1895. The captain and 27 others were drowned and only one man was saved.
The memorial will be placed in Soeltuvik, Sandoy, Faroe Islands.

We have managed to find a picture of the ship which I enclose. This is the only picture we could find after intensive search.

The memorial will be placed at the site where the 2 anchors from Principia are placed.

MSP


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## davidships (Nov 3, 2007)

Congratulations on finding an image and thanks for telliing us of your project.
I am sure that, when the memorial has been inaugurated, we would be interested to see a photograph of it here.

David


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## bswift (Apr 3, 2012)

*S S Principia*

I realise some time has passed, but I came across your thread whilst researching the activities of Dent & Co., the owners/managers of the Principia.

There are some photos of the memorial in the public domain on Flickr (with a link to your thread).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/8103588533/in/[email protected]/


Bill Swift


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