1887

This photo was presumably taken after September, 1887. The crew was rescued and arrived in port on September 21, 1887. They had been castaway for six months.

Details of the wreck available in the Encyclopedia of Australian Shipwrecks.

The raft made from wreckage by survivors is at the Southland Museum

The boatshed created afterward for shipwrecked sailors still exists.

Thanks so much for that info roketpad, it adds a lot to the photo. I'll pass it on to our curators.

Courtney

This might also help

From the Timaru Herald 3 November 1888
The Cruise of the Stella
Interesting Relics of the Derry Castle
The Stella arrived this morning from her annual cruise of the Snares, Campbell,Auckland,Antipodes,and Bounty Islands. Captain Fairchild found the provisions depot at the islands intact. He found the beach at the Auckland Islands strewn with relics of the ill-fated Derry Castle. The figurehead of the vessel, a life size bust of the Queen, was found on the beach, and by his instructions was placed over the graves of four poor fellows who were buried on the island by their shipmates. Other relics such as the name board, life buoy etc, were brought to New Zealand. On board with "Derry Castle Limerick" painted on it, Captain Fairchild intends sending Home to the late owner of the vessel

Thanks so much for that detail madbushfarm! Here´s a lnk to that article on the PapersPast website.

-- Courtney

Hi Courtney you will also find a heap more articles and old images there in Papers Past as well. We're so lucky National Library has made it so accessible. Thumbs up to them! I research a lot of stuff on there but this was just too interesting not to go digging futher into. The Otago Witness printed a number of images by Burton Bros some before the figurehead was placed over the grave.

I'll have a dry martini please ... or maybe it has not been invented yet? The sun is well over the yard-arm where I am.

It's a long way from the ferry to Holyhead! :-)

Looks like it must be 1860-1865 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great_Eastern The Sept 1861 voyage looks like a contender - "On the second day out [from Liverpool] the wind increased to gale force, causing the ship to roll heavily"

Although, the captain of the ship from 1866-78, during its cable-laying years, was a Wicklow man en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Halpin It seems odd that the saloon and dining saloon would be so luxuriously appointed for that kind of work though.

ccferrie The absolute earliest this could be is 1865, as Lawrence didn't set up in business until then. But logistically speaking, it was probably at least a few years after that. (Robert French, photographer on three-quarters of our Lawrence Collection didn't even start working for William Lawrence until 1880-ish....)

I would love to know how to 'artifully' induce a convulsion.

I'm with you on that. And what is with the porn ads at the bottom of the page? Never noticed those here before?