Carte de visite commemorating Captain Edward Knowles and the emigrant ship “Northfleet”, lost in the English Channel on 22 January 1873 en route to Hobart, Tasmania.

Albumen print photograph, 102 x 63 mm (mount); lower margin recto with printed caption: ‘Captain Knowles. Lost in the Northfleet off Dunganess, Jan. 22 1873’; verso with The London Stereoscopic & Photographic Company’s backmark; the print has a couple of light marks; the verso of the mount has some residual glue marks at the edges.

‘The Northfleet left Gravesend for Hobart on 13 January 1873 with 379 persons on board: the pilot, 34 crew, three cabin passengers and the assisted emigrants comprising 248 men, 42 women and 52 children. Bad weather forced the ship to drop anchor at several points before leaving the Channel and on the night of 22 January she was at anchor about two or three miles (5 km) off Dungeness. Around 10.30 p.m. she was run down by a steamer that backed off and disappeared into the darkness. The heavily laden Northfleet sank within half an hour, before vessels in the vicinity realised anything was amiss, and in the ensuing panic a total of 293 people were drowned. 86 were saved. Of the women on board only the captain’s wife and one emigrant survived, along with just two of the children. Only two boats managed to get clear of the sinking ship, one without any oars and the other damaged. The captain went down with his ship.

The offending steamer proved to be the Spanish steamship Murillo, which was stopped off Dover on 22 September 1873, eight months after the collision. A Court of Admiralty condemned her to be sold and severely censured her officers.

An inquest was held at Lydd Guildhall in February 1873.’ (Wikipedia)