Treasure Hunters.

Ann In the UK · Post by **Ann In the UK** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 12:05 pm

Along with the entire crew, my 2x great grandfather (aged 32) was lost at sea when his (Greenock registered) merchant ship disappeared en route to San Francisco in the early 1880s. I've been searching for it for a while now, to no avail, and no wonder - it's a veritable graveyard down there! I still haven't recovered from learning that there are in the region of 44, 000 known sunken vessels in the waters around the the British Isles alone!

So, I haven't found it. I've searched everywhere.
But, what I have found is something that makes my flesh crawl even to type it: treasure hunters. They're everywhere (legally in some cases) crawling over these vessels like vermin, ransacking everything they find down there in the hopes of finding some long lost treasure with which to make their fortnune. And it sickens me to think there's someone out there who's found some treasured trinket belonging to my ancestor, who's now sitting there waiting for it to reach some preordained value on eBay. Ugh.

Post by **paddyscar** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 11:11 pm

Hi Ann:

Would either of these sites be of help? Also have you been able to trace it through Lloyds Lists which may be available at a library (more likely a university or naval libray) near you, or are they able to obtain photocopies of information?

http://www.mun.ca/mha/holdings/shipwrec.php

http://www.rpcontent.com/how_to_researc ... _and_o.htm

Ann In the UK · Post by **Ann In the UK** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 7:15 am

Hi Paddyscar,

The MUN have been very helpful in finding out about several of his ships. Unfortunately, they have nothing about his last one.

I hadn't come across the other site you linked to, so I'm off to look at that now. Fingers crossed!

Thanks,

Ann

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:29 pm

Hello Ann,

What was the name of the ship again, its tonnage, type, official number, and when it went off the radar?

Alan

Ann In the UK · Post by **Ann In the UK** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:45 pm

Hi Alan,

She disappeared after leaving Liverpool for San Francisco in June 1882, having been sent there for repairs when she founded after taking on water off the south coast (I have loads of information and newspaper reports about all that - even managed to get a photo of her from the NMM

).

From the reports I've read about the incident from the time, no one seemed to know what happened to her - some say she exploded (she was carrying Nottingham cannel coal from Hull, apparently, which may have ignited); or she hit an iceberg off Cape Horn; or she hit a hurricane in the same area... Personally, I think she took on water somewhere in the mid Atlantic because of shoddy repairs. But who knows.

Thanks for you interest,
Regards
Ann
.

Ann In the UK · Post by **Ann In the UK** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:58 pm

Actually, I have the final crew agreement for the vessel, so if anyone's looking for these Scottish born mariners, let me know.:

There are others from elsewhere if anyone thinks they might have a connection to this barque.

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 1:59 pm

From local papers:

KHOKLAND 1881 Russell & Co., Port
Glasgow
iron barque ‘Khokland’ for W & J Crawford,
Greenock - details, again 19th Jan p2.
Greenock Advertiser 18.01.1881 page 2

KHOKLAND 1881 Russell & Co., Port
Glasgow
iron barque ‘Khokland’ for W & J Crawfurd,
Greenock - details.
Greenock Telegraph 19.01.1881 page 2

Strangely no mention of the Greenock folk involved in the BMD index, though there may be a few births for Captain John Mitchell in various papers.

Ann In the UK · Post by **Ann In the UK** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:25 pm

Is that a typo Andy, or did it actually say Khokland in the local paper?

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 4:20 am

Hello Ann,

The things that immediately spring to mind in this situation is spontaneous combustion or the cargo shifting, that’s apart from the myriad of other possibilities not excluding involvement of aliens or the crew taking over the ship and running off to Tahiti. It’s gone down somewhere between Liverpool and San Francisco and the odds are its deep enough or obscure enough to not be of interest to the treasure hunters.

I couldn’t find anything additional to what you would have. It all seems to have been fully covered in the Liverpool Mercury articles. It’s mentioned in Parliamentary Papers in a list of Sea Casualties and a couple of years later with many others in a Paper on coal cargoes (spontaneous combustion, &c.) & missing coal ships. It just has identifying particulars and a summary.

Summary of inquiry Liverpool 27/28 March 1883
The Court found that there was no evidence as to the cause of vessel’s loss; they considered that the ventilation carried out on board was safe and proper. Two thermometers were supplied to the ship before sailing from Hull. Her cargo of coals was well stowed, and was not of a dangerous quality for shipment on a long voyage. A letter was produced on the inquiry from the master of the “Ardendee,” which left Liverpool the day after the “Khokand” sailed, in which he said that off Cape Horn he had passed a large quantity of ice, and on the 13th August, had experienced a hurricane from the westward. The “Khokand” probably met with the same weather, but the cause of her loss must remain in doubt.

There was some early speculation in the Glasgow Herald, Monday, January 8, 1883 that she may have been involved in a collision in the Bay of Biscay but I think that was only because there was another ship overdue about the same time.

All the best,
Alan

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 8:24 am

Ann In the UK wrote:Is that a typo Andy, or did it actually say Khokland in the local paper?

KHOKLAND 100%