Estrella de Chile

The Estrella de Chile was a barque rigged sailing ship  launched in October 1867 from the yard of Lawrence Hill & Company of Port Glasgow (Yard No.60).  Her iron hull measured 171.5′ x 28.1′ x 17.0′  and her tonnage was of 582 gross tons. The vessel was owned by a number of interests in Port Glasgow and Leonard Gow was her managing owner. Her official number was 58350.

She was wrecked on the Robin Rigg Sandbank off Maryport in the Solway Firth on 25 November 1888.  She became a total wreck and her her first mate, James Napier, lost his life.  She had loaded a cargo of 890 tons of steel rails at Whitehaven and left for the port of Rosario on the River Plate in the early afternoon of 23rd November 1888 under the command of Mr James Dorward.  She proceeded to sea under tow by a small harbour tug expecting to be towed around 15 miles.  However, the tug cast off the tow around 3 miles offshore before she had set any of her mainsails.  Sails were hurriedly set but the vessel was in a difficult area to navigate with many sand banks and more critically was against a lee shore giving little sea room.  Throughout the rest of the day and into 24th she manoeuvred in the outer Firth and by late afternoon, with a rising wind, her sails were reefed and the master decided to anchor in Maryport Roads to await a more favourable wind. 

Around 6pm they struck what they believed to be the Two Feet Bank but, after firing distress maroons,  they managed to float off.  She eventually floated into deeper water but soon after the water shoaled again and they stranded on the Robin Rigg Spit around 11.30pm. As the tide rose the ship began to bump  across the spit. Anchors were set and they attempted to launch one of the ship’s boats but it was smashed against the hull.  Now the ship was filling with water and her pumps were unable to cope in atrocious sea conditions.

Around 11am on 25th the crew were ordered to climb into the rigging to escape the mayhem that was taking place at deck level. The master and both mates took to the mizzen rigging, but around mid afternoon, the rigging parted and both mates fell into the maelstrom below them. Fortunately the backwash brought one of them back who managed to regain a hold and struggled above the waves. The other was taken away by the sea and drowned.

Meanwhile the Maryport lifeboat was towed out to the wreck by the tug Seahorse. The sea was now rolling across the flooded hull of the Estrella de Chile, the waves were 5-6 feet above the deck level and the crew were all in the rigging. The lifeboat was able to row over the wreck to to make their rescue and managed to save the remaining 14 crew including her master. The crew were landed at Maryport and taken into care of the Shipwrecked Mariners Society.

A Board of Trade inquiry was held in Glasgow on the 18th & 19th December 1888 to establish the cause of the loss of the vessel and the death of the 1st mate. In conclusion the master was found in default for committing at least one serious error of judgement but the Court did not deal with his certificate.

In April 1889, Alfred Gann & Company were contracted to recover her valuable cargo of steel railway track. Work would commence once they had finished removing a cargo of timber from another wreck in the Solway Firth, the William Leavitts.