Herschel ex Edith Byrne (1908/07/02)
Albany
Edith Byrne was built by Thomas Brassey’s Canada Works, in Birkenhead, Merseyside, and had two decks, two bulkheads and was cemented. Registered at Liverpool on 9 June 1857, the ship was sold to Robert Miles Sloman & Co. in March 1865 for £8 250, renamed Herschel and registered in Hamburg. It was used for during 1871-80 to carry immigrants to Queensland. On 1 June 1891 it was sold to Halvigsen of Arundel, Norway, and then in February 1893 to The Adelaide Steamship Company Limited for the sum of £1 200. It was converted to a coal hulk for use at Albany. The cost of conversion was £400, and a further £180 was spent on having the hulk towed to Albany.
THE LOSS
On 2 July 1908 the hulk Herschel, having been previously stripped of anything of value, was towed by The Bruce to Inner Island to the north-west of Cape Vancouver and abandoned. At that time it was over 50 years old, possibly surviving this long because many of the earlier iron ships were more heavily plated than occurred later.
Ship Built
Owner Adelaide Steamship Company
Country Built UK
Port Built Canada Works, Birkenhead
Port Registered Port Adelaide
When Built 1857
Ship Lost
Grouped Region South-Coast
When Lost 1908/07/02
Where Lost Albany
Position Information Inner Island, near Cape Vancouver
Ship Details
Length 49.99
Beam 9.21
TONA 814.00
TONB 787.00
Draft 6.49
Museum Reference
Official Number 16216
Unique Number 962
Sunk Code Scuttled
Chart Number AUS 110, AUS 118, AUS 759 & BA 2619
Protected Protected Federal
Found N
Inspected N
Confidential NO