''Diana'' was a whaling ship built in 1840, in
Bremen, Germany
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
. She sailed out of
Hull, England. In 1858 a
steam engine was installed, making her the first steam-powered whaler to sail from Hull (''Tay'' from
Dundee was the first ever, a year earlier). Records held in
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-ea ...
, claimed that the steam engine was installed in ''Diana'' in 1857, and, according to Dundee websites, in ''Tay'' in 1859.
Trapped in the ice
]
In 1866, while on a
whaling
Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution.
It was practiced as an organized industr ...
expedition in
Baffin Bay, ''Diana'' became frozen in the ice, where it was trapped for over six months. The ship's captain, 64-year-old John Gravill, and many of the crew died. The diary of the ship's doctor, Charles Edward Smith, was published in the book ''From the Deep of the Sea''. (). After the death of the Gravill, the ice-master George Clarke takes command of the ship and William Lofley navigates the Diana to
Lerwick. There is a memorial fountain to ''Dianas return from the ice in the town of Lerwick in the
Shetland Islands, as many of the crew originated from the islands and all the deceased except the captain were buried there. Charles Smith's services and heroism were recognised by the award of a set of surgical instruments from the Board of Trade. Captain Gravill's body was taken back to Hull, and his funeral was attended by an estimated fifteen thousand people.
Fate
On 20 October 1869, while making her way back from the
Davis Strait
Davis Strait is a northern arm of the Atlantic Ocean that lies north of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. To the north is Baffin Bay. The strait was named for the English explorer John ...
, ''Diana'' encountered a strong gale, and was washed into the
Donna Nook sands, on the
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...
coast, and broke up. Her crew were rescued by the
lifeboat
Lifeboat may refer to:
Rescue vessels
* Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape
* Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues
* Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen
...
''North Briton''.
''Diana'' was the last whaling ship from the port of Hull.
Her loss ended the whaling industry of the city.
Captains
This is a partial list of
Captains
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
of ''Diana'':
* John Gravill Sr. (1856–57, 1861, 1865-1867
ied on board
* George Clarke (14 February 1867 – 16 April 1867) (Elected Captain after the death of John Graville whilst the ship beset in the ice)
* John Gravill Jr. (1858–60)
*
William Wells (1863)
* Robert Day (16 April 1867-Loss)
[From the Deep of the Sea, Naval Institute Press (1977), page 268.]
See also
*
Whaling in the United Kingdom
Commercial whaling in Britain began late in the 16th century and continued after the 1801 formation of the United Kingdom and intermittently until the middle of the 20th century.
The trade was broadly divided into two branches. The northern fisher ...
References
External links
*
Hullwebs History of Hull
{{1869 shipwrecks
Whaling ships
Barques
Age of Sail ships of the United Kingdom
Fishing vessels of the United Kingdom
Shipwrecks in the North Sea
Baffin Bay
Maritime incidents in October 1869
History of Lincolnshire
Ships built in Bremen (state)
1840 ships
History of Kingston upon Hull
History of Shetland
Ships built in Germany