SS ''Vesta'' was a propeller-driven fishing vessel 250 gross tons, built in 1853 at

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

, France, by Hernoux et Cie of Dieppe for the Société Terreneuvienne of Granville in Normandy. The company had extensive fishing interests in the Grand Banks area off

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

, which it operated from a base in Saint Pierre Island. On 27 September 1854 ''Vesta'' was eastbound with a crew of 50, returning 147 fisherman and salters home. In a heavy fog, ''Vesta'' collided with the Collins Line passenger paddle steamer SS ''Arctic''. A section of ''Vesta''s bow was sheared off, but the watertight bulkhead behind the bow remained intact and kept out the sea, keeping the vessel afloat.Paine, p. 545 The much larger ''Arctic'', which initially had appeared to have sustained only superficial damage, had been fatally holed below the waterline. Lacking watertight compartments, the hull filled with water and the ship sank, four hours later, with great loss of life. By contrast, the only casualties from ''Vesta''s crew and passengers were about a dozen who precipitately left the ship in a lifeboat, which was then accidentally run down by the ''Arctic''. After the collision, ''Vesta''s captain, Alphonse Duchesne, brought the ship slowly to

St John's, Newfoundland St. John's is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. The city spans and is the easternmost city in North America ...

, which she reached on 29 September, and was repaired.Flayhart, p. 34 On 20 March 1855 ''Vesta'' sailed for home, and was forced into Liverpool after fighting ice and storms for 17 days. Later that year she was sold to the Compagnie Générale Maritime of Le Havre, and after further changes of ownership, passed in 1863 to J Amann of Bilbao and was renamed ''Amberes''. She was used as a freighter, generally working between northern Spanish ports and

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

. In 1875, the shipping registers reported her as sunk in Santander harbour.Brown, pp. 158–59

Notes and references

;Citations ;Sources *A.C. Brown: ''Women and Children Last''. Frederick Muller, London 1962 *William H Flayhart: ''Perils of the Atlantic: Steamship Disasters, 1850 to the Present''. W.W. Norton, New York 2003 *Lincoln P Paine: ''Ships of the World: An Historical Encyclopedia''. Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1997 *David W Shaw: ''The Sea Shall Embrace Them''. The Free Press, New York 2002 {{DEFAULTSORT:Vesta Maritime incidents in September 1854 Ships built in France 1853 ships Merchant ships of France Steamships of France Maritime incidents in 1875 Merchant ships of Spain Steamships of Spain

See also

Notes and references