Built as a wooden ship at Sunderland in 1848 for J.Willes at London.
Launched under the name SAINT ABBS.
Tonnage 505 grt.
Ship rigged.
Lloyds Register of 1852 gives for the vessel that she was underway from London under command of Capt. Willis for Bombay.
On the stamp is given that she wrecked in 1860, but some web-sites give wrecked in 1855 on the Seychelles.
Additional info received:
Lloyds Register of shipping of 1855 gives.
Tonnage 505 and 592 tons. Capt. Rouse, owner J. Willis.’ London. On a voyage from London to India.
The Lloyds List gives on an entry dated 29 October 1855:
The ST ABBS, from London to Bombay, was lost on Jean Nova Island; Master four men and ensign Ross arrived at Seychelles, the end of July.
The year on the stamp is wrong; she must have been lost before or around July 1855.
In December 1868 a report appears of a bullock’s hide being purchased in Zanzibar. Upon it were what appeared to be English letters incised by cutting or scraping. The hide was purchased from a caravan of Somalis from the interior and was taken by the purchaser to the British Consul in Zanzibar. Reports had long been in circulation, the Consul said, that the Somalis were holding some survivors of the ST ABBS in captivity and that the hide was a means of attracting attention to their existence. An application was made to the British Government for funds to send an intermediary to the Somali tribes to offer a ransom for the seamen’s return but this was turned down for political reasons. However the Government guaranteed a payment of £100 ransom money for each captive that was liberated. The report continues that a public appeal would be made to encourage private subscriptions to defray the expenses of such an expedition. Noting more on this matter appears later on.
The facts: The British ship ST ABBS on a voyage from London to Bombay chartered to the Honorable East India Company, was wrecked on reefs adjoining the island of San Juan de Nueva, south east of the Seychelles on 14 June 1855. There were five known survivors, including Captain Bill.
The cargo of the ST ABBS was stores for the Indian Navy, including two steam engines for ships building in Bombay.
Capt Bill left his account of the events surrounding the loss and his survival in his “protest” made at Port Victoria, Seychelles on 28 August 1855.
The detail may not be entirely accurate as he had an interest in ensuring that he was seen in a good light (he was initially held and accused of abandoning his ship and passengers, but released presumably for lack of evidence) In particular, Capt Bill claimed that the day after he was washed up on the reef, the ST ABBS had “disappeared”.
Subsequently the Seychelles schooner URANIE, which had rescued the survivors, returned to the island along with the Seychelles police to investigate and to carry out salvage operations. They found the forepart on a reef and the rest in 5 fathoms. They recovered several tons of copper, 100 cask of beer and assorted other goods both from the wreck and also strewn on the reefs and beaches of nearby islands (but could not attempt to raise the two steam engines.) They also found the bodies of three seamen, who had probably died of thirst.
The Rumours: From about 1859 rumors began to circulate that there had been survivors from ST ABBS that were held as captive by Somali tribes.
a) There were persistent rumours of a vessel wrecked on the Somali coast and of Englishmen being held captive in the interior. Details varied, but there was never any credible first-hand sighting. It was generally assumed that it was likely to be true that there were such European captives and at least one trusted Somali was sent from Aden to find them and, as noted, a substantial bounty was offered, without result.
b) Goods positively identified as from the cargo of ST ABBS were seen in the market at Zanzibar in the 1860s.
c) In 1866, animal hides brought from Somali tribesmen were seen in Zanzibar market with western letters scraped in the hair. On the one produced to the Consul in Zanzibar (others had apparently been sold and were untraceable) were four characters – the letters “NEB” plus a fourth confusing symbol (a distorted square with a top left/lower right diagonal.)
The linking of these three strands to each other seems to have been fuelled by the persistent clutching at straws by the relatives of some of those lost in the ST ABBS, the lack of the identification of any British ship that had been lost without trace on the Somali coast, and by interest shown by the Royal Geographic Society. The Royal Geographical Society had a natural interest in exploration of the unknown interior of the Somali area – and by 1869 the animal hide in question was in their hands. On the file is evidence of considerable argument amongst geographers and navigators about whether a vessel abandoned near San Juan de Nueva Island could fetch up on the Somali coast over 1000 miles away. It seems that in theory that would be possible, though not at all likely – and most trade wind and tidal conditions in the season in question would tend to push a vessel towards the Seychelles to the northeast.
The key reasons in the late 1860s for rejecting the possibility of ST ABBS survivors being held by Somalis, seem cogent.
a) The vessel’s wreck, in two pieces, had been visited by the salvors and worked there up to six months after the loss, and in the presence of police.
b) Some of the cargo had been salved and would have found its way into the markets at a time when there was a considerable trade between Mauritius, Seychelles, Comoros and Zanzibar.
c) There was no obvious link between “NEB” and the ST ABBS.
That leaves unexplained the true provenance of the hide and the rumors of the captive Englishmen. It was thought distinctly possible that there were other wrecks (not necessarily British) on the Somali coast – or some connection with land explorers who had gone missing (Baron von der Decken) for instanced – he was killed by Somalis in 1865, but apparently not all of his party was traced, at least at that time.
In 1991 the wreck of the ST ABBS was located by an expedition led by Erick Surcouf on behalf of the Seychelles Government.
See http://www.surcouf.net/anglais/cvsurcang2.htm
Zil Elwannyen Sesel 1991 1r50 sg236, scott 179.
Info received from Mr. D.Stevenson and Mr.David Asprey.