HORATIO whale factory vessel 1892

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Built as passenger- cargo vessel under yard No 60 by Edwards Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. at Newcastle for account of F.Sturmore & Co., (Tower Line) London.
14 May 1892 launched as HORSLEY TOWER.
Tonnage 3.239 gross, 2.079 net, dim. 331.9 x 40.2 x 19ft.
Powered by a triple expansion 3-cyl.steam engine, 287 nhp., manufactured by T. Richardson & Sons Ltd. at Hartlepool.
July 1892 delivered to owners.

24 November 1893 sold to T.Wilson Sons & Co., Ltd., Hull and renamed HORIATO.
01 April 1895 sold to Booth Steamship Co. Ltd., Liverpool.
Used in the general cargo service between Great Britain and River Amazon, South America, when discharging was completed she sailed mostly in ballast to Galveston, USA to load a cargo of cotton for Great Britain.

November 1911 sold to the whaling company Chr. Salvesen & Co., Leith.
Converted to a whale factory ship at Sandefjord, Norway. Fitted out with 28 pressure cookers, the highest number on any factory ship before 1914.
The intention was that she should work with an another vessel the NEKO but on her outward voyage the coal on board the HORATIO caught fire, and the resulting damage caused her to miss a complete season.
After repair she was working out of Leith Harbour, South Georgia in the season 1912/1913 until 1915/1916.
But catches were not up to forecast and the experiment of operating in the South Shetland Islands was equally fraught with problems.
With an expedition to Madagascar seeking humpback whales being equally fruitless, she returned to South Georgia.

On 11 March 1916 with on board 11.000 barrels of whale oil, she was destroyed by fire. With no possibility of putting out the inferno, she had to be towed outside the harbour where she sank.


More than fifty vessels are known to have been wrecked or otherwise lost at or near South Georgia, mainly because of its severe climate and its rocky and at that time uncharted coastline, and one of this vessels was the HORATIO.

South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands 1988 58p sg186, scott?


Source: Wilson Line by John Harrower. From 70 North to 70 South by Graeme Somner.