£2,000 - £3,000
SS Mohegan, 1898, Manacle Rocks, The Lizard, Bronze deck protector The decorative plate from around the base of mast chased with manufacturer's name: “HULL SHIPBUILDING & EARLES ENGINEERING CO LTD”, approximately 114cm diameter. It is unusual to find such a chasing at the base of the mast, considering it would not be an item on view to the masses, with most plates at this time being plainly and left blank. SS Mohegan (1898) A newly built steam passenger and cargo liner, she suffered a navigation error on her second voyage, hitting the Manacles on the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall, and sank within 12 minutes with the loss of 106 of 197 on board. Most of the recovered bodies of the victims were buried in a mass grave in St Keverne churchyard, which was given a memorial stained glass window by the Atlantic Transport Line. The Scottish poet William McGonagall immortalised the tragedy in his poem The Wreck of the Steamer "Mohegan". The large loss of life and easily preventable nature of the disaster shocked Victorian society and her sinking led to the introduction of the Coverack lifeboat. The disaster was only eclipsed in popular imagination by later disasters such as RMS Titanic. More recently the wreck has become one of Cornwall’s most iconic dive sites and is well known by British divers.
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