3-011-548 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Wreck of the Montreal Ocean Steam-Ship Company's mail-steamer Jura, at Crosby Point, near Liverpool, 1864. 'The Jura...had made her passage across the Atlantic...She arrived at the Bell Buoy, off the entrance to the Mersey, soon after midnight, and took a pilot on board. She made for the Formby Channel in coming into the river, and, either from a miscalculation of distance or from mistaking the Crosby light for that of the north docks, she got outside the channel and ran upon the "Crosby Spit" or "Crosby Point," a narrow sandbank running out between Crosby and Waterloo. She was steaming full speed at the time. The fore part of her keel became fixed in the bank, the stern hanging in deep water, but it was hoped she would be got off the next flood-tide. Signals of distress brought steam-tenders, tugs, and lighters to her aid, and her mails, specie, passengers, and part of the cargo, principally grain, were safely got out...Soon after six o'clock she parted amidships...It is understood that the Jura is not insured, except in the company's own insurance fund. She was built in 1851, for the Cunard Company, by Messrs. Thompson, of Glasgow...She was 2241 tons burden, was fitted with engines of 440-horse power, and was built of iron'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.