3-021-679 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The steam-ship Chicago stranded on a reef of rocks off Cork Harbour, 1868. Cargo ship wrecked on the route between Liverpool and New York, was wrecked by running upon a reef of rocks...A thick fog [had come] on when the ship neared the Irish coast...the captain observed the surf, indicating the presence of hidden rocks, and ordered the engines to be reversed at full speed. The order was at once obeyed; but...she struck...very heavily, shaking every part of her and causing terrible alarm...The engine-room was quickly filled with water, which forced its way through a large hole made by the rock. The furnaces were extinguished; and Captain M'Nay, finding no chance of getting the ship off the rock, on which she had got firmly fixed, set to work to save the passengers and crew. A life-boat was launched, and...[8] female cabin passengers...were...landed safety on shore; other boats, with the female steerage passengers, about thirty in number, soon followed; and last came the male passengers, with the firemen and crew. The persons on board numbered about 130, and...were all landed, without injury to life or limb...The Chicago was...built by Messrs. Palmer Brothers, of Jarrow, on the Tyne. Her cargo consisted principally of grain and cotton'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.