Image: The Sinking of a Full-Rigged Merchant Vessel of 1400 Tons by HMS 'Sanspareil' off the Lizard ILN 1899

Description: The Sinking of a Full-Rigged Merchant Vessel of 1400 Tons by HMS Sans Pareil off the Lizard. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 19 August 1899. Incident took place on 7 August. Read the ILN Volume 115, Issue 3148. H. M. S. Sanspareil in Collision. Just at the close of the naval manoeuvres an untoward incident occurred between the Woolf and the Eddystone Lighthouse on Aug. 7. The fleet was sailing in four lines, one of which was headed by the Sanspareil battle-ship. By some misadventure the battle-ship came in collision with the East Lothian, a Glasgow vessel of 1389 tons, bound from Nantes to Cardiff. It appears that the merchant-vessel was not observed on the battle-ship, although the captain and mate seemed to have shouted an alarm. The Sanspareil cut deeply into the East Lothian and damaged her so seriously that in seven or eight minutes after the collision she went down. The captain's wife and son and all the crew, with the exception of three men, managed to scramble on hoard the warship. Two of the missing men were picked up by the boats, but the third, a seaman named William Collins, belonging to St. David's, was drowned.
Title: The Sinking of a Full-Rigged Merchant Vessel of 1400 Tons by HMS Sanspareil off the Lizard
Credit: The Illustrated London News
Author: After Charles de Lacy
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No