By ERIC WIBERG

The British steam ship Karnak was a large vessel wrecked at Nassau Harbour bar at the western end of Paradise Island on April 14, 1862. The ship’s engines are still clearly visible out of the water where they were dumped on the shore. The hull was towed to the Carolinas.

Built by Denny’s of Dunbarton Scotland in 1855, Karnak was owned by Cunard Line and began sailing to The Bahamas from the UK and US in 1859, often appearing in the international papers. Her construction was enabled by a £3,000 subsidy through the British & Foreign Steam Navigation Company, which initiated a monthly service from New York to Nassau. The 1,116-ton ship connected New York to Havana, and Captain Alfred Brownless was her master arriving from Nassau at New York on August, 9, 1859, with William Devereux, age 25, a stonemason who died on the passage. The ship was so important in Nassau that the Karnak Hotel was named for it.

Postal historians note that “when Prince Alfred paid his visit to New Providence in December 1861”, he arrived on Karnak (also spelt Karnack). Leading philatelists Edward Bailey Proud (2000), Morris Hoad Ludington (1982), and Harold GD Gisburn (1950) agree that Karnak was wrecked at Nassau Harbour bar. Proud opines that she was too large for the service, at 202 feet long, 30 feet wide, with a 170-hp engine – in a way he was proved right. She had a barquentine rig and propeller, and Ludington confirms “she was wrecked entering Nassau harbor on Monday, April 14, 1862, but there was no loss of life and all the cargo and mails were saved.”

Nassau papers described how “we deeply regret… Karnak, which has been so faithfully and punctually carrying our mails… for the last four years, is now lying in a hopeless condition at the entrance of our harbour. She left Havana on Saturday [and] 11.30 am on Monday, on nearing Nassau, took on board Mr Cooke, one of the branch pilots. Capt Le Messurier raised objections to coming into the harbour, but on being assured… he consented. On crossing the bar at 12, the vessel struck heavilly. As he was remonstrating [Cooke] for not piloting properly, she was thrown by the surf on the coral reef, the engines all the time working in perfect order.”

“Out of five steamers lying in our harbour, not one of them was in condition to render the slightest assistance: HMS Bulldog [was not] in port… SS Nassville had no coal, the boilers on SS Cecile were in repair… the fellow steamer Ella Warley arrived from Havana a 4 pm [and] was in as much danger as Karnak… SS Gladiator and SS Southwick didn’t have coal.”

Karnak rolled, with the right side facing the breakers to the north. Within a half hour of hitting the seabed the ship was leaking - her steam pumps were soon overwhelmed and broke. Manual force-pumps were manned by crew and passengers, and more men arrived aboard from shore to assist.

A panic amongst passengers ensued, particularly effecting women and children, who numbered half of the 60 passengers. Surgeon Dr Linquist “took the children up in his arms and deposited them carefully in the small boats which were plying around the steps. Three of the ladies fainted, but soon came-to, on being assured of their safety”.

Passengers wrote that the captain “gave his orders with the greatest presence of mind and utmost coolness, and too much praise cannot be bestowed on him and his officers… Perfect discipline prevailed among the crew”.

“As soon as the tide began to fall, about 8pm, wreckers were engaged to remove the cargo of [Cuban] sugar, cotton, tobacco, and cigars, and continued working during the whole night. Several are reported to have been drowned by the upsetting of a boat in the surge, and many received severe wounds and bruises while in the vessel’s hold, by the shifting of boxes of sugar.”

After the first night journalist reported that Karnak had “completely shifted her position, and now lies with her head towards the south”. If the ship was on the north side of Paradise Island, that meant she faced the shore. Passengers who were booked to sail on Karnak from Nassau to New York were sent north on other ships, including SS Vigilant under Adderley & Co, SS Alma, SS Charles Tunnel and SS Lucy Darling.

Some aboard SS Karnak had strong connections with The Bahamas, including Charles Adolphus Murray, Earl of Dunmore, Viscount Fincastle, and Lord Murray, Baron Dunmore of Dunmore, who was related to the former governor of the Bahamas, after whom Dunmore Town Harbour Island is named. The younger Dunmore “behaved very gallantly during the wreck of the Karnak, in averting danger from the lady passengers. He was completely drenched, and at first put up at the Karnak Hotel, where its venerable hostess, Mrs Fisher, heard many amusing incidents respecting his illustrious ancestor. His Lordship has since become a guest at Government House”.

An April 25, 1862, a Charleston, South Carolina, paper wrote that Captain Higgs of Nassau brought a dozen Karnak survivors on the schooner Evelina. Papers described possible causes, as in Karnak, “…in charge of Mr Cooke, an old and experienced pilot of that port, grounded, in consequence of his not being able to head her around, the harbor being so full of vessels. Karnak might have been saved if there had been facilities in Nassau for it, such as steam pumps, etc.”

A letter from passengers declared that they had “…engaged passage on Karnak to New York, although suffering serious invonvenience from the delay occasioned by the loss of the vessel, they bore willing testimony to the uniform care, good seamanship and kindness” of Captain LeMessurier. They expressed their ‘entire trust’ in him and noted his duties were carried out to “such unqualified satisfaction and approval.”

Signatories included prominent surnames Ogden, Waters, Baldwin, Langdon, Bruger, Jenkins, Sexton, Jewell, Congdon, Crowell, van Camp, Harriwood, Briggs, Bradford, van Rensalear, Phinney, Wilcox, and Merrill.

Karnak resurfaced on September 7, 1862, nearly half a year later, when she put into Charleston “in distress. She ran ashore last April on one of the Bahama Keys, and being badly damaged, was sold to speculators in New York for $1,000. Her machinery was taken out, and an English steamer in Nassau was engaged to tow her to New York”. It did not go so well, as “somewhere in the latitude of Charleston, without warning [they] cut her adrift”.

The indefatigable crew on Karnak, with no motor and no tug, on a hostile foreign lee shore, nevertheless spread sail and shaped course for Beaufort, Hilton Head. On arrival she “narrowly escaped [a second] wreck in attempting to run over the bar, for which there was little more than 18 feet of water beneath her. The vessel now lies at quarantine ground, in a helpless condition; but arrangements will probably be made for towing her to her destination.”

The removal of engines, cargo and passengers no doubt made the ship shallower. Mystery shrouds her final fate, and “the steamer which had the Karnak in tow is thought by many to have been one of the British vessels which rendezvous at Nassau for the purpose of running the blockade.” Probably she was sold powerless “as is” and converted to a barge or scow, towed up and down the US eastern seaboard until grounded, sunk, or used as a dock. Her bowels – the large steam machinery – remain forever on Paradise Island for all to who enter or leave Nassau Harbour to see.