ORLANDO

Shipbuildervessel built by Alexander HALL & Co. (Footdee, Aberdeen)

Date1837

Object NameBRIG

MediumWOOD

ClassificationsShip

Dimensionslength 74.7' x breadth 19.8'
gross tonnage 157 tons

Object numberABDSHIP000967

Keywords

Aberdeen Built Ships

About MeYard: Alexander Hall & Co.
Yard Number: 81

Fate: crushed by ice in the Gulf of Riga, 25 April 1839

Description: Brigantine rigged, 1 deck, 2 masts, standing bowsprit, square stern, carvel built, male bust figurehead

15/05/1837: Registered at Aberdeen for subscribing owners;
Benjamin Moir, merchant, Aberdeen and Orlando Hart Wilson, lieutenant in the Royal Navy.
Registration cancelled - vessel lost 25 April 1839, Gulf of Riga
(Source: Aberdeen Register of Shipping (Aberdeen City Archives))

Master:
1838: Master Orlando Hart Wilson

Voyage:
1838: Aberdeen - St. Petersburg

Although there is no mention of this vessel in Lloyd's Register of these years, the ship was apparently trading to the Baltic Countires under Capt. Robinson. ORLANDO sailed from Aberdeen bound for Riga on 9 April under Capt. Robinson. The following account came from another vessel and says that a fleet of seventy sailing ships bound for Riga had rounded the point into the Gulf of Riga on 23 April 1839 and proceeded along a cut in the ice about a quarter of a mile wide. They had proceeded only 25 miles when the wind changed and the ice closed in on them forcing them to anchor on the night of the 24th. On the morning of the 25th about eight o'clock the people of the ORLANDO of Aberdeen were heaving their clothes on to the ice and in three minutes she went down leaving no trace. They walked over the ice to the land - a distance of six miles and stayed there two days before proceeding. On reaching Lebau Capt. Robinson, Captain Horn and three other British masters were lodged in one house and the mates in another.
(compiled from reports in Wolverhampton Chronicle and Staffordshire Advertiser (29/05/1839) and North Devon Journal (06/06/1839))

Notes: Contract Price £1,746 of £11 per ton (Builder's List in Aberdeen Maritime Museum)