The Shadwan (Wreck)

 interesting place, invisible

Captain John Willis was master of the British steamer Shadwan for many years. He was not her first captain after she was built in 1877 by CS Swan & Co for the London shipping firm of Nelson, Donkin & Co, but he was certainly her longest-serving. He would also be her last, writes Kendall McDonald.

The Shadwan proved profitable for her owners. An iron cargo steamer of 1538 tons, 256ft long with a beam of 33ft, and drawing a little over 23ft, she produced 150hp from her compound engines. She was not fast, but she was reliable.

During the next 10 years this London-registered ship visited most European and Mediterranean ports. In mid-November, 1888, she was in Fiume (later Rijeka, Yugoslavia's biggest port), taking on a full cargo of wheat, barley and flour to take to Leith, Edinburgh.

Good weather stayed with her until she was in the North Sea only four miles off Berwick. Violent north-easterly gales raised such huge breaking seas that Captain Willis must have known he wasn't going to make it into the shelter of the Firth of Forth. He didn't. On 28 November, 1888, Shadwan foundered with the loss of all aboard.