Sir Colin Campbell - a general history

Official No. 4603; Code Letters JDFT.

Owners: Richard Young, Wisbech; 1855 Egyptian Government-renamed Rechid; re-purchased 1856 Richard Young, Wisbech; 1861 Zachariah Charles Pearson (C.N. 1386) (Hull) Wisbech.

Masters: 1855-57 Thomas Lee (C.N. 18418 Shields 1858); 1857 Brigstock; 1858-61 Hewitt/Huet; 1861 Martin.

This was the first iron vessel to be built at Hartlepool & a lunch was given by the builders at the King’s Head Hotel in Hartlepool prior to the launch. Present were their friends & supporters & Richard Young who had purchased the steamer. He sold her immediately to the Egyptian Government & re-purchased her in 1856.

Voyages: 1856-60 Hartlepool for the Black Sea; February 1860 from Penarth for Southampton an explosion took place in the steam coal. John Brookes, engineer aged 27, ignited the coal gas with his lamp & was severely burnt on the face, arms & hands. He was taken to Southampton Infirmary in a critical condition; 12 July 1860 she collided with the Ocean of Wisbech which was moored at Sunderland; 19 April 1861 in collision off the Swin in the Thames with the barque Symmetry; 9 November 1861 arrived London; December 1861 London for Baltimore.

In 1861, because WS Lindsay, MP & ship-owner, was known to be a friend of the South & was believed to have an interest in the cargo of Rechid, attention was drawn to the vessel. On 27 December 1861 a letter was sent to the Secretary of the Navy from the U.S. Consul at London by the U.S. Secretary of State regarding Rechid being under suspicion as intending a blockade run. The dispatch arrived too late as she had already been cleared for sailing from London & had left on 25 December for Baltimore. On 15 January 1862 the Secretary of the Navy followed up by sending a letter to the flag officers commanding the blockading squadrons airing the suspicions of the US Consul but this was also too late as Rechid & her crew of about 30 men had already been lost in the Atlantic Ocean. She had passed through the Downs on 26 December 1861 & was not seen again.

Related items :