Grounded on the Lincolnshire coast while returning home in 1869
Notes
Most famous for its disastrous 1866-7 expedition when it was trapped in ice off Greenland for many months, resulting in the death of 13 of its crew before its eventual return.
Diana was a whaling ship built in 1840, in Bremen, Germany. She sailed out of Hull, England. In 1858 a steam engine was installed, making her the first steam-powered whaler to sail from Hull (Tay from Dundee was the first ever, a year earlier). Records held in Kingston upon Hull, claimed that the steam engine was installed in Diana in 1857, and, according to Dundee websites, in Tay in 1859.
Trapped in the ice
The Diana nipped in the ice, on 2 December 1866, and abandoned for a time, taken from the diary of the voyage by the ship's doctor; Charles E. SmithMemorial to the rescue of the Whaler "Diana" at Victoria Pier, Lerwick, Shetland Islands
In 1866, while on a whaling expedition in Baffin Bay, Diana became frozen in the ice, where it was trapped for over six months. The ship's captain, 64-year-old[1] John Gravill, and many of the crew died. The diary of the ship's doctor, Charles Edward Smith, was published in the book From the Deep of the Sea. (ISBN0-87021-932-4). After the death of the Gravill, the ice-master George Clarke takes command of the ship and William Lofley navigates the Diana to Lerwick.[2] There is a memorial fountain to Diana's return from the ice in the town of Lerwick in the Shetland Islands, as many of the crew originated from the islands and all the deceased except the captain were buried there.[3] Charles Smith's services and heroism were recognised by the award of a set of surgical instruments from the Board of Trade.[4] Captain Gravill's body was taken back to Hull, and his funeral was attended by an estimated fifteen thousand people.[5]
Fate
On 20 October 1869, while making her way back from the Davis Strait, Diana encountered a strong gale, and was washed into the Donna Nook sands, on the Lincolnshire coast, and broke up. Her crew were rescued by the lifeboatNorth Briton.[6]Diana was the last whaling ship from the port of Hull.[7] Her loss ended the whaling industry of the city.
^In 1880, William Lofley joins Benjamin Leigh Smith as ice-master on the Eira and is later trapped in Franz Josef Land for another winter when the Eira is pinched in the ice and sinks.
^Pottinger, James A (April 2000). "The Voyage of the Diana". Shetland Life. The Shetland Times Ltd. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
^From the Deep of the Sea, Naval Institute Press (1977), page 271.
^From the Deep of the Sea, Naval Institute Press (1977), page 272.
^"Ship News". The Times. No. 26574. London. 21 October 1869. col B, p. 9.
^"The Late Gales". The Times. No. 26575. London. 22 October 1869. col C, p. 10.
^From the Deep of the Sea, Naval Institute Press (1977), page 187.
^From the Deep of the Sea, Naval Institute Press (1977), page 268.
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