View source for SS Carnatic

{{Short description|British steamship wrecked in the gulf of Suez }}
{{other ships|Carnatic (ship)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2016}}
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|Ship image=Carnatic ss.jpg
|Ship caption=SS Carnatic
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{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship country= United Kingdom
|Ship flag={{Shipboxflag|United Kingdom|civil}}
|Ship name= SS ''Carnatic''
|Ship namesake=
|Ship owner=
|Ship operator=Peninsula & Orient Steam Navigation Company
|Ship registry=
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|Ship builder=[[Samuda Brothers]], [[Cubitt Town]], [[London]]
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|Ship laid down=30 January 1862
|Ship launched=6 December 1862
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|Ship completed=25 April 1863
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|Ship fate=Wrecked, 12 September 1869
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{{Infobox ship characteristics
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|Ship type= Steam ship
|Ship tonnage= {{GRT|1,776}}
|Ship displacement=
|Ship length={{Convert|89.4|m|ftin|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam= {{Convert|11.6|m|ftin|abbr=on}}
|Ship height=
|Ship draught= {{Convert|7.8|m|ftin|abbr=on}}
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|Ship propulsion=[[Humphrys, Tennant and Dykes]] 4-cylinder compound inverted steam engine, {{Convert|2442|hp|0|abbr=on}}, single shaft
|Ship sail plan= [[Brig]]<ref name="Standard 11 1869">{{cite news |title=The Loss of the Carnatic |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0000183/18691124/008/0002?browse=False |access-date=16 September 2020 |work=London Evening Standard |date=24 Nov 1869 |page=2}}</ref>
|Ship speed= {{Convert|12|kn|lk=in}}
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|Ship capacity= 250 passengers{{Citation needed|reason=this number seems very dubious|date=September 2020}}
|Ship crew=
|Ship notes= 31 persons lost in the shipwreck
}}
|}
'''SS ''Carnatic''''' was a British [[steamship]] built in 1862-63 by [[Samuda Brothers]] at [[Cubitt Town]] on the [[Isle of Dogs]], London, for the [[Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company]] (P&O). She operated on the [[Suez]] to [[Bombay]] run in the last years before the [[Suez Canal]] was opened. This route gave a fast, steamship-operated route from Britain to India, connecting with similar steamships running through the Mediterranean to Alexandria, with an overland crossing to Suez. The alternative was to sail round the Cape of Good Hope, a distance at which steam ships were not, in the early 1860s, sufficiently economical to be commercially competitive with sail.

As one of the first British steamships to use a compound engine, ''Carnatic'' achieved a much better fuel economy (at 2lbs of coal per indicated horsepower-hour) than most other contemporary steamers. P&O had a number of compound-engined ships built in the first half of the 1860s: ''Poonah'' (1863), ''Golconda'' (1863) and ''Baronda'' (1864).{{r|Advent|p=170}}

In 1869, she ran aground on a coral reef in the Red Sea and broke apart the following morning, with the loss of 31 lives. Her wreck was rediscovered in 1984 and is now a popular scuba diving site.

==Ship history==
The ship was laid down on 30 January 1862,<ref name=Times200463>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The New Steamer Carnatic |date=20 April 1863 |page=12 |issue=24537 |column=F }}</ref> and was originally to be named ''Mysore''.<ref name=Egypt/> She was launched as ''Carnatic'' on 6 December 1862,<ref name=Times200463/> and completed on 25 April 1863. The [[Composite ship|composite construction]] hull (iron-framed and wooden-planked) was fitted with square-rigged sails and a 4-cylinder [[Marine steam engine|compound inverted steam engine]] by [[Humphrys, Tennant and Dykes|Humphrys & Tennant]], providing {{Convert|2442|hp|0|abbr=on}} to a single propeller.<ref name=Egypt>{{cite web |url=http://www.shipwrecksofegypt.com/redsea/CD/carnatic.html |title=Carnatic |work=shipwrecksofegypt.com |year=2010 |access-date=28 February 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130126083817/http://www.shipwrecksofegypt.com/redsea/CD/carnatic.html |archive-date=26 January 2013 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

The compound engine was unusual at the time for a British vessel. Carnatic's boiler ran at only {{cvt|26|psi|kPa}}. Higher pressures were not allowed by the [[Board of Trade]].  The advantages of a compound engine were not fully realised at this low pressure - but the solution to the problem was to apply a large amount of [[Superheater|superheat]]. The efficiency gained was a fuel usage of just over 2lbs of coal per indicated horsepower-hour. This is comparable to the achievement of the groundbreaking {{ship|SS|Agamemnon|1865}} at 2.2lbs per indicated horsepower-hour, but at a boiler pressure of {{cvt|60|psi|kPa}}.<ref name="Advent">{{cite book |editor1-last=Gardiner |editor1-first=Robert |title=The Advent of Steam – The Merchant Steamship before 1900 |date=1993 |publisher=Conway Maritime Press |location=London |isbn=0-85177-563-2}}</ref>{{rp|99, 105, 156–7, 170}}

===Grounding===
On 12 September 1869, she ran aground on [[Sha`b Abu Nuhas]] [[coral reef]] near [[Shadwan]] Island at the mouth of the [[Gulf of Suez]] in the [[Red Sea]]. Having assessed the ship to be safe and the pumps intact, Captain P. B. Jones denied passengers' repeated requests to abandon ship, and reassured them that the ship was safe and that the P&O liner ''Sumatra'' was due to pass by and would rescue them. There was a general air of calm and normality on board until about 2 a.m. on the 14th, when the rising water engulfed the ship's boilers and the ship was left without power or light. At 11 a.m. the following morning, after 34 hours on the reef, Captain Jones had just given the order to abandon ship and the first four passengers had taken their seats in one of the [[Lifeboat (shipboard)|lifeboat]]s when ''Carnatic'' suddenly broke in half. Thirty-one people drowned. The survivors made it to barren island of Shadwan, where the next day the ''Sumatra'' rescued them.[[File:Carnatic 1869.jpg|thumb|A contemporary print of the wreck of Carnatic]]

''Carnatic'' was carrying £40,000 worth of [[gold]] (well in excess of £1,000,000 in modern terms), so the wreck was the subject of a salvage operation two weeks later. All the gold was reported recovered, but persistent rumours of remaining [[treasure]] have added to the romance of the ship.

Captain Jones was recalled to England to face an official Board of Inquiry, which labelled him "a skilful and experienced officer". However, the inquiry added that "it appears there was every condition as regards ship, weather and light to ensure a safe voyage and there was needed only proper care. This was not done, and hence the disaster." Although Jones's Master's certificate was suspended for only nine months, he never returned to sea.

Rediscovered in May 1984, the wreck of the ''Carnatic'' is now a popular [[scuba diving]] site.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.aquatours.com/wrecks/carnatic.htm |title=SS CARNATIC. Wreck Directory & Diving Guide. |work=aquatours.com |year=2012 |access-date=28 February 2013}}</ref>

[[File:Ship wreck Carnatic 2017-04-22 Egypt-7947.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Wreck of the SS Carnatic, in the Red Sea, Egypt.]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{cite web |url= http://www.touregypt.net/vdc/Carnatic.htm |title=Egypt Red Sea Shipwrecks - The ''Carnatic'' |first=Ned |last=Middleton |work=touregypt.net}}
* [http://www.soldiersofthequeen.com/India-CaptRobertPopeRoyalArtillery.html A victim of the ''Carnatic'' disaster]

{{1869 shipwrecks}}
{{Recreational dive sites|wresit}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Carnatic}}
[[Category:1862 ships]]
[[Category:Ships built in Cubitt Town]]
[[Category:Steamships of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Ships of P&O]]
[[Category:Around the World in Eighty Days]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks in the Red Sea]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in September 1869]]
[[Category:Wreck diving sites]]