SS Java (1865)

For other ships with the same name, see SS Zeeland.

SS Java
History
Name
  • 1865: SS Java
  • 1878: SS Zeeland
  • 1889: Electrique
  • 1892: Lord Spencer
Namesake
Operator
Port of registry
Route
  • 1865: Liverpool–Queenstown–New York
  • 1878: Antwerp–New York
Builder
Launched24 June 1865
Maiden voyageLiverpool-Queenstown–New York, 21 October 1865
FateMissing on way San Francisco-New York, 1895
General characteristics
Tonnage2,696 GRT
Length337.1 ft (102.7 m)
Beam42.9 ft (13.1 m)

SS Java was a British and French ocean liner built in 1865 at Glasgow by J. G. Thompson & Co. It served for the Cunard Line. One passenger, the musician Philo Adams Otis, noted:[1]

There were only four good ships of the Cunard Company in the Liverpool service in 1873: Russia, Scotia, Cuba, and Java. The two former were side-wheelers and were largely advertised as "carrying no steerage passengers". Among old travellers the two latter ships were respectively called the "rolling Cuba" and the "jumping Java," from certain peculiarities manifested by these ships in heavy weather, not especially conducive to the comfort of the passengers.

In 1877, the ship was re-engined with compound engines by Fawcett, Preston & Co., Liverpool, and chartered to Warren Line, until it had been sold to Red Star Line one year later and renamed to SS Zeeland.[2]

In 1889, it was sold to a French company and renamed the Electrique. In 1892 it was sold again to J. Herron & Co of Liverpool and again renamed the Lord Spencer. During an 1895 voyage from San Francisco to New York it went missing. One account claimed it collided with the Prince Oscar on 13 July and sunk shortly thereafter.[2][3]

  1. ^ Philo Adams, Otis (1 January 1922). Impressions of Europe, 1873-1874: Music, Art and History. R.G. Badger. p. 18. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Java, Cunard Line". Norway Heritage.
  3. ^ "LOSS OF THE LORD SPENCER.; Owners Believe It Was the Vessel Which Sank the Prince Oscar". The New York Times. 10 November 1895.