Lost 1873 - Iron-hulled sailing cargo ship
The Beaumaris Castle was a British iron-hulled sailing ship, built at Glasgow in 1864, 202 ft long and of 1,040 tons. On the morning of Friday 25 April 1873, 102 days out from Calcutta for New York under Captain Emmett with jute, linseed oil and gum, she ran onto the reefs at Mills Breaker, off Bermuda's eastern edge. The weather was thick, but local boats came out and ferried her crew and some of the cargo ashore.
By chance the Coast Wrecking Company of New York had men on the island. Their divers found her 'very little damaged', and within weeks they had six large steam pumps working in her hold, but bad weather held up the refloating, and with her bow lifted high on the reef much of the cargo had to come out to lighten her. In mid-June a salvor named Edward Ryan went down into the hold to clear a blocked pump and was overcome by gas given off by the rotting cargo; several men who went to help him, among them a Captain Brown, collapsed too. The rescuers were revived, but Ryan, who had been down longest, died on 15 June. Bad luck followed: the company's tug Relief, sent out to help raise the ship, caught fire and burned in St George's harbour the night she arrived. In August the company abandoned the Beaumaris Castle after, as the Royal Gazette put it, 'expending a vast amount of money, material and time', and the salvaged jute, hides, linseed and ginger were shipped on to New York. A Norfolk tug, the B. & J. Baker, came out in October to try again, apparently without success. A beacon was finally placed on Mills Breaker late in 1874, the Gazette remarking that had it been there the year before, the ship would very likely have been saved.
The wreck was identified in modern times by the Bermudian wreck historian Michael Davis. Seventy years after her loss the same breaker claimed the US Army vessel Colonel William G. Ball, and the two are now dived together.
A shallow East End reef dive. On the north side of Mills Breaker a line of iron deadeyes along her port side marks where the ship lies, and the bow rises towards the surface at about 25 ft; maximum depth is around 40 ft. Usually combined with the nearby Colonel William G. Ball; a third wreck, the brigantine Avenger, is also reported on the breaker. An exposed site on the edge of the reef platform - best in calm weather; suitable for most divers.
Approximate position, for interest only - never use for navigation.