Lost 1878 - Iron-hulled steam freighter (barquentine-rigged)
The Kate was an iron steam freighter built at Whitby in 1874, carrying sail as well as steam. In late 1878 she was eleven days out of Galveston, Texas, bound for Le Havre with 3,602 bales of cotton under Captain William Simpson of Whitby, when on the night of Saturday 30 November she struck bottom off the west of Bermuda. The first reports said she had hit Long Bar; Simpson himself insisted she had struck no reef at all, but a piece of sunken wreck or loose timber. Either way she was soon afloat again, but leaking so badly that the water put out her fires and her engines were useless.
At daybreak she signalled for help. Captain Moresby at the Dockyard sent HMS Spitfire, the steam tug C. F. Ackerman came out too, and together they nearly got her to the Castle Heads before, settling fast, she had to be run aground in Tucker's Town Bay, where she lay broadside to the shore. Divers who went down found her bow and stern resting on rocks with her middle so far off the bottom that a man could walk underneath her. Lighters set to work on the cargo, but in a severe southerly gale on the night of 3 December she broke in two and settled into deeper water, leaving about twenty feet of water over her decks. Salvage went on regardless, and in January 1879 some 802 large packages and 402 bags of cotton from the Kate were shipped on to New York. No lives were lost.
A court of inquiry found that the ship had been lost through her master's default: he had shown no proper caution after sighting the light, carried no Atlantic Navigator or other sailing directions, did not use the lead until she had struck, and had gone below soon after midnight intending to stay there until four. Captain Simpson lost his certificate.
An easy, shallow wreck about a kilometre off Natural Arches beach, suitable for Open Water divers, with her propeller sitting on its own on the reef at about 20 ft for snorkellers. The main wreck lies in about 45 ft: the boilers, engine, propeller shaft and deck winches are all visible, and the boilers have become small reefs with swim-throughs and overhangs. An anchor stands upright on the reef just south of the main wreckage.
Approximate position, for interest only - never use for navigation.