Star of Bengal

The Star of Bengal was an iron three-masted 1,877 GRT merchant sailing vessel built in Belfast in 1874 by Harland and Wolff Industries (the shipyard that later constructed the Titanic). Though built towards the end of the Age of Sail, she was successfully operated for 24 years by the British trading company J.P. Corry & Co. The ship mainly travelled on the London-Calcutta trading route, but made a few voyages to Australian and American ports.

Following a formative change in the shipping industry, J.P. Corry switched to steam vessels and sold its sailing fleet around 1898. At the same time, merchant shipping along the United States Pacific Coast was experiencing a boom triggered by Klondike and Nome gold rushes intensifying the colonization of the Pacific Northwest and increasing the demand for both passenger and cargo shipping in the area. As a result, the Star of Bengal was purchased by San Francisco trading company J.J. Smith & Co. and, along with many other old European vessels, taken around Cape Horn to the Pacific Ocean. J.J. Smith conducted an overhaul of the ship and re-rigged her from a full-rigged ship to a barque to decrease operating costs.

J.J. Smith operated the Star of Bengal for 7 more years, mainly hauling grain and coal. As steamships pushed sailing vessels out of business, the trading company could no longer operate her for profit, and in 1905, the Star of Bengal was sold to the Alaska Packers' Association. This company used its sailing ships for a single voyage a year: a spring sail carrying seasonal workers and supplies from San Francisco to one of its Alaskan canneries, followed by a return trip in early fall with the workers and a load of canned salmon.

On September 20, 1908, at the beginning of her return trip from Fort Wrangell to San Francisco, the Star of Bengal was in tow in open sea when she encountered a storm. The ship struck the rocks near the shore of Coronation Island and sunk, killing approximately 110 of 138 people aboard. Captain Nicholas Wagner survived the wreck and publicly blamed the tugboat captains for the event. After months of federal investigation, no one was held responsible. As of 2015, the wreck of the Star of Bengal remains among the top five worst maritime disasters in Alaskan history.

Later, Captain Wagner's daughter, Joan Lowell, pursued literary career, that led to the Star of Bengal's portrayal in fiction. Her book The Cradle of the Deep, was the third-bestselling book of 1929 and contained an embellished account of the wreck. A melodramatic play, Star of Bengal, written by Thompson Buchanan and produced by Christopher Morley, is also set on the ship.

The Star of Bengal was built by shipbuilder Harland and Wolff Industries in Belfast, Ireland, in 1873 and 1874. Those were the years when the construction of three-masted iron ships reached its zenith, and the shipbuilding industry produced a series of the fastest ships in this category, the Star of Bengal being one of them.

Initially constructed as a two-deck three-masted full-rigged ship, in 1898 the Star of Bengal was re-rigged as a barque. Her gross tonnage was 1877, net tonnage 1694, and tonnage under deck, 1684. She was 262.8 feet (80.1 m) long, 40.2 feet (12.3 m) wide and 23.5 feet (7.2 m) deep, and designed to be operated by a crew of seventeen. The ship could load 2,530 long tons (2,570 t) of deadweight cargo on a draught of 21 feet 3 inches (6.48 m).

The Star of Bengal had a 9-inch-deep (230 mm) bar keel. Her poop deck was 64 feet (20 m) long and forecastle, 42 feet (13 m) long. The ship's moulded depth was 25 feet 3 inches (7.70 m) with freeboard of 5 feet 2.5 inches (158.8 cm). She was originally constructed with three cement bulkheads, but after her overhaul in 1898, only one bulkhead remained in service. Overall, the ship's hull required 200 long tons (200 t) of stiffening.