page_title: RIMS Warren Hastings
section_title: Wreck
hierarchical_section_title: RIMS Warren Hastings / Final voyage / Wreck
caption_attribution_description: RIMS Warren Hastings, a ship ashore St. Phillipe, Reunion Island
context_page_description: RIMS Warren Hastings was a Royal Indian Marine troopship built by the Barrow Shipbuilding Company. She was launched on 18 April 1893, and claimed to be "practically unsinkable" because of her 33 watertight compartments. However, whilst in service the ship struck a rock and was wrecked off the coast of Réunion on the night of 14 January 1897, while travelling to Mauritius from Cape Town. The wreck resulted in two deaths.
context_section_description: On 6 January 1897, Warren Hastings departed from Cape Town, bound for Mauritius. On board were 526 members of the King's Royal Rifle Corps, 510 members of the 2nd York and Lancaster Regiment, and 25 members of the 2nd Middlesex Regiment, including two officers, 20 women, 10 children, and 253 crew members, totaling 1,244 people.
  On 13 January, the ship steamed into heavy rain and thick fog. At 02:20 on 14 January, Warren Hastings struck a rock off the coast of Réunion. At the time of impact, the ship was traveling at a speed of 12.5 knots (23.2 km/h; 14.4 mph), and had veered 8 miles (13 km) off course. The wreck itself was caused by the decreased visibility resulting from the foul weather, and by a "magnetic disturbance", which caused the compass to malfunction.
  Lieutenant-Colonel Forestier-Walker went to the bridge and asked Captain Holland for orders. The possibility of landing the troops and crew on the rocks was considered, and at 03:25, the captain sent two officers, Lieutenants Dobbin and Windham, over the bow on ropes to inspect the safety of the rocks, equipped with blue lights. The lieutenants determined that the rocks were safe, and Captain Holland ordered the evacuation of the ship to begin at 04:00; the men began climbing down the rope ladders. Originally, the captain wanted to keep the women and children on board until daylight, when it would be safer to evacuate them, but the ship started to list severely at 04:20, and it was decided that the evacuation should continue without delay. The electrical systems on the ship failed at 04:35, after which the evacuation was forced to continue in complete darkness. Around 05:00, the better swimmers were permitted to jump overboard and swim to shore on their own; the shore was around 30 yards (27 m) away. A member of the Rifle Corps, Private N. McNamara, strung a line between the ship and the shore, and heavier ropes were subsequently set up. The remaining men could go down the rope, making the evacuation safer. The ship was completely evacuated by 05:30. Two people died during the evacuation.
caption: RIMS Warren Hastings ashore Saint-Philippe, Réunion Island
exif: {"Image Copyright": "Public Domain, from the British Library's collections, 2013"}