View source for Kapunda (ship)

[[File:Kapunda (ship, 1875).jpeg|thumb|right|''Kapunda'', about 1880]]
'''''Kapunda''''' was a British [[Emigration|emigrant]] ship which sank on 20 January 1887 after colliding with the [[barque]] ''[[Ada Melmoure]]'' in the [[Atlantic Ocean]] off the coast of [[Brazil]].<ref name=ILN>{{cite news|title=Great Disaster At Sea - Loss Of Two Or Three Hundred Lives|url=http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/passengerlists/kapunda.html|accessdate=14 April 2011|newspaper=Illustrated London News|date=5 February 1887|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930053729/http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/passengerlists/kapunda.html|archivedate=30 September 2011}}</ref> She was an iron-hulled ship of 1,095 tons, owned by Frinder, Anderson, and Company

''Kapunda'' was in the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil heading from [[London]] to [[Fremantle]], [[Western Australia]], with a crew of 40, carrying 279 emigrants and general cargo,<ref name="Belfast">{{cite news|title=The Loss of the Kapunda: Details of the Disaster|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4659986/the_loss_of_the_kapunda_details_of_the/|accessdate=18 March 2016|work=[[Belfast Morning News]]|date=23 February 1887|page=5}}</ref> when at 3:20 a.m. on 20 January 1887 she collided with the 549-ton ''Ada Melmoure'', which was bound from [[Coquimbo]], [[Chile]], to the [[United Kingdom]] with a cargo of [[manganese ore]]. ''Ada Melmoure'' hit ''Kapunda'' near the [[Bow (ship)|bow]], and ''Kapunda'' sank so quickly that no [[Lifeboat (shipboard)|lifeboats]] could be launched.<ref name="Belfast" /> Nine people managed to climb aboard ''Ada Melmoure'', six others found a small boat in the water and boarded it, and ''Ada Melmoure'' lowered a boat that picked up one crew member.  These 16 were the only survivors; the other 303 aboard ''Kapunda'', including [[Sea captain|Captain]] John Masson, lost their lives in the disaster.<ref name="Belfast" />

On 25 January 1887, 14 of ''Kapunda''′s survivors transferred from ''Ada Melmoure'' to the French barque ''Ulysses'', which took them to [[Bahia]], Brazil.  The other two survivors stayed with ''Ada Melmoure'', landing at [[Maceió]]{{where|date=November 2016}} after ''Ada Melmoure'' also sank.<ref name="Belfast" />

==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}

{{1887 shipwrecks}}

{{coord missing|Atlantic Ocean}}

{{DISPLAYTITLE:''Kapunda'' (ship)}}
[[Category:Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in January 1887]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in Brazil]]
[[Category:Ships sunk in collisions]]

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According to a Royal Inquiry some  months later in London, some of the Survivors spent a considerable amount of time in Shark infested  waters prior to being saved after the Shipwreck clinging to anything that would float. Also  according to that inquiry, some were killed by Sharks while in the water;
per William Norman's (survivor) Great Grandson, footnote author.