''Gouverneur Generaal Loudon'' was a mail steamer and excursion vessel which survived the

1883 eruption of Krakatoa Beginning on 20 May 1883, and ending on 21 October 1883, the volcanic island of Krakatoa, located in the Sunda Strait, had repeated, months long Types of volcanic eruptions, volcanic eruptions. The most destructive of these eruptions occurred o ...

Ship history

The ship was built by

Caird & Company Caird & Company was a Scottish shipbuilding and engineering firm based in Greenock. The company was established in 1828 by John Caird when he received an order to re-engine River Clyde, Clyde paddle-tugs. John's relative James Tennant Caird joine ...

Greenock Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, in 1875 and operated by the ''Nederlandsch Indische Stoomboot Maatschappij'' ("Netherlands Indies Steamship Company") until 1891, when the assets and business of the company was taken over by the ''

Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij (KPM, Dutch for Royal Packet Navigation Company), was a Dutch shipping line in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. It traded form 1888 to 1966. It was the dominant inter-island shipping line in the Dutch Eas ...

'' ("Royal Packet Navigation Company"). She was named after James Loudon (1824–1900), a Dutch politician and governor of the Dutch East Indies (1872-1875). In 1883, while captained by Johan Lindemann, the ship was in the

Sunda Strait The Sunda Strait () is the strait between the Indonesian islands of Java island, Java and Sumatra. It connects the Java Sea with the Indian Ocean. Etymology The strait takes its name from the Sunda Kingdom, which ruled the western portion of Ja ...

during the eruption of

Krakatoa Krakatoa (), also transcribed (), is a caldera in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Indonesian province of Lampung. The caldera is part of a volcanic island group (Krakatoa archipelago) comprising four islands. Tw ...

and survived the subsequent

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

when the captain steered the ship head on into the wave. After the wave passed, pyroclastic airfall was the ship's biggest enemy. A foot of ash could have made the ship

capsize Capsizing or keeling over occurs when a boat or ship is rolled on its side or further by wave action, instability or wind force beyond the angle of positive static stability or it is Turtling (sailing), upside down in the water. The act of reco ...

, but everyone on board survived due to a combination of the crew keeping the decks clear of ash and Captain Lindeman's decision to move the passengers into the ship's hold to maintain stability which kept them alive long enough to ride out the effects of the eruption. After surviving the tsunami caused by the eruption of Krakatoa, the ship was stranded and lost in the

Flores Sea The Flores Sea covers of water in Indonesia. The sea is bounded on the north by the island of Celebes and on the south by Sunda Islands, the Sunda Islands of Flores and Sumbawa. Geography The seas that border the Flores Sea are the Bali Sea ...

off the Tengga Batoe

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...

south of

Selayar Island Selayar is the main island of the Selayar Islands (''Kepulauan Selayar''). It lies off the coast of Cape Bira of South Sulawesi Province. The Selayar Straits separate it from the mainland of Sulawesi. Its principal town is Benteng, while much ...

in 1898.

In popular culture

The 1953 American adventure film ''

Fair Wind to Java ''Fair Wind to Java'' is a 1953 American adventure film in Trucolor from Republic Pictures, produced and directed by Joseph Kane, that stars Fred MacMurray and Vera Ralston. With special effects by the Lydecker brothers, the film was based on t ...

'' depicts a fictional

sailing ship A sailing ship is a sea-going vessel that uses sails mounted on Mast (sailing), masts to harness the power of wind and propel the vessel. There is a variety of sail plans that propel sailing ships, employing Square rig, square-rigged or Fore-an ...

, the ''Gerrymander'', which rides out a large tsunami generated by the 1883 explosion of Krakatoa. The 1969 American disaster film ''

Krakatoa, East of Java ''Krakatoa, East of Java'' is a 1968 American disaster film starring Maximilian Schell and Brian Keith. During the 1970s, the film was re-released under the title ''Volcano''. The story is loosely based on events surrounding the 1883 eruption ...

'' depicts a fictional steamer, the ''Batavia Queen'', surviving an encounter with an enormous tsunami at sea between Krakatoa and Java in 1883. Both scenes apparently were inspired at least in part by the historical experience of the ''Governor General Loudon''. The 2005 British documentary ''Krakatoa'' and the 2006

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

docudrama '' Krakatoa: The Last Days'' (aired in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

on the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

with the title ''Krakatoa: Volcano of Destruction'') both depict the experience of the ''Governor General Loudon'' and Captain Lindemann in the Sunda Strait during the 1883 eruption.

References

{{coord missing, Indonesia 1875 ships Ships built on the River Clyde Steamships Merchant ships of the Netherlands Maritime incidents in August 1883 Maritime incidents in 1898 Shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean Shipwrecks of Indonesia