''Renown'' was a

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are Square rig, rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-maste ...

used as a sailing

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's List of seas, seas and Ocean, oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. ...

built in 1842 by R. & H. Green in Blackwall, London. She survived a cyclone at Calcutta in 1864, and was sold to

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

owners in 1882. In 1887 or 1888 she foundered off

Den Helder Den Helder () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Den Helder occupies the northernmost point of the North Holland peninsula. It is home to the country's main naval base. From here the Royal TESO fe ...

on the Dutch coast.

The storm and sinking

In December 1887,http://friesscheepvaartmuseum.nl/beeld/fsm-col2-dat20020266 the ''Renown'' sank during a storm in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

off

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. The survivors climbed up the mizzen-mast and were eventually rescued by a small lifeboat that approached the sinking ship. The lifeboat, captained by Dorus Rijkers, approached ''Renown'', and Rijkers jumped out of the boat and climbed the mast. He and his crew helped the endangered men from the mast to the lifeboat, and brought them to dry land. Of the ship's total crew of 30, approximately five died in the shipwreck and the remainder were rescued between 9 and 11 December.

Aftermath

The heroic rescue ended successfully, and Dorus Rijkers was later awarded with a gold medal for valour. All of the surviving crew members received a small stipend from the

court A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

after it was decided that they earned it because ''Renown'' was in bad condition when she left the harbor at

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, one week before the accident.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Renown Barques Individual sailing vessels 1842 ships Ships built by the Blackwall Yard Merchant ships of Germany Maritime incidents in December 1887 Shipwrecks in the North Sea Sea rescue

The storm and sinking

Aftermath

See also

References