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ADELAIDE

  1. Name: Adelaide
  2. Type of vessel: merchant ship, barque
  3. Flag: United Kingdom
  4. Date of sinking: 19 December 1850
  5. Cause: ran aground, storm
  6. Location: Laxe bay To be located.
  7. Diving level:
  8. GALP territory: Costa da Morte (Coast of Death)

HISTORY

Its captain was the only survivor

The Adelaide was coming into port when a change in the direction of the wind blew her onto the beach at Laxe. With 14 crew and 3 passengers, only the captain, William Dovell, survived. The bodies of his wife and son are buried in a courtyard annexed to the cemetery of the parish church of Santa María da Atalia, located on a hill in the village of Laxe and overlooking the sea where they perished.

 

The Adelaide was a barque, a three-masted ship (131 GRT). 30.3 X 7.6 X 5.28 m) based in Bristol (UK) and owned by the captain himself, William Dovell, and Charles Hill.

It covered the Bristol to St. Vincent route, in the West Indies, with a cargo of coal, rye, barrels of guano and quicklime.

It is possible that this shipwreck may have been worked on in order to recover part of the cargo.

Lápida conmemorativa en recuerdo de las víctimas del Adelaide en la iglesia de St. Mary the Virgin, Molland (Devon, Inglaterra).
Tumba de la mujer y del hijo del capitán del Adelaide junto al cementerio de la iglesia parroquial Santa María da Atalaia de Laxe (A Coruña).

GALLERY