SHIPWRECKS 1898

The SS China, a P&O passenger liner of 7,912 tons was only two years old when she ran aground and was stranded on Azalea Reef on 24 March 1898. The Perim Coal Company was very concerned, should she be got off and towed into Perim Harbour, that the ship would sink inside the harbour and thus cause an obstruction in what was already rather limited space.

Before an attempt was to be made at the end of August to float her off the Company therefore demanded a large bond from P&O, the owners of the vessel. One key factor in the equation was that P&O was not using a tug provided by the Coal Company. In fact this whole episode is a good example of how difficult the Coal Company were to deal with on practically any subject.

Landing passengers ashore from the SS China

At the end of October the Agent of P&O in Aden sought information regarding the limit of the PCC’s concession in or off Perim harbour, with a view to anchoring the China in as sheltered position as possible, but outside the limit of the concession.

When she was eventually got off she was towed to an anchorage three quarters of a cable off Chevalier Point where she was moored close to another P&O ship the ‘Ancona’ so that cargo, stores, etc could be transferred from the ‘China’.

Whilst the ‘Ancona’ and ‘China’ were anchored off Chevalier Point three or four crew from the two ships died from beri-beri and were buried in James Bay. (Beri-beri is a disease causing inflammation of the nerves due to a deficiency of vitamin B).

The Coal Company complained to the Assistant Resident that this was their land and Dr Livingstone, the Medical Officer for the Company and therefore Port Health Officer for Perim, stated that it was in contravention of health regulations for those dying from beri-beri to be buried on land; to which P&O replied that they had wanted to save the cost of firing up the ‘Ancona’ so as to bury the bodies out at sea and that anyway James Bay was several miles from any habitation. Regarding jurisdiction the Assistant commented that he was not aware that Mr Livingstone was Health Officer for Perim, as opposed to Port Health Officer.

From a look at the map of Perim it would appear at first glance that James Bay was well within ‘Government Side’ and therefore outside the concession. But the use of James Bay had been granted to the company under the pretext that they would conduct their salvage operations from there, which they never did. Their aim in obtaining James Bay was to deny its use to another coal merchant from Aden. It was, of course, quite close to Meyun and certainly too close to habitation for the bodies to be buried there.

The China could be moored off Chevalier Point (the point on the southern arm of James Bay) because as far as the harbour was concerned the concession only included that part of the harbour roughly west of a line drawn from Murray Point to Lee Point (at the entrance of the harbour, opposite the spit [Pirie Point]).

The China did not sink and was not scrapped until 1928.

Sydney Morning Herald 28 March 1898