Yard number 198 Type Steam packet Tonnage 1.303 million kg | Fate Wrecked 1898 Launched 1875 Builder Caird & Company | |
Name Gouverneur Generaal Loudon Owner Nederlandsch Indische Stoomboot Maatschappij (1875-1891)
Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij (1891-1898) | ||
Governor General Loudon (Dutch: Gouverneur Generaal Loudon) was a mail steamer and excursion vessel which survived the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa.
Ship history
The ship was built by Caird & Company of Greenock, Scotland, 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 ("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 Lindeman, the ship was present at the eruption of Krakatoa and survived the subsequent tsunami 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, but everyone on board all survived because the 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 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 off the Tengga Batoe reef south of Selayar Island in 1898.