The three-masted 258-foot British iron hulled ship Dunnottar Castle was built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1874. She was lost at Kure Atoll on July 15th, 1886, while bound for Wilmington, California from Sydney, Australia with a cargo of coal. A malfunctioning chronometer put the ship off course and onto the reef. Though efforts were made to jettison the cargo and repair the damaged hull, the stricken vessel could not be refloated, and the crew abandoned ship for the nearby deserted island. The castaways would have to take charge of their own rescue.
After abandoning the ship, the chief officer and six seamen took one of the boats and made a 52-day passage to Kauai. While they were gone, the majority of the 28-man crew were rescued from the island by the ship Birnam Wood and deposited in Valparaiso, Chile.
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