SS Romulus (1889)

The SS Romulus was a British screw cargo steamer, probably the 2,630-ton, 91.4 metre well-deck steel steamer listed under official number 14439. ShipIndex identifies a Romulus of that tonnage and length, while Sunderland shipping notes place the vessel on a final voyage from Sunderland to Leghorn, now Livorno, with a cargo described as fuel, most likely coal or bunker fuel cargo in the language of the day. As ever, Victorian records make you earn every scrap, because apparently “clear paperwork” was considered vulgar.

On 17 January 1889, Romulus was in the English Channel off the South Foreland when she was run into by the French steamship Felgrano and sank in the early hours. Contemporary wreck listings record one crew member lost. For divers, this is a strong Dover Strait collision story: a Sunderland steamer outward bound for the Mediterranean, a night-time impact off the Kent coast, and a wreck with the quiet appeal of Victorian working steam, iron, coal trade and Channel fog. Not a showy wreck, thankfully. The best ones rarely are.