The forgotten sea tragedy which killed hundreds

On a dark, bleak winter evening in Victorian Kent, a tragedy at sea meant hundreds of people bound for a new life never reached their destination.

The story of how the Northfleet, an emigrant ship bound for Australia, sank off the coast of Dungeness was seen as a maritime tragedy by many, killing nearly 300 people after the boat was hit by a steamship which sailed off into the night.

But despite an outpouring of support, including from Queen Victoria, the story of the Northfleet is one that is not so well remembered.

Dominic Gregory, a local author and volunteer with the Dungeness lifeboat, told Secret Kent: "It was seen as an enormous tragedy."

He added: "If you cared to look, several of the churchyards along the coast still have gravestones where people were buried from the Northfleet, some with no names where people couldn't be identified."

Built in the town on the Thames for which the ship was named, the Northfleet was carrying railway iron, goods, and 379 people who had paid about £14 each for their passage to start a new life elsewhere in the British Empire.

On 22 January 1879, the Northfleet was moored off the coast of Dungeness with some 250 other ships, having been batted back by strong winds, when just before midnight a steamship, the Murillo, veered into the side of it.

"What was particularly shocking was that the captain of the other ship ordered his crew to cover its name so that it couldn't be identified," Gregory said.

"When the Northfleet raised the alarm, all that happened was the Murillo pulled itself back and set off into the night."

Gregory said that what followed was a scene of pandemonium, with people climbing the rigging to try and escape, and the captain firing his pistol into the air to try and restore order.

While calls for help went out to the other ships and to the coast, none came. The other boats could not hear them, and Dungeness's lifeboat had been withdrawn a few years before.

Of those on board, 293 drowned, including the ship's captain, while 86 survived.

Gregory said: "There wasn't any available response to help these people.

"What affects me the most was that a lifeboat station was re-established at Dungeness after this, and it has been saving people's lives ever since.

"One of the few reminders of the Northfleet in Dungeness is the lifeboat station itself."

After the disaster, support was set up for the few surviving victims, including donations from across the country and personal support from Queen Victoria.

Months later, the Murillo was stopped and its captain court martialled.

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