Qualla: SS Suffolk (1899)

SS Suffolk (1899): Introduction

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. At 3:20 in the morning on September 24, 1900, the Second Officer of the SS Suffolk heard breakers. He put the helm hard to port. It was too late. The ship struck rocks off Tsitsikamma Point, near Cape St. Francis, and within twelve hours she had sunk, taking 930 horses to the bottom. The horses had been loaded at Fiume in Austria-Hungary -- modern-day Rijeka, Croatia -- bound for the 10th Hussars in South Africa, where the Second Boer War was entering its grinding guerrilla phase. The crew and the 66 hostlers who tended the animals all survived. Not a single horse did.

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SS Suffolk (1899): Built for Cold Cargo

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The Suffolk was a product of the industrial north of England. Launched on July 25, 1899, from the Sunderland Shipbuilding Company at South Dock on the River Wear, she was completed by November and sailed her sea trials on the 20th. Her steel hull was built on the deep-frame princ...

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SS Suffolk (1899): A Maiden Voyage Around the World

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Suffolk's first voyage was a circumnavigation of commerce. She left Sunderland in November 1899 loaded with frozen game, 3,200 tons of steel rails, and general cargo, reaching Fremantle in February 1900 after averaging 11 knots. In Western Australia she discharged steel plate for...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

SS Suffolk (1899): The Second Voyage

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. For her second trip, Suffolk left London on August 10, 1900, and reached Fiume on August 22 to embark horses for the war. She could take only 930 of the 1,000 intended. Sixty-three crew, 66 hostlers, and a veterinary surgeon rounded out the complement. She bunkered at Tenerife, c...

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SS Suffolk (1899): Rocks and Ruin

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. When the Suffolk struck the rocks off Tsitsikamma Point, her number 3 hold hit first. Numbers 4 and 5 holds and the stokehold were also damaged. The engine room flooded, extinguishing the boiler fires and leaving the ship without power. Two other steamships arrived -- the Elder, ...

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SS Suffolk (1899): The Court's Verdict

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The Court of Inquiry sat in Port Elizabeth from October 3 to 9, 1900. Its findings were damning. The Suffolk had lacked a large-scale Admiralty chart of the coast between Mossel Bay and Cape St. Francis. She carried no copy of African Pilot, Part III, the navigation guide for tha...

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Image: Public domain