Jeddah (ship)
The Jeddah was a Singapore- based steamship owned by the Singapore Steamship Company of 993 tons displacement under the British flag. It was built in 1872 especially for the Hajj Malay pilgrims and became famous for the scandalous events on its last voyage in 1880, when the captain secretly left the wrecked ship.
Disaster in August 1880
On July 17, 1880, she left Singapore for Penang and Jeddah . There were 778 men, 147 women and 67 children on board as passengers and around 50 crew members. The passengers were Muslim pilgrims who wanted to go to Mecca and Medina for Hajj . On August 3, during a strong storm, the steam boilers loosened from their anchorages. The ship leaked, drew in water quickly, and was increasingly listing. In this situation, the master and two officers left the ship in a lifeboat on the night of August 7th to 8th. A ship picked them up and brought them to Aden , where they reported violence by the passengers. These were left to their fate.
As a result, it was reported that the Jeddah sank off the coast of Yemen with great loss of life. The surprise was therefore great when the Jeddah was towed into the port of Aden on August 8, 1880 by a French steamer. Almost all of the pilgrims survived, with a total of 18 dead. the ship was scrapped. An investigative court revoked the captain's patent for three years.
This event prompted Joseph Conrad , who had come to Singapore in 1883, to write his novel Lord Jim . He named the fictional pilgrim ship in his novel Patna .