A pair of brass signal guns from the worst passenger ship disaster in the Isles of Scilly, when (by the official figures) 335 lives were lost on 7 May 1875.

The SS ‘Schiller’ of Hamburg was returning from New York and was due to land 22 of her passengers at Plymouth. Approaching the islands in dense fog, Captain Thomas reduced speed and enlisted some of the male passengers as additional lookouts. Shortly before 10 p.m., however, the ship struck the Retarrier Ledge; she managed to pull herself off but then, following three huge waves, struck again broadside on. Only one shot from her signal guns was heard on the Islands and this was thought to be no more than a vessel notifying her arrival off Scilly.

The horrifying fate of the passengers and crew – women and children washed overboard in the darkness, lifeboats smashed to pieces in the heavy seas – is told in Richard Larn’s ‘Cornish Shipwrecks; The Isles of Scilly’ (1971). Only two of the eight lifeboats got clear and when rescue arrived the next morning it was found that very few people had survived the night. The two lifeboats landed on Tresco with 26 of the 37 still alive from the crew of 118 and 254 passengers.

Most of the 250 bags of Australian and New Zealand mails were washed up on Samson or, with other cargo, came ashore around the Cornish coast for weeks after. But the ‘Schiller’ also carried quantities of gold and other valuables and as the weather eased divers went down to search the wreck. A year later they had recovered £57,000 of the £60,000-worth of $20 gold coins which she carried, as well as some cargo and passengers’ valuables. The bodies landed on St Mary’s had to be buried, this proving no small problem since mass graves had to be dug and blasted out of the rock. The ‘Schiller’s’ bridge was salvaged and built into Tresco Abbey, as a link between the house and conservatory.

‘Schiller’ details at time of wreck. Iron passenger screw steamer of 3421 tons, registered in Hamburg. Built by Napiers of Glasgow for Alexander Stephens, 1873. Dimensions (in feet and tenths): 380.5 x 40.1 x 24.4. Owner: German Transatlantic Steam Navigation Co. Registered voyage: New York, Plymouth, Hamburg. Cargo: passengers, specie, general cargo. Master at loss: Thomas. Wrecked: 7 May 1875.