Guttenburg

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This article is about the sea vessel Guttenburg; for other uses of the word Guttenburg, see Guttenberg (disambiguation). For the inventor, see Johannes Gutenberg.

The Guttenburg, a German brig of 170 tons met with hurricane force wind in thick fog and snow of the Goodwin sands, Ramsgate, which drove the brig onto the "south sand head" where it capsized during the storm.

The Guttenburg had been carrying 14 survivors from the Canton, which she had found dis-masted and waterlogged of the coast of Newfoundland. The survivors of the Canton wreck were rescued and later delivered safely into the hands of the Walmer lugger Cosmopolite in a chance meeting off Dover.

After which the Guttenburg then continued only to become trapped upon the Goodwin Sands: Distress signals had been fired but were not seen by the harbour authorities, because of the appalling weather.

Without the diligence of a few men on the beach at Deal, whom had spotted the signals, a rescue may not even have been attempted at all. It was the Deal boatman Stephen Pritchard who had the foresight to telegram Ramsgate Harbour and ask for the lifeboat there to be launched.

Thus the lifeboat Northumberland, pulled by the Ramsgate steam tugboat Aid began to make a rescue attempt, but the boatmen and harbour tug men were prevented from leaving the harbour by the harbour master, because he had not received the distress call by the proper means, and regulations had not been observed.

This delay resulted in the loss of life, to the waves, of 23 male passengers and crew who to this day go unnamed, and six female passengers were also lost. The harbourmaster was later charged with neglect, but retained his post. It is known that the Deal pilot Henry Pearson was aboard, and drowned in the sea.

James Hogben had been master of the Northumberland since 1852, a mariner all his life, but events in Ramsgate Harbour had been all too much that night, the harbourmaster's reluctance had led James to throw up his hands with incredulity, and he never went to sea again. Given the fact that he had already been out in the Northumberland earlier that same day under similar conditions then prevalent, and that he was actually quite ill and needed rest his retirement was perhaps quite understandable.

Isaac Jarman was duly chosen to occupy the retired coxswain’s position, and held the position of Ramsgate Cox’n. for ten years, to be followed in 1871 by Charles Fish.