The Governor General Loudon was a mail steamer and excursion vessel operated by the Netherlands Indies Steamship Company[1] The vessel was built by Caird & Co., Greenock, Scotland, in 1875 and, after surviving the tidal waves caused by the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, was lost off the Tengga Batoe reef south of Saleier in 1898.[2]
In 1883, while captained by Johan Lindemann, the ship was present at the eruption of Krakatoa and survived the subsequent tsunami when the captain steered the ship head on into the wave.[3] After the wave passed, pyroclastic airfall was the ships biggest enemy. A depth of 1 foot of ash could have made the ship capsize, but the people onboard survived because the crew kept the decks clear while the captain moved the passengers into the ships hold to maintain stability.