Historedia
AmericasEvent

SS City of Boston departs Halifax and is lost with all aboard

When
1870
Where
Halifax; North Atlantic Ocean; Cranstock, Cornwall
Episodes
3

The SS City of Boston, an Inman Line steamship, departed Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 28 January 1870 for Liverpool. Carrying 191 people, including prominent Halifax businessmen, the vessel disappeared in the North Atlantic. A message in a bottle later washed ashore in Cornwall, while contemporary opinions questioned the strength of its newly fitted propeller.

Episodes

  1. January 1870 · North Atlantic OceanDisappearance at Sea

    The vessel disappeared in the North Atlantic during the passage to Liverpool, with all aboard lost.

  2. 28 January 1870 · HalifaxDeparture from Halifax

    SS City of Boston departed Halifax for Liverpool on 28 January 1870 with 191 people aboard, including prominent local figures.

  3. November 1870 · Cranstock, CornwallMessage in Bottle

    A message in a bottle from the ship washed up in Cornwall in November 1870.

Background and detail

Background. Halifax, the capital and most populous municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, served as the departure point for the SS City of Boston. The ship was a British iron-hulled single-screw passenger steamship built in Glasgow and launched in 1864. It operated on the regular New York-Halifax-Liverpool route for the Inman Line, having previously rescued passengers from another sinking vessel in 1868.

Departure. The City of Boston sailed from Halifax on 28 January 1870, commanded by Captain Halcrow. The vessel carried 191 people, comprising 55 cabin passengers, 52 steerage passengers, and 84 crew members. Among the passengers were prominent businessmen and military officers from Halifax, though other sources suggest a higher total count of 207.

Disappearance. The ship disappeared in the North Atlantic Ocean en route to Liverpool. Captain Brooks of the SS City of Brooklyn had previously expressed concern that the City of Boston's new two-blade propeller, replacing a broken three-blade unit, might not be strong enough to handle adverse weather conditions during the voyage.

Sources

  1. SS City of Boston Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-08
  2. Halifax, Nova Scotia Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-21

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.