The steamship was driven ashore and wrecked at Overton, Glamorgan. Her crew were rescued by the Port Eynon Lifeboat or rocket apparatus. She was on a voyage from Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, to Alexandria, Egypt.[1]
21 January[]
List of shipwrecks: 21 January 1888
Ship
Country
Description
Switserland
Belgium
The steamer collided with the steamer La Gascogne (flag unknown) in the Atlantic Ocean off New York City, United States, and holed. She put into New York for repairs and later returned to service.[2]
February[]
Unknown date[]
List of shipwrecks: Unknown date February 1888
Ship
Country
Description
Eastminster
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The full-rigged ship disappeared with the loss of all on board after ignoring a pilot′s warnings and departing Maryborough, Queensland, Australia, bound for Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, on 17 February in deteriorating weather. She presumably sank in a tropical cyclone that struck the area soon afterward. Her wreckage was found on a coral reef in the Capricorn and Bunker Group in the Coral Sea approximately 100 nautical miles (185 km) east of Rockhampton, Queensland.
March[]
8 March[]
List of shipwrecks: 8 March 1888
Ship
Country
Description
Lanoma
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The barque was driven ashore and wrecked near Fleet, Dorset with the loss of twelve of her eighteen crew.[3]
Unknown date[]
List of shipwrecks: Unknown date March 1888
Ship
Country
Description
Levant
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The South Shields steamship, built of iron at Hartlepool, England, in 1865, disappeared with the loss of her entire crew of 15 after departing Penarth, Wales, bound for Oporto, Portugal, on 24 March with a cargo of coal. A Board of Trade report on her loss did not speculate on its cause, but she may have been overloaded.[4]
April[]
13 April[]
List of shipwrecks: 13 April 1888
Ship
Country
Description
Yorouba
France
The ship was on a voyage to Le Havre, France, when she hit a rock west of Guernsey in the Channel Islands in fog and sank 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) from shore and 7 nautical miles (13 km) from Les Hanois Lighthouse. All passengers and crew were saved.[5][6]
16 April[]
List of shipwrecks: 16 April 1888
Ship
Country
Description
Vena
Belgium
The steamer sank in the North Sea following a collision with another ship.[2]
The schooner-rigged screw steamer sank at her moorings, unmanned, at Port Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, and was abandoned.
May[]
8 May[]
List of shipwrecks: 8 May 1888
Ship
Country
Description
Henry Edmunds
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The brigantine was wrecked at Overton, Glamorgan. Her crew survived.[1]
17 May[]
List of shipwrecks: 17 May 1888
Ship
Country
Description
Jeune Hortense
France
The schooner was wrecked at Long Rock, Cornwall, England.[7] The Penzance lifeboat, having been brought by carriage to the beach near Marazion, rescued four of her crew.[8]
Otto
Flag unknown
The ship was stranded in Mount's Bay, Cornwall, England. She was salvaged and later was renamed Providence and operated out of Penzance.[9]
Nulli Secundus
German Empire
The brigantine was stranded in Mount's Bay, Cornwall, England. Under the name Tobaco, she previously had been stranded on the Eastern Green in Mount's Bay in 1865.[9]
June[]
30 June[]
List of shipwrecks: 30 June 1888
Ship
Country
Description
Alhambra
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The screw steamer collided with the derelict steamer John T. Berry (United States), which she was trying to salvage, and sank off Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. The steamer Tasmania (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) rescued her crew. The steamer Thetis (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) later sank John T. Berry as a danger to navigation.
July[]
17 July[]
List of shipwrecks: 17 July 1888
Ship
Country
Description
Beaver
United States
The steamer was wrecked on rocks at Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The partially stripped wreck sank in July 1892 when struck by the wake of the passing steamer Yosemite.
August[]
22 August[]
List of shipwrecks: 22 August 1888
Ship
Country
Description
City of Chester
United States
A painting of SS City of Chester (right) sinking after colliding with RMS Oceanic (left).
The passenger ship was in collision with RMS Oceanic (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) in San Francisco Bay and sank with the loss of sixteen lives. She was on a voyage from San Francisco to Eureka, California[10]
The ocean liner was sunk in a collision with the collier France (France) in the bay at Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, with the loss of 79 lives.
The frigate foundered in the Pacific Ocean 10 nautical miles (18.5 km) off an unspecified "Palmer Island," possibly an island west of Fiji. Her two survivors came ashore on the island, where one died in 1890 and the other finally was rescued by a German ship in 1893.
26 September[]
List of shipwrecks: 26 September 1888
Ship
Country
Description
Fleetwing
United States
The schooner was wrecked on a rocky beach in Lake Michigan off Liberty Grove, Wisconsin, during a gale and eventually sank.
November[]
21 November[]
List of shipwrecks: 21 November 1888
Ship
Country
Description
Atalanta
Russian Empire
The steamer ran aground in a storm at Ouddorp, South Holland, the Netherlands, with the loss of six lives.[11]
25 November[]
List of shipwrecks: 25 November 1888
Ship
Country
Description
Estrella de Chile
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The barque ran aground in the Solway Firth with the loss of one of her fifteen crew. Survivors were rescued by the Maryport Lifeboat.
Unknown date[]
List of shipwrecks: Unknwn date November 1888
Ship
Country
Description
Vaitarna
Flag unknown
The schooner-rigged passenger steamer disappeared in a storm in the Arabian Sea with the loss of all 746 people on board sometime after she was last sighted off Mangrol, India, on 8 November.
The passenger steamer broke her tow and ran aground in Yaquina Bay at Newport, Oregon. She was declared a total loss.
Unknown date[]
List of shipwrecks: Unknown date 1888
Ship
Country
Description
Anna Delius
Norway
The barque was abandoned in the North Atlantic. Crew rescued by Deutschland (German Empire) and later transferred to Pieter de Coninck (Belgium) which landed them at Boston, United States.[2]
Star of Greece
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The full-rigged ship was wrecked off Port Willunga, South Australia with the loss of seventeen lives.[12]