Adriatic (ship)

Adriatic may refer to one of several nships named after the Adriatic Sea:

• Adriatic (1810 ship) was built at Sunderland in 1810. She sailed to the West Indies and the Cape of Good Hope. There is no evidence that she sailed to India. She was wrecked at the Cape in 1822.
• Adriatic (1811 ship) was launched in 1811 in the United States. The British Royal Navy seized her in July 1812. She was sold in 1813 and her new owners named her Vittoria. She traded with the West Indies, the Mediterranean, and the Indian Ocean. She was last listed in 1834.

Painting showing SS Adriatic (left), America (foreground) and USS Niagara (right).

• SS Adriatic (Collins Line), operated by the Collins Line (trans-Atlantic packet) {established 1848 New York} commissioned 1857, and was among the first ships to be depicted on a postage stamp when used on a 12c value of the United States in 1869. The line began with four paddle wheel steamships, the Atlantic, the Arctic, the Baltic, and the Pacific. Each were 282 feet in length and 2,680 tons burthen. They were built by W.H. Brown of New York at a cost of $700,000 each. The last addition to the fleet was Adriatic in 1857, the finest and fastest vessel afloat at that time. She was built by Steers in New York and was 355 feet long, 50 feet broad, with a gross tonnage of 3,670 tons. Her machinery, which was constructed at the Novelty Iron Works of New York, consisted of two oscillating cylinders, each 100 inches diameter working up to 3,600 indicated horse-power, with a steam pressure of 20 pounds to the square inch. Her paddles were 40 feet in diameter and at 17 revolutions per minute gave her a speed of 13 knots on a daily consumption of 85 to 90 tons of coal. The company broke up after losses due to ship wrecks. In September, 1854, SS Arctic collided with the small steamer Vesta off the coast of Cape Race in a dense fog. She sank with a loss of 323 lives including the wife, the only son, and a daughter of Mr. Collins. The loss of SS Pacific two years later proved the death knell of the Collins Line. Adriatic was laid up after making a few fine voyages, and came to an end as a coal-hulk in West Africa.
• SS Adriatic (1871), operated by the White Star Line until 1898; scrapped soon after.
• SS Adriatic (1904), owned by Cockerline, Hull. Employed as a collier in Admiralty charter. Reported missing in October 1916 between Newport and Marseilles, presumed war loss.
• RMS Adriatic (1906) was an ocean liner of the White Star Line. She served as a troopship during World War I and after the war ended, she returned to passenger service. She was scrapped at Onomichi, Japan, in 1935.

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