On 21 November the Principia was outside of Sandoy, and at Søltuviks rocky shore the boat run aground and sunk. Of all the people on board only one man did survive. He was an passenger that miraculously did get on top of an loose hatch, and on that drifted for 18 hours before the hatch run ashore near Kirkjubøur where he was rescued by the villagers. That hatch can be seen at Roykstovan where it was made into an table.
The two anchors that are seen here today was salvaged from the wreck in 2001 by Faroes volunteer divers.
At the given coordinates there is an memorial stone. Replace the letters below with the numbers on the stone to get the final coordinates.
The Times, Tuesday, Dec 10, 1895
WRECK AND LOSS OF TWENTY-EIGHT LIVES
The Danish steamer Laura arrived at Granton yester-
day from the Faröe Islands with mails and passengers,
including a German seaman belonging to the steamship-
Principia, trading between Leith, Dundee, and New
York. The Principia sailed from Dundee on Novem-
ber 16 with a general cargo for New York, but when
she was about 120 miles out at sea a fire broke out in
the forehold. The outbreak, however, was kept under
control, and efforts were made to reach the west coast
of Scotland, but on the 21st ult. the vessel ran ashore
on the island of Sandö and sank within five minutes. The
crew of 28 hands and one passenger were lost, with the
exception of the German sailor above-mentioned, who
was rescued by the natives after he had been clinging to
a piece of wreckage for 18 hours. His name was
Heinrich Anders.
The Principia was an iron three-masted steamer, built
at Jarrow in 1881 by Palmer's Company, and had a
gross tonnage of 2,749. She was classed 100 A1 at
Lloyd's. She was commanded by Captain R. B. Stannard.
The Principia was one of the Arrow Line and
was owned by Messrs. Dent and Co., of Newcastle.
Captain Stannard lived in Newcastle, where he was
well known. He leaves a widow, but no family. Cap-
tain Stannard was in command of the steamer Crystal,
which a few years ago caught fire in mid Atlantic and
was safely navigated to port.
The news of the loss of the Principia created much
excitement in Dundee, as several of the crew belonged
to that port, while others were well-known there.
In addition to the crew of 28 Harry Jackson, a
draughtsman, of Dundee, was on board as a pas-
senger. He was on his way to Chicago to fill an
important post. The names of the crew who have been
drowned in addition to Mr. Jackson are as fol-
lows:- R. B. Stannard, master, Newcastle; J. S.
Goddard, chief officer, Leith; R. Edmiston, second
officer; John Falconer, third officer; D. M'Gregor,
carpenter; N. Nielsen, steward; W. Lee, mess-
room steward; the following A.B.'s:- H. Wessman,
N. Kenney, R. Kirkpatrick, M. Morrin, C. Troop,
A. Morrison, and P. Jamieson; S. M. Stuart,
first engineer, Banff; D. Shaw, second engineer,
Dundee; T. Penman, third engineer, Sunderland; J.
Will, fourth engineer, Dundee; T. Coates, donkeyman;
and the following firemen:- T. Noble, J. Murray, J.
Cruickshanks, W. Ogilvie, J. Arundel, G. C. Weir, and
J. M'Kenzie.
A letter from Faröe to a resident in Dundee dated
November 30 gives the following account of the disaster
to the Principia taken from the lips of the sole sur-
vivor:- "The fire broke out from the hatches in the
forehold, and was so fierce that it was impossible to
extinguish it. The watch, consisting of eight men, were
below at the time of the outbreak, and when they
rushed on deck they found themselves hemmed in by the
flames. Six of them at once jumped overboard, this
being their only means of escape, and two of these were
rescued by their comrades. The other four were
drowned, and the remaining two were supposed to have
been burnt. Two boats were lowered, but were both
lost, together with two of the crew, the weather being
very stormy and a heavy sea running. The rest of the
crew retired aft, and while some endeavoured to play
on the flames in order to check their advance others
worked hard in extracting the coal from the
afterhold and throwing it overboard. The vessel
was kept running before a southerly gale with-
out any one knowing whither she was going, as
nothing could be seen owing to the flames. .
. . The cause of the fire is unknown. There
is no lighthouse on the west side of the Faröe
Islands, where the Principia ran ashore. No one lives
there and the rocks are high and dangerous. Owing to
the weather being very bad, no boats were out on the
day following the occurrence, as otherwise more of the
sailors might have been rescued."