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The W. A. Scholten was built by Robert Napier & Sons, Glasgow in 1874. She
was launched for the Holland America Line on 16th February 1874.
There was accommodation for 50 first-class and 600 third-class passengers. Her maiden voyage started on 16th May 1874 when she left Rotterdam for Plymouth and New York. She continued this service until starting her last voyage when she sailed from Rotterdam on 18th November 1887. The following day she was sunk in a collision with the British ship Rosa Mary in the English Channel with the loss of 132 lives. There were 156 passengers on board, mostly Dutch and German emigrants and a crew of 54. On the night of November 19th, 1887, there was a thick haze, almost a fog, over the sea. The captain of another ship, the Rosa Mary thought that the fog was too thick to go on, so at 10:20pm he anchored and hoped that the mist would lift. Suddenly the lights of the Scholten loomed out of the fog and the liner crashed into the starboard bow of the Rosa Mary. The Rosa Mary was badly damaged but managed to stay afloat and at daybreak struggled into Dover Harbor. Though the W. A. Scholten was much bigger, she suffered more damage. A hole 8 feet wide had been torn in her port bow and she was making water rapidly. Twenty minutes after the collision she floundered, going down by the head with a heavy list to port which made it impossible to launch all her boats. Two of them got clear, however, and many passengers were provided with lifebelts so that it was possible for them to be rescued from the water by lines thrown overboard from the Sunderland steamship Ebro. A longshoreman named Ball also took his boat to the rescue and by these various means 78 persons were saved. The drowned numbered 132, including Captain Taat and the first officer. The collision occurred between 10:20pm and 10:30pm just as the haze was beginning to lift. References:
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