On 19 November 1878 the steamship Richmond left the port of Penarth, in South Wales, loaded with 1,233 tons of newly wrought ‘Ocean Steam Coal’, a hard semi-anthracite coal. She was bound to Malta, but severe weather in the Bay of Biscay meant closing and battening down the hatches, leaving her two holds without ventilation. 

The Government Inspector of Mines for South Wales said that coal from the collieries of the Ocean Steam Company was ‘fiery’ and prone to emitting gas for a few days after being worked, so that ships needed ventilation in the form of one or more tubes going through the deck and into each hold, rather than relying on hatches that had to be closed in heavy weather.

‘Without ventilation,’ he added, ‘the hold of a ship laden with coal is simply a great gas-holder, and the presence of a large body of highly inflammable gas, pent up in an air-tight space, exposes the lives of the persons on board and the ship to destruction.’ 

The Richmond’s four ventilating bollards were not functioning, and five days after sailing an explosion in one hold caused so much damage and injuries that the vessel was abandoned off Cape Finisterre.

The Wreck Inquiry believed that the explosion was set off by the steward entering the lazarette with a lighted candle. [760]