Coordinates

[Barmaid]

Dont know if this is the right section, but I am trying to pinpoint where in the world some coordinates are.

An relative was "lost overboard" in 1901 from a ship called the Hackney.

The coordinates were

Lat 31 degrees 59 degrees *
Long 16 degrees 3 degrees E

Where I have put * I feel sure it should say "N" but it looks like an "R".

Ta ever so for anyone can help with where Willy swam with the fishes.

[Captain2]

Barmaid, shoudn't they read
Lat 31 degrees 59 minutes *
Long 16 degrees 3 minutes E

[bhg481]

31 deg 59 min N, 16 deg 3 min E in is the Mediterranean off Lybia. Have a look on Google Earth

[Fitzer]

Barmaid, they should be degrees and minutes not degrees and degrees, the first could be either south or north but if it looks like an R then could be either!

[bhg481]

If it's south not north it's off the west coast of South Africa.

[Prudie]

Yes if you assume it's N you can put into Google maps and it does appear to be off the coast of Libya
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/31%C2%B059'00.0%22N+16%C2%B003'00.0%22E/@32.4152162,12.0991707,6z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0?hl=en

[Buenchico]

I assume that the second 'degrees', in each case, means 'minutes'.

Converting those to decimals gives 31.983 N, 16.050 E

If you enter the latitude as '31.983', and the longitude as '16.050' here (as it assumes 'north' and 'east' unless you use negative figures) brings up your map but, since it's in the sea, you'll need to zoom out several times to find out where it actually is:
http://www.mapsofworld.com/lat_long/

It seems to be off the coast of Libya.

[ABerrant]

Can you narrow down the date?

If the tragedy occurred around mid-July or mid-September it is more likely to be a southern latitude since the SS Hackney (out of Cardiff) was plying a route from Norfolk, Virginia to East London, South Africa (July) and East London to St. Vincent, Windward Islands (Sep).

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/31%C2%B059'00.0%22S+16%C2%B003'00.0%22E/@-33.3651025,18.805664,5z

[Buenchico]

'Hackney' was quite a large ship for her day, at 4090 tons (gross) and a length of 375 feet. She was built in Jarrow in 1889 as the "Emir" but re-registered as the "Hackney" by her then owner (John P Eeles) in Cardiff in 1901.

There are no similarly-named vessels recorded in the Mercantile Registers of either 1899 or 1904, so it seems that ABerrant has found the right ship.

[Barmaid]

Oooh, you clever lot. Thank you.

I had no idea how to read coordinates and the copy I was looking at was a bit blurred so I guess I got confused.

Tragedy occurred on 17 September 1901.

Poor Uncle Willy. I only found out he existed yesterday and then he was killed off. Strangely, his father had died in a drowning accident 15 years earlier. It was always rumoured that his eldest son had died with him - but despite extensive research and reading of all the reports of the accident I never did find any mention of a son. Now I know.