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Passenger and cargo liner, west coast of South America
'Santiago' (II) was the third of a class of four ships, namely 'Pacific', 'Limera', 'Santiago' (II) and 'Panama' (II), built between 1865 and 1866 by Randolph, Elder and Company of Glasgow. They were meant for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company's west coast of South America routes. In size and design, these vessels were a significant advance over their predecessors on these services, such as the 'Peru' of 1840. They also clearly foreshadowed their successors such as the 'Colombia' of 1899.
In 1868 however all of these ships were temporarily placed on the Valparaiso-Liverpool route. They carried cargoes of copper and zinc for discharge at Liverpool's Bramley-Moore Dock. They thus became the only compound-engined paddle steamers to be used on a transatlantic service. 'Santiago' made just one such voyage, which ended in tragedy. Inward bound for Valparaiso, on 23 January 1869, she struck an uncharted rock in the Straits of Magellan. She sank with the loss of two lives and a fortune in bullion.
