The Windsor Castle was a wooden-hulled, three-masted sailing vessel constructed in England in 1857 by William Pile at his North Shore shipyard in Sunderland. Launched on 12 March 1857 and completed by May of that year, the ship was built for Richard Green, who registered her in London. Her official number was 15822, and her code letters were LTVQ, indicating her registration and identification within the United Kingdom maritime system. Designed as a merchant sailing ship, Windsor Castle primarily operated on routes between England and Australia. Records from the Queensland Migrant Shipping indicate that she carried passengers during the period from 1877 to 1881, highlighting her role in migrant transportation. In 1876, her master was Captain N Harrison, and the vessel's service included voyages that supported colonial migration and trade. The vessel underwent extensive overhaul in July 1882, which likely improved her seaworthiness and capacity. Following this refit, the government sometimes chartered her to transport troops to locations such as Zanzibar and Sydney, underscoring her utility and adaptability during her later years. In 1882, ownership changed when Elias Cox of Bridport, Dorset, purchased Windsor Castle. While Lloyd's Register maintained her registration in London, the Mercantile Navy List indicates she was re-registered in Bridport, reflecting a change in ownership or registry. Her service ended in 1884 under tragic circumstances. While sailing from Cochin to London, she encountered a cyclone on 27–28 June that washed her third officer overboard and swept away her rudder. The ship drifted helplessly for 12 days until her remaining crew of 21 men set her on fire and abandoned her approximately 35 nautical miles off the coast of Algoa Bay, Cape Colony. The Norwegian barque Ophir rescued the crew, bringing an end to her maritime career. Windsor Castle's history exemplifies the typical life cycle of mid-19th-century merchant sailing ships, serving in migration, trade, and troop transport before succumbing to the perils of the sea.

This description has been generated using GPT-4.1-NANO based on the Vessel's wikidata information and then modified by ShipIndex.org staff.