SS Java (1865)

For other ships with the same name, see SS Zeeland.

SS Java
History
Name	1865: SS Java 1878: SS Zeeland 1889: Electrique 1892: Lord Spencer
Namesake	1865: Java 1878: Zealand 1889: Electricity 1892: John Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer
Operator	1865: Cunard Line 1878: Red Star Line 1889: French owners 1892: British owners
Port of registry	1865: United Kingdom 1889: France 1892: United Kingdom
Route	1865: Liverpool–Queenstown–New York 1878: Antwerp–New York
Builder	J & G Thomson Glasgow, Scotland
Launched	24 June 1865
Maiden voyage	Liverpool-Queenstown–New York, 21 October 1865
Fate	Missing on way San Francisco-New York, 1895
General characteristics
Tonnage	2,696 GRT
Length	337.1 ft (102.7 m)
Beam	42.9 ft (13.1 m)

SS Java was a British and French ocean liner built in 1865 at Glasgow by J. G. Thompson & Co. It served for the Cunard Line. One passenger, the musician Philo Adams Otis, noted:

There were only four good ships of the Cunard Company in the Liverpool service in 1873: Russia, Scotia, Cuba, and Java. The two former were side-wheelers and were largely advertised as "carrying no steerage passengers". Among old travellers the two latter ships were respectively called the "rolling Cuba" and the "jumping Java," from certain peculiarities manifested by these ships in heavy weather, not especially conducive to the comfort of the passengers.

In 1877, the ship was re-engined with compound engines by Fawcett, Preston & Co., Liverpool, and chartered to Warren Line, until it had been sold to Red Star Line one year later and renamed to SS Zeeland.

In 1889, it was sold to a French company and renamed the Electrique. In 1892 it was sold again to J. Herron & Co of Liverpool and again renamed the Lord Spencer. During an 1895 voyage from San Francisco to New York it went missing. One account claimed it collided with the Prince Oscar on 13 July and sunk shortly thereafter.