Arniston was an East Indiaman that made eight voyages for the British East India Company (EIC). She was wrecked on 30 May 1815 during a storm at Waenhuiskrans, near Cape Agulhas, South Africa, with the loss of 372 lives – only six on board survived. She had been chartered as a troopship and was underway from Ceylon to England on a journey to repatriate wounded soldiers from the Kandyan Wars.
Repulse, an East Indiaman from the same period and similar in size to Arniston
Coastline at Arniston. The seaside village of Waenhuiskrans, Western Cape has become so associated with the wreck that it is known as Arniston.
The Arniston memorial
East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vessels belonging to the Austrian, Danish, Dutch, English, French, Portuguese or Swedish companies.
The East Indiaman Repulse (1820) in the East India Dock Basin
A full-scale replica of the Dutch Indiaman Amsterdam
East Indiamen in a Gale, by Charles Brooking, c. 1759
East Indiaman Grosvenor by George Carter