About: SS Florinda

SS Florinda was a 57-foot (17 m) double-masted schooner constructed on the Tangipahoa River to the north of New Orleans in 1845 and engaged in the lake trade on the Northern Gulf Coast. Under the command of owner Harmon Jones and Captain James Kenmure, she sailed on July 6, 1849 from New Orleans for the California Gold Rush and was feared lost at sea with all hands while sailing around Cape Horn. Twenty-six years later, reports of the crew living as castaways on an uncharted island in the Straits of Magellan mysteriously surfaced.