1867. Late October. Most people considered hurricane season to be over. Only the falling barometer gave any sign it wasn’t so. The Royal Mail Packet Steamship, RMS Rhone was anchored at BVI’s Peter Island. She was a beauty. Two years old and one of the most technologically advanced ships of her time. She’d been built in Millwall Iron Works in London, a combination of steam and sail. Curving, handsome lines. Normally she’d have been in St. Thomas, except there’d been a break-out of yellow fever and the Rhone had sought alternative shelter. The hurricane struck her like a surprised fist. With her anchor down, her Captain, Robert Wooley rode her against the wind with engines at full speed. Then, at 11am, a lull came. Another ship close by, the Conway used this weather window, weighed anchor and headed for Road Harbour in Tortola. She never made it intact. The hurricane re-bounded and the Conway was driven onto the shore. The Rhone tried to do the same. A shackle on her anchor line caught and parted and she lost her anchor and 300 feet of chain. Disaster. Captain Wooley had no choice. He had to take her into open water to give her sea room. She was just rounding the channel when wind and waves blasted her onto Salt Island’s rocks.