Preussen was rammed by an English channel packet . .
. . (almost certainly deliberately) breaking enough rigging to make it difficult to handle and it was driven onto a sand bar. It was carrying a load of pianos for South America at the time.
The ship was so large and heavy tug boats sufficient to pull it free were unavailable. I do not know if the pianos were salvaged.
I have one book which includes a story by a young sailor who later became a writer. He was on a ship that normally traded from England to Africa, but cargos were scarce so they took a cargo to Argentina.
On the way back they had a week of absolutely perfect wind, the most the ship could stand up to. A white object was spotted on the horizon behind them which at first they though was the Sydney mail steamer, the only thing they knew that could be coming on that fast. 2 hours later it had disappeared over the horizon in front of them.
As the ship passed, the crew, completely unaware of this class of ship, just stood by the rail in stunned silence. It was like a ghost ship with only one person seen on deck, and looked like it was out for a Sunday sail on the sound - obviously not strained to the limit as their ship was.
Their ship was carrying 800 tons at about 5-1/2 knots. Preussen was carrying 8000 tons at about 15 knots.
