Yarmouth was long with a beam of. She had a draught of and a depth of. The vessel was powered by two triple expansionsteam engines of 170 NHP driving twin screw propellers. Steam was supplied by two boilers working at a pressure of 180psi. These gave her a speed of. She was rigged as a schooner.
Yarmouth was lost in circumstances that have never been fully explained. The ship left the Hook of Holland having taken on cargo both there and at Rotterdam. At Rotterdam of varied cargo had been loaded and at the Hook a further of meat was loaded and as the holds were already quite full, some of this cargo of cased meat was stowed on the forecastle and poop deck. Carrying a crew of 21 and one passenger the Yarmouth sailed from the Hook at 10:30 am on 27 October 1908 and was next observed at 4:30 pm the same day by the crew of the Outer Gabbard Lightship. The lightship crew observed that the Yarmouth was listing heavily to starboard, so severely in fact, that the master of the lightship made a specific comment to this effect in his log. At about 5:30 pm the lightship crew lost sight of the Yarmouth in misty rain, this was the last known sighting of the ship. Four hours later, the crew of a Norwegian ship, the en route from Honfleur, Manche, France to Hull, saw debris in the water and heard cries. The crew of the Fredheim searched for two hours but found no sign of the Yarmouth or its crew. The following morning, the ship was reported to be missing. It was initially thought that there had probably been a problem with her engines being the reason she had not arrived at Harwich. No distress signal having been received. A Royal Navycruiser, HMS Blake recovered a body wearing a lifebelt marked Yarmouth, and sighted wreckage not too far from the Outer Gabbard Lightship at, and east of Harwich. Another of the Great Eastern Railway's ships, the sailed from Harwich and recovered further debris and wreckage identified as being from the Yarmouth at a location north east ½ north of the Outer Gabbard Lightship. She returned to Harwich flying her flag at half-mast.
Court of inquiry
A Board of Trade inquiry into the loss of the Yarmouth was held at the Caxton Hall, Westminster, London in February and March 1909. The court reported its findings on 4 March 1909 and concluded that the loss of the Yarmouth be attributed to carrying deck cargo which caused the ship to list to starboard and eventually causing the ship to capsize before the crew could attempt to save themselves. As a result of the loss of the Yarmouth the Great Eastern Railway discontinued the practice of carrying deck cargoes on all its vessels.
