Bywell Castle was a passenger and cargo ship that was built in 1869 by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow, County Durham.

[1] Bywell Castle was built as yard number 250 by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow, County Durham for Hall Brothers, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland.

[6][7] On 2 February, she rescued seventeen crew from the British full-rigged ship Satellite, which foundered in the Atlantic Ocean 120 nautical miles (220 km) south west of the Isles of Scilly.

[12] On 3 September 1878, Bywell Castle collided with the paddle steamer Princess Alice in the River Thames at Becton, Middlesex.

[13] On 24 May 1881, Bywell Castle discovered the passenger ship California in distress in the Atlantic Ocean, her engines having broken down.

[14] In February 1883, Bywell Castle was reported missing whilst on a voyage from Alexandria, Egypt to Hull, Yorkshire with a cargo of beans and cotton seed.

It was feared that she may have foundered in the Bay of Biscay on 2 February, although a steamship answering her description was wrecked on the Haisborough Sands, in the North Sea off the coast of Norfolk with the loss of all hands later that month.