Sea Park was a sailing ship of 835 Net register tons, built by James Laing & Co at Deptford Yard near South Shields, England, in 1845.

[10][11] Sea Park was purchased by Hargrove, Fergusson & Co., of Liverpool in 1863 and, following repairs in a graving dock, set off on what was to be its final voyage, transporting coal from Cardiff to Chile.

The ship started taking in water soon after leaving Cardiff and had to put into Falmouth, where it was beached for repairs to the hull.

Sea Park then continued its journey without major incident until it reached the South Atlantic, where the master became concerned about the rate at which water was seeping into the hull and decided to divert to Brazil.

After considering evidence from numerous expert witnesses over two days, the jury rejected this argument and decided that the Sea Park had been seaworthy when it left England.