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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: kicksfour on Thursday 04 November 10 18:26 GMT (UK)
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Hi, I'm searching for a crew list which would be the missing link in a great story. It's regarding "Tragedy of the Kitty" - a shipwreck in 1859 near the Hudson Bay, Canada. The Kitty was a Barque with 15 crew (one of which was my wifes 4x grt grandad William Scott) only one person survived and returned home (William Armstrong) we think he was Irish, we also know the Captain was Alexander Ellis. We know William Scott was involved in wreck as its stated on his sons orphanage record. What we would love is the actual crew list, I've searched high and low on the net to no avail. Lots of news clippings about the incident are available online. The story is very interesting as it seems more than half the crew were murdered by eskimos for they're blankets (again stated on orphan record & clippings. What we would love is the actual record of the whole crew. Does anybody have any ideas? Tried things like CLIP & Nat Arch but nothing! I even have the ships number 1127. Any shove in certain directions would be of great help! We think its also a very interesting story worth reading about!
Many Thanks, Iain
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Also, any info on Alexander Ellis too, he seems hard to track down. I think William Armstrong was born c1823 in Ireland, he turns up on census living in northumberland (my best guess!)
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Have you seen "Life Among the Esquimaux" by Capt. Charles Francis Hall on Google books? The account of the Kitty is probably the same as you already have but the book, being contemporary with the incident, looks like a fascinating read.
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Have you tried Lloyds of London? There was a bark/que called "Kitty" registered with them in 1850 (Google Books again) so there might be some info on the crew in their archives especially if an insurance claim was made.
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Thanks for the reference, not seen this version. Found it interesting that Capt Ellis' wife wrote first.
Much appreciated
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You're very welcome, and I hope that you do find a crew list as it round the story out. It's so sad that those poor men are anonymous at the moment. By the way, welcome to RootsChat :)
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Many thanks for the welcome, its been goal of mine for a while to name all the crew!
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Hi Iain,
There are various websites that locate crew lists; a search for 1127 KITTY confirm the ship existence and that it was registered in Newcastle, but none know of where the crew list would be located.
See the following:
http://www.mun.ca/mha/holdings/viewcombinedcrews.php?Official_No=1127
http://www.crewlist.org.uk/data/vesselsnumview.php?OfficialNumber=1127
Good luck with your search.
Amy
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have you tried the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich ?
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Thanks Amy, not much seems to exist eh!
Thananks for the interest, I'll keep searching!
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Would love to, once I have time! Trying all online avenues first
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I'm not sure if you have this?
http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=7_ozAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RyMIAAAAIBAJ&pg=6739,2755565&dq=kitty&hl=en
it says that two boats were set out from the Kitty:
a long boat with master Alex. Ellis plus 10 men
a skiff with Mr Armstrong plus 4 men
Armstrong did not know the name of the men in the long boat apart from Alexander Ellis but named the men in the skiff as:
Benjamin Groom (a Dane)
Martin Monson (a Norwegian)
George Stewart of Greenock, Scotland
Jacob Markham of Hamburgh
It seems odd to me that the chief mate (Armstrong) did not know the names of more of the men!
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the National Maritime Museum has records online
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http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=mqI0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=OTsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3831,5876550&dq=barque+kitty&hl=en
spelling of the names vary a bit. This one has
Benjamin Groom, Martin Munson, George Stuart, and Jacob Markman
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Fantastic find Gardener!
And you've introduced me to Google news! Lots of trawling through to do there! Getting closer to the whole crew being named.
Thanks for your help.
Did you search the Yarmouth news or find it through a general search?
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Glad it helps you!
I just searched for "Kitty" and then looked at 1859/60
Sometimes interesting things turn up in unexpected papers. For example I once looked for a Staffordshire-related topic and found it reported in a New Zealand paper.
And often things turn up much later than you would expect. In the summer I spent a few hours trawling through micro film looking for a report of a death in Trinidad. I found it just as I was giving up, it had taken the local paper weeks to report on the event!
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Coming to this very late, but if it's still of interest I have information on the captain Alexander Ellis. He was the youngest of three brothers who were all master mariners - I'm descended from his brother Robert (1816-95).
They were born in North Leith; their parents were Robert Ellis, a plasterer, and Chirsty Mackenzie, daughter of Donald Mackenzie (d 1801) who farmed at Morangie - now the site of the whisky distillery of Glenmorangie.
Andrew (b 1 Mar 1815) and Alexander (b 2 Feb 1823 (not 1824 as it says on his Master's Cert.)) are both in ..
1858 - Directory for Nort'd North Shields lists
Ellis Andrew, master mariner, 27 Nile Street
Ellis Alexander, master mariner, 87 Norfolk Street
but I haven't found any later trace of Andrew, so perhaps he died soon after or emigrated ??
I haven't found a marriage for him either; I have some details of Robert and Alexander's families.