Which of your ancestors have disappeared?

[jeanlit]

Marie C

Just to make your day - there was a snippet in the Lloyd's Weekly newspaper of 6 February 1887 to the effect that

"The shipwrecks reported last week were 52 (including 13 steamers) but only nine lives were lost.  British owned vessles numbered 24." 

I assume that is a world-wide figure !!

Jean

[aghadowey]

Jean- that bit about shipwrecks is very interesting. My Canadian great-grandfather was captain of the 'Arthur' that went down probably late July 1887. An American ship rescued him and crew (no lives lost) and brought them to New York where they had been heading, arriving around 2 August. He had nothing but the clothes he was wearing and after making sure the crew were taken care of went to stay with the family of several seamen that he knew. One week late he married the daughter of the family and for several years she, and the children that came along (including one born at sea) accompanied him.

[alllegs]

I have lost Jane Williams (nee Thomas), my great great grandmother

I have her birth in 1872 in Witton park Durham, she appears on the 1881 and the 1891 censuses, she married William Williams in Middlesbrough in November 1891 they had three daughters, Margaret (1893), Martha Jane (1894) and Rachel (1895).  She was also widowed in 1895.  I can't find Jane, Martha or Rachel on the 1901 census.  Margaret is with her aunt and uncle Matthew and Charlotte Steel).  Jane then died in Middlesbrough workhouse in 1902.

Therefore, Jane was obviously around in 1901, but where? Rachel and Martha should be somewhere too, I know Martha emigrated to the US and died in Florida in 1978 and Rachel married and had kids in Middlesbrough.

Any help in finding them would be amazing.

TIA
Legs
xxxxx

[jeanlit]

Hi Aghadowey

I am very interested in travel by ship in 19th century, fuelled by the showing of "Deadliest Catch" on television here last year.  Although it is about the current fishing fleet in the Baring (?spelling) Sea, it gives a good idea of the dangers of sea travel.

It must have been terrifying to leave the safety of land, not knowing when and even if, you would land on solid ground again.  Yet some people up and went all over the world.  I also have a relation who was a ship's captain and travelled between Liverpool and America, down to South America and also to Australia.

Have you tried to find any newspaper reports about the wreck of the "Arthur"?

Jean

[aghadowey]

Think there was a clipping in paper (New York Times) about ship (Morgan in name, I think) returning with crew of the Arthur in my great-grandmother's scrapbook which I haven't seen for over 30 years.

Gramps went to sea when he was 15 in 1875. I have the local newspaper article of an interview with him in 1930s and he tells of all his voyages and the countries visited. Most of my grandmother's family were sea captains, seamen, ship carpenters or connected with the sea in some way. Quite a few were lost at sea over the years but it never seemed to put anyone off going to sea.

[jeanlit]

How wonderful that you should have the report of an interview with him.  More amazing that with all the perils, he should have survived to live his "three score years and ten".

Here are copies of two clippings which you can add to your considerable records:

The Leeds Mercury, Monday, August 1, 1887:
SHIPPING CASUALTIES
Lloyd's agent at Rio de Janeiro, telegraphing yesterday, states that it is reported that the British barque Pembrokeshire, from London for Rio de Janeiro, has been totally wrecked near Albatross; crew saved.  The same company's New York agent telegraphs yesterday that the Arthur, from Ship Island to Canary Islands, has been abandoned; crew saved.
------------

The London Times, Thursday 11 August 1887:
DISASTER AT SEA
The Guion Mail steamer Arizona, from New York, arrived at Queenstown last night with intelligence of the rescue of the captain and crew, seven in number, of the British brig Arthur by the steamer Morgan City, from New Orleans, which landed them at New York on the 31st ult.  The Arthur was bound from Ship Island to Canary Island, and was dismasted, had her deckhouses carried away, and was nearly filled with water in a terrific gale on the 26th ult.  The crew were 16 hours without food when rescued.  The Arthur subsequently foundered.
-------------

[aghadowey]

Thank you so much for those two bits. I remembered the ship that rescued them had 'Morgan' in the name and Gramps' interview mentions the Morgan City. Here's the bit of the interview about the Arthur.
The brigantine Arthur was Captain Gardner's next command. Now a brigantine, for the benefit of those who do not know, is different from a barkentine in that it has two masts instead of three.
"Captain Barney McConnell, master of the Arthur, had died as she lay at anchor at Clinton, Conn.," went on Captain Gardner. "Her New York owners sent me there to take command. They had known me since I was a boy. The body was still on board and we buried it at Clinton."
It was a dismal start for the young captain but be was due for an even more dismal finish about two and a half years later.
Ship Wrecked  in Hurricane
"We were off Torugas, at the lower end of Florida, with a load of yellow pine, when the Arthur turned over in a hurricane, " he went on. "She was not old but she was a weak built thing. She didn't turn completely over but just enough so that we had to cling to the hull until we would cut the rigging away. When we did that, the Arthur gradually came back on bottom."
"But the Arthur was done for. I knew she would go to pieces that night so all hands set to work building a raft. We had it partly built when along came the steamer Morgan City and picked us off."
"The Arthur was bound for the Canary Islands," continued Captain Gardner. "The Morgan City brought  us to New York. It was the only time I ever failed to reach a port I set out for."
He arrived in New York with his night shirt, a pair of pants, oil coat and rubber boots. One week later, on Aug. 9, 1887m, he married Miss Annie Purdy a native of Nova Scotia whose parents had moved to New York. The captain met her in New Brunswick.
-The Log of Captain Gardner, The Greenwich Press, 23 Nov.1932

[jeanlit]

What a start to your family history to have such an interview! 

He certainly was a "young captain" even in those days, probably only about 25.

I do have another clipping but have been unable to send it, as it keeps telling me there is an error and then there is a file with the same name.   GRRR!  Any hints as to what I'm doing wrong?

[jeanlit]

Another go!