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Official Number
65049 |
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Official Number
65049 |
The Margaret Banister was built by William Ashburner & Son at their Hindpool shipyard in Barrow. She was a two-masted schooner, built in 1871 and first registered on the 7th September. She was initially managed by J.Bell & Co. of Ulverston, but from 1878 entered the Barrow fleet of Thomas Ashburner & Co.
The Margaret Banister was first commanded by Capt. Thomas Banister, of Tarleton. Capt. Banister operated the schooner in the coastal trade until August 1878, when he took command of another Ashburner schooner at her launch, the Isabella. Capt. George made one voyage in the vessel, from Barrow to Saltney, before relinquishing charge to another Tarleton seaman, Capt. Robert Latham. Capt. Latham had been in command of the Mary Ashburner for the preceding months, and was later to command the Isabella and James Postlethwaite. Capt. Latham's account books for the voyages of the Margaret Banister in the next four years have been transcribed for the Merseyside Maritime Museum. They show that the schooner operated almost exclusively in the Irish Sea and on the West coast of Scotland, and that iron ore, steel and pig iron made up the majority of her cargoes. In April 1882 Capt. Latham left the schooner to again follow Capt. Banister, this time as the new master of the Isabella.
The Margaret Banister was wrecked at Lenadoon Point, Co. Sligo
on the 1st October 1894. A dramatic series of telegrams, ten over the next
five days, appeared in Lloyd's List and described the circumstances of
the wreck and the extensive efforts made to salvage the cargo. The schooner
had loaded seventy tons of oats at Ballina, and was bound for the Bristol
Channel. She went ashore at Pullaheeny, Easky Bay, and was reported to
be lying in a dangerous condition. The following day a tug was despatched
to salvage the cargo, and on the first day managed to extract fifty tons
of oats in good condition. Working through the night, and with the water
in the hold rising from two to six feet, the men managed to recover a further
five tons in good condition and ten tons damaged. By this time the schooner's
keel had gone, but the tug ferried her cargo back to Ballina and returned
for the remaining fifteen tons. This too they managed to recover, but the
vessel was by now badly damaged. It would have been another four days before
the tide would have been high enough to refloat the vessel, but in the
meantime the weather broke and the Margaret Banister became a total
wreck.
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