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Official Number
56950 |
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Official Number
56950 |
The R & MJ Charnley was the first three-masted schooner built at the Ashburner shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness. She took two years to build and was launched in a heavy storm on the 23rd May 1868. She was a heavily-built schooner which could carry 280 tons of cargo, and she was destined to spend her first decade in the Spanish ore trade. Capt. Robert Charnley, who would later command the William Ashburner, was her first master.
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From the Ulverston Mirror, 30th May, 1868 : " VESSEL LAUNCH AT BARROW - On Saturday last, a fine new three-masted schooner was launched from the slip in Mr. W. Ashburner's shipbuilding yard, Hindpool. She was a fine model of a vessel,and was much admired by all who saw her as she stood on the slip. She is calculated to carry 280 tons, and registered at 154 tons, A1 at Lloyd's for eight years. She measures in length ninety-seven eight-tenths feet, twenty-two five-tenths beam, and twelve feet deep. |
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She is intended for the coasting and foreign trade, and will be commanded by Captain Robert Charnley , of the Lord Muncaster. Her first voyage will be to the Bristol Channel, with iron ore, and her name is the R. and M. Charnley , called after the captain and his wife. In the afternoon, a large company of friends were entertained at Mr. J. Brockbank's the Bowling Green Inn, where a most sumptuous dinner, composed of everything in season, was provided in first-rate style by the worthy host and hostess. " |
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The R & M J Charnley was berthed at Newport (Monmouthshire)
on Census night in April 1881, and her crew were listed as follows:
| Robert Roskill | M | 39 | Hambleton, Lancashire | Master |
| James McCall | U | 26 | Fleetwood, Lancashire | Mate |
| James McCormick | U | 25 | Belfast, Ireland | AB |
| David C.Singleton | U | 22 | Fleetwood, Lancashire | AB |
| Joseph Jonson | M | 35 | Preston, Lancashire | AB |
| James Ashcroft | U | 16 | Fleetwood, Lancashire | Steward |
From the North-Eastern Daily Gazette 15th December 1887:
" TERRIBLE DISASTER OFF HULL - A SCHOONER SUNK - THREE LIVES LOST. At an early hour yesterday morning a collision occurred at the Spurn, off the coast near Hull, between the steamer Barden Tower, of Liverpool, and the schooner R & MJ Charnley, of Lancaster. The latter vessel was sunk and three of her hands lost. At the time of the collision, half-past four o'clock, the schooner is stated to have been crossing the bow of the steamer, and to have changed her course too late to have avoided the catastrophe which followed. The Barden Tower struck the schooner with such terrific force as to literally cut her in two and to cause her to sink immediately. The sunken vessel was laden with granite from Aberdeen. The master of the Barden Tower (Capt. Wilson) used every effort to save the crew after the collision. He cruised about the place for a considerable period and succeeded in rescuing a youth named James Thompson, of Glasgow, and the cook of the vessel, Henry Kennedy. The Barden Tower, which had on board a few tons of maize and ballast, was bound from New Orleans via Havre."
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