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Useful | Official Number
76892 |
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Useful | Official Number
76892 |
The Barrow Times , Saturday, 29th March 1879, Page 5;
" SHIP LAUNCH AT BARROW - On Saturday last,
a finely built schooner was successfully launched from the shipbuilding yard of Mr.W.Ashburner. She is
99 tons register and is intended for the coasting trade. On leaving the stocks she received
the name 'Useful ' from the wife of the master and part owner Captain Robert Wright, late of the
Margaret Ann. The builders
are the managing owners."
The
Useful was a sister
ship to the Isabella, both being built
from the same plans. Capt. Robert
Wright was one of the many Barrow seamen born on the Ribbble estuary, but he had moved to live at Connah's Quay and the Useful
was effectively based at that port for all her life. Capt. Wright was closely
associated with the Ashburners, who had built the schooner at Barrow, and
he was later to participate in the design of the Result.
The Useful traded around the Irish Sea and
the west coast. She was a general-purpose trading vessel, and somewhat
comically the schooner had "Useful Barrow" displayed on her stern.
The Useful was at the port of Braddan, Isle of Man, on the night of the April 1881 census. There were four crew aboard, headed by Robert Wright, the master. His wife had accompanied him as a passenger.
The Useful was retained under the management of Thomas Ashburner and Co. until they disposed of their fleet by auction in 1909. She was bought for £610 by Capt.Gregory of Arklow, but she was fairly soon sold back to owners at Connah's Quay. Like most other schooners that survived into the 1930's she was fitted with an engine, a Widdop diesel. In January 1947, when owned by Capt.John Wynne of Connah's Quay, and with only him and his son aboard, the Useful was wrecked at Santon Head, Isle of Man. She was sailing from Mostyn to Belfast loaded with bricks and tiles, but at night and in thick fog and with a heavy sea running she struck broadside onto jagged rocks at the base of the cliff, the crew having failed to see the Langness and Chicken Rock lighthouses. The crew eventually had to scale the cliffs to save themselves, nearly dying of exposure before being found by a local farmer. The Useful was smashed to pieces against the rocks.
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Sources :