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."

Schooner Useful at Ellesmere Port, 1937, courtesy of Keith Lewis 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.


Name
Year Built
Gross Tons
Length (feet)
Breadth (feet)
Depth (feet)
Masts
Figurehead
Stern
Lloyd's Classn.
Useful
 1879
99 
89.3
21.3 
9.1 
 2
Scroll 
Round 
10 years A1, Special Survey

Sources :

  1. Census info provided by Shirley Gaunt.
  2. "The Ashburner Schooners" by Tim Latham (1991), ISBN 0-9516792-0-1.
  3. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1880-1: Useful, schooner, 99 grt, 88 nrt, built at Barrow by Ashburner in March 1879, official no.76892, owned by T.Ashburner, registered at Barrow, master Capt.R.Wright.,