Anne McLester

Official Number 56938

This small two-masted schooner was the only vessel built by John Rhodes, and she was launched at the Canal Head shipyard at Ulverston on Wednesday 21st November 1866. The Anne McLester was part of the Duddon fleet owned by William Postlethwaite, from 1871 until her loss in 1891.

Alan Lockett reports a story that the Anne McLester was nearly lost in the canal basin at Ulverston, when the Ulverston, one of two schooners loading gunpowder there, caught alight. Each of the schooners had 80 tons of powder aboard, and in the Ulverston this was stored in a hold separated from the fire by only a single bulkhead. Two crew members from the Anne McLester distinguished themselves by climbing aboard and extinguishing the fire before it spread to the hold.

The Anne McLester foundered in Luce Bay on the 11th December 1891.
 

Name	Year Built	Gross Tons	Length (feet)	Breadth (feet)	Depth (feet)	Masts	Figurehead	Stern	Lloyd's Classn.
Anne McLester	1866	90				2

Sources :

1. Research by Trevor Morgan
2. Launch reported in the Ulverston Mirror, 24th November 1866, page 5, column 2.
3. "Northwestern Ships and Seamen" by Alan Lockett ( ISBN 0 946133 00 X )