 |
|
Official Number
58119 |
|
|
|
Official Number
58119 |
| The schooner Bessie Arnold
was built by Ferguson at Chester in June 1872. She was registered at Whitehaven
and was owned by the Duddon Shipping Association (effectively the shipping
fleet of the Hodbarrow Mining Company) from her launch until her loss on
the 28th December 1908.
The Bessie Arnold left Millom bound for Glasgow on the 26th December 1908. Details of her wreck are given on a website dedicated to the lifeboats of the Mull of Kintyre (source 3). The Bessie Arnold, with what appeared to be three men aboard, had stranded in a severe gale at Sliddery, on the Isle of Arran. The James Stevens No.2, the sailing lifeboat based at Campbeltown, was launched under the command of Coxswain George McEachran. The lifeboat approached the wrecked vessel in very severe conditions, and her crew saw that the schooner's crew were still aboard. As the lifeboat drew near the Bessie Arnold, a large wave threw the lifeboat onto the schooner's deck. The lifeboat was badly holed, and began to fill rapidly after being washed back into the sea. Unfortunately the schooner's crew had been swept overboard to their deaths, and a lifeboatmen had also been cast into the sea. He was rescued after twenty minutes, the lifeboat then returning to her home station. |
|
CLICK TO ENLARGE |
Source 5 gives the names of five men lost with the vessel, namely the
master, Capt. John Jones (of 45 Market St., Millom), Walter Austin, Joseph
Eager, Michael McMillan (of Kilmory parish, cook) and Thomas Gowan (of
45 Sheriff St., Dublin). The same source states that the mate survived.
From The Times newspaper, Tuesday, 29th December, 1908, page 10 : " The schooner Bessie Arnold was totally wrecked yesterday at Sliddery, near Blackwaterfoot, Island of Arran. Four of the crew were drowned and one was saved by the rocket apparatus. The Campbeltown lifeboat went to the scene of the wreck, but owing to the position of the vessel, which lay 40 fathoms from the shore, the lifeboatmen were unable in the heavy sea to rescue the other members of the crew. Three men were seen clinging to each other, apparently benumbed. One large wave swept the lifeboat between the fore and mainmasts of the vessel. The bowman, Neil Mackenzie, was washed out of the lifeboat and two of the schooner's men were drowned. Mackenzie had a remarkable escape, being rescued in an exhausted state by his comrades, after he had been in the water twenty minutes. The rocket apparatus was by this time working, and rescued the only survivor of the schooner's crew. The lifeboat had a very rough passage across Kilbrannan Sound to Campbeltown. Her hull was damaged by contact with the schooner. "The original figurehead of the Bessie Arnold is now in the Free Church, Kilmory, Isle of Arran, and a replica has been created by Marvin Elliott and has been placed on the graves of the seamen lost in the wreck. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sources :
|
The original and replica of the figurehead
of Bessie Arnold, courtesy of Marvin Elliott CLICK TO ENLARGE
|
|
|
|
|
