Burns & Bessie

Official Number 62709

The schooner Burns & Bessie was built by William & Richard Charnley at Canal Head, Ulverston in  1870. She was launched broadside into the water. She was intended for the coasting trade, had a framework of English oak and was calculated to sail without ballast, according to the newspaper report of her launch. Her first commander was Capt. William Butcher.

A vessel listed as the Burns And Basse was berthed at Milford Haven on Census night in April 1881, and her crew were listed as follows:
 

The Burns & Bessie was originally owned by Casson & Co. of Ulverston (see source 3), but later became the first vessel to be managed by the Duddon Shipping Association, who operated a fleet to carry the iron ore exports of the Hodbarrow Mining Company. They owned her until her loss on the 11th March 1888. She had been commanded by Capt. Thomas Evans of Flint, who later took command of the Florence Petherick.

The Burns & Bessie was lost off the Point of Air, Isle of Man, on the 11th March 1888, whilst on passage from Port Glasgow to Millom with a coal cargo. Her master was Capt. Peter MacPherson and there were three other crew aboard.

From the Cumberland Pacquet and Ware's Whitehaven Advertiser, Thursday 22nd March 1888, page 5 :

" THE WRECK OF A HODBARROW BOAT

The Burns & Bessie, which was lost off the Point of Ayre on the 11th inst., sailed from Port Glasgow the previous day. The cargo consisted of about 95 tons of coal slack. She was proceeding under canvas at an average speed of seven knots an hour. At 10.15 a.m. the Point of Ayre was sighted on the lee bow. When about three miles distant from the Point, the ship gave a sudden lurch and shifted her cargo to starboard, pressing her lee deck entirely under water. The crew took the mainsail in at once, and put the helm hard up to right the ship; but there being so great a body of water on deck, she became unmanageable, and drove ashore below the lighthouse. Fortunately it was high water at the time, otherwise there is every probability that the crew would have been lost. Captain M'Pherson, not being provided with a barometer, had no warning of the storm until it was upon him. He lost about £10 worth of goods in the shipwrecked vessel. Captain Morgan, of the Hodbarrow Mining Company, had the wreck sold by auction last week. Mr.M'Pherson has been exonerated of any blame.

Captain Evans, who commanded the Burns & Bessie for some years, will not bear the entire loss of the goods in the wrecked vessel, as he was a member of the Shipwrecked Mariners Society, and will receive some compensation."

This newspaper report understates the hazard to the crew, and ignores the bravery of their rescuers. The schooner had wrecked at high water below the Point of Ayre lighthouse, but because the wheelhouse and boat had been swept away by the storm, the crew had no place of shelter or means of rescuing themselves. The three seamen lashed themselves to the bowsprit, and Capt.McPhearson took to the rigging. The lighthouse keepers (Mr.& Mrs.Wm Wallace, Thomas A.Christian and Miss Ellen Blyth) had seen the wreck, and carried ropes to the shore. With the two women anchoring the ropes, the men entered the water and rescued, one by one, the seamen from the bowsprit, and finally dragged ashore Capt.McPhearson, who had jumped into the sea. All the lighthouse keepers were subsequently awarded RNLI silver medals.

Name	Year Built	Gross Tons	Length (feet)	Breadth (feet)	Depth (feet)	Masts	Figurehead	Stern	Lloyd's Classn.
Burns & Bessie	1870	96	79.6	19.8	9.6	2			8A1

Sources :

1. Launch reported in the Barrow Times, 5th March 1870.
2. Research by Trevor Morgan
3. Lloyds Register of Shipping 1870-1 (names the master as W.Butcher)
4. 1881 Census details from Bob Sanders, Ships in Port 1881 website
5. Wreck info from "Shipwreck Index of the British Isles" Vol. 5 by Richard & Bridget Larn, pub. Lloyds Register, 2000, ISBN 1 900839 61 X. Names the owner as Nathaniel Caine of Broughton-in-Furness, who was a director of the Hodbarrow Mining Company.
6. Wreck also reported in the Isle of Man Times, Saturday, 17th March, 1888, page 5 - states that Capt.McPhearson was a Duddon pilot, and had taken the place of the schooner's normal master, who was indisposed. Award of RNLI silver medals reported in the same newspaper, 14th April, 1888, page 4.