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Official Number
125907 |
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Official Number
125907 |
The small two-masted schooner Emily Barratt was ordered by the Hodbarrow Mining Company in 1910 from the Duddon Shipbuilding Company, and she was launched on Easter Monday (24th March)1913. It is believed that she was the last merchant schooner to be built in England. She was employed to carry iron ore for her owners, the Duddon Shipping Association. She was sold in 1922 to Welsh owners, and had a 60 hp Widden engine installed in 1937. During WW2 she was employed as an anchorage for a barrage balloon, and by the end of the war neglect and mis-use had led to her being declared a constructive total loss. She was however restored by 1948, with a new keel and sternpost, as a ketch.
In 1960 she was converted to a yacht and spent some time on display
in St Katherine's Dock, London. In 1982 she sank at her moorings and was
bought by George and Victoria Patterson, of St.Bees. Made seaworthy again,
the Emily Barratt was sailed from M.aldon to Maryport via the Caledonian
Canal. In 1988 she was purchased by the Furness Maritime Trust, towed to
Barrow and lifted out to begin an extensive refit. The cost proved to be
too much for the Trust, and in November 1999 staff from the Merseyside
Maritime Museum undertook to faithfully record the remaining hull before
she was finally broken up on site. Key elements such as her figurehead
and a sample of her timbers and fastenings have been saved by the museum.
The artefacts and Merseyside Maritime Museum drawings will eventually be
displayed at the Dock
Museum, Barrow-in-Furness.
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