Emily Barratt

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 Maldon 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 made a record of 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 were saved by the museum. The artefacts and Merseyside Maritime Museum drawings will eventually be displayed at the Dock Museum, Barrow-in-Furness.
 
Name
Year Built
Gross Tons
Length (feet)
Breadth (feet)
Depth (feet)
Masts
Figurehead
Stern
Lloyd's Classn.
 Emily Barratt
1913
 71.4
76.8 
20.0 
8.3 
2 
 
 
 

Sources :

  1. Trevor Morgan, "The Cumberland Connection: Hugh Jones, Shipbuilder, Millom" Maritime Wales (1983) pp69-95.
  2. Mercantile Navy List 1914: Emily Barratt, schooner, 59 tons, built at Millom in 1913, official number 125907, registered at Barrow, managing owner Solomon.P.Wilsom, of Hodbarrow.
  3. "Maryport Harbour - the Ships", a booklet produced in Workington sometime in the 1980's, detailing a number of tugs and yachts being restored in Cumberland.
  4. Mercantile Navy List 1938: Emily Barratt, schooner, 73 grt, 49 nrt, 60 hp engine, built at Millom in 1913, official number 125907, signal letters MJFD, registered at Barnstaple, managing owner Mrs.Edith Welch, of Braunton, Devon.