Happy Harry

Official Number
102462

The Happy Harry was a wooden three-masted schooner built by the Duddon Shipbuilding Company at Millom, for the Duddon Shipping Association, at a cost of £2560. She was launched on the 5th July 1894, and in her early years she operated in the Duddon iron ore trade under masters from Amlwch. She was sold to Job Tyrell of Arklow in March 1921, and was later owned by Roy Kearon of Arklow. She had a motor fitted in about 1933, and survived the war years to become one of the last trading schooners operating in British and Irish waters.

The Happy Harry met her end at Southport in 1950. On the 15th September she grounded at Taylor's Bank in the Mersey, and her crew, after firing flares, were rescued by the local lifeboat. The schooner floated on the tide and was reboarded and sailed to Southport. She anchored off the pier, but dragged and crashed into the pier, sustaining irreparable damage. Contractors demolished the hull, salvaged what they could, and then set fire to her on the 19th October 1950.
 
Name
Year Built
Gross Tons
Length (feet)
Breadth (feet)
Depth (feet)
Masts
Figurehead
Stern
Lloyd's Classn.
Happy Harry
 1894
142.2 
101.2 
23.0 
10.3 
 3
 
 
 

Sources :

  1. "Hugh Jones, Shipbuilder, Millom" by Trevor Morgan in Maritime Wales, (1983) pages 69-95.
  2. Mercantile Navy List 1899: Happy Harry, schooner, 115 tons, built at Duddon in 1894, official number 102462, registered at Whitehaven, managing owner Robert Johnson, of Steel Green, Millom.
  3. Happy Harry Sept.1950 webpage (includes photos of the wreck and of the vessel at her launch).