Doctor

Official Number 47798

The Doctor was a brig launched on the 24th May 1864, the fourth of eight vessels built for the Barrow fleet of James Fisher & Sons by the Wray shipyard at Burton Stather in Lincolnshire.

On the 20th September 1869 the Doctor was reported to have been dismasted in the Atlantic (45N, 25W), with the loss of her master and three seamen, on a voyage from Philadelphia. The Lancaster newspaper described her as one of the best vessels of the port of Barrow, and that she had made some extraordinarily fast passages.

At the time of the 1881 Census (1st April) the Doctor was berthed at Barrow and had six crew aboard. The master was Capt.James Poole, of Ulverston.

The Doctor was sold by Fishers in 1890, and was described at the time as a three-masted schooner. She was owned by J.Watts of Watchett, Somerset, when she was wrecked in what became known as the Storm of 1894. She had been anchored at Carrickfergus to load pitch, but was driven across Belfast Lough and struck on the Groomsport side of Ballymacormick Point on the 22nd December 1894. Two of the three crew were lost.

Name	Year Built	Gross Tons	Length (feet)	Breadth (feet)	Depth (feet)	Masts	Figurehead	Stern	Lloyd's Classn.
Doctor	1864	164	103.0	22.5	12.9	2			A1, 8 years.

Sources :

1. Clayton's Register of Shipping 1865: Doctor, brig, 163 tons, built 1864, owned by James Fisher, ship agent, of Barrow-in-Furness, master Capt.J.J.Edwards.
2. Mercantile Navy List 1867: Doctor, official no.47798, no signal letters given, 164 tons, registered at the port of Lancaster, owned by James Fisher, of Barrow.
   
3. Dismasting reported by the Lancaster Gazette, 2nd October 1869.
4. 1881 Census details from Bob Sanders, Ships in Port 1881 website
5. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1889-90: Doctor, 3-masted schooner, 148 tons, owned by J.Fisher & Sons, registered at Barrow.
   
6. Information on wreck from "Shipwrecks of the Ulster Coast" by Ian Wilson; also the Glasgow Herald, Tuesday, 25th December, 1894 (states three crew drowned).