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Mabel Annie | Official Number
73763 |
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Mabel Annie | Official Number
73763 |
The Mabel Annie was a 45 ton schooner built by Perry & Ruome at Fleetwood. She was registered on 23rd December 1880 and arrived at Ainslie pier the same day with the first of many cargoes of sand. She was bought by John Bradshaw, a shipbroker, who sold off 62 shares over the next six months, retaining 2 shares and the position of managing owner. The 22 people who bought shares came from all parts of Lancashire, their occupations include 5 gentlemen, 2 hotel keepers, an inn keeper, a fisherman, a barman, a schoolmaster, a painter, a domestic servant, a bricklayer, a clerk, a master gardener, a gardener, a plate layer, an engineer, a blacksmith and a surgeon.
For 20 years the main cargo of the Mabel Annie was sand from Fleetwood to the North Lonsdale ironworks. Occasionally she arrived with tar or timber from Fleetwood, ore, sand or cement from Liverpool, ore from Duddon or coal from Point of Ayr (near Prestatyn). There was often a cargo of limestone to Fleetwood and these became more frequent after the establishment of the Fleetwood Ammonia Soda works in 1893. There were regular shipments of pig iron to Liverpool, especially in the first year, and she sometimes carried gunpowder, usually to Liverpool and once to Caernafon, but outward cargoes were sometimes scarce and between 1888 and 1891 she always sailed unladen. The shipping intelligence from the Lancaster and General Advertiser shows her making two round trips in a week, all the other vessels listed are steamers. This was not unusual. In a 20 year period she arrived in Ulverston about 700 times, usually discharging sand at the ironworks pier and loading stone in the canal.
John Bradshaw became bankrupt on 5th February 1886. His two shares were claimed by the trustee in bankruptcy, Titus Thorpe, chartered accountant. William Holden of the North Lonsdale Ironworks was designated as 'the person to whom the management of the vessel was entrusted.' He was not managing owner at this time as he held no shares, though he did buy three shares later.
The first sinking of the Mabel Annie was reported in the Glasgow Herald on the 12th
February 1883, when she sank at her anchorage in the Lune. The crew
landed at Ulverston. She was soon refloated as she arrived in
Ulverston with a cargo of sand on 4th March.
The Liverpool Mercury, 19th January 1900;
" Wreck in Morecambe Bay - Yesterday morning, during the prevalence
of a North Westerly gale, Captain Baines, of the coasting schooner 'Mabel Annie,' of Fleetwood, and owned in Ulverston came ashore, along
with the mate, in a small boat at Canal Foot, Ulverston, and reported
that they had left the vessel in a sinking condition. The Mabel
Annie, which was laden with sand, grounded near Bardsea in coming up
the Ulverston channel on Wednesday night to the Beaconsfield pier at
the North Lonsdale ironworks, but they expected her to get off by the
next tide. Unfortunately, a heavy gale sprang up during the
night, and as she was seen to be foundering, two tugs from Barrow were
sent to her assistance. The Barrow lifeboat also went to the
scene of the wreck, but the only two hands on her had left. The
vessel is likely to become a wreck, the efforts of the tug to free her
being unsuccessful."
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