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Maggie Townson
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Official Number
78571
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The Maggie Townson was an iron three-masted schooner built
by D.Noble
& Co.
at Barrow. She was launched on Tuesday, 29th January 1878 and was owned
by the Barrow shipowners John Walton & Co. Her first master was
Capt.E.Sharples, and it was his daughter who performed the christening
ceremony at the launch.
The Maggie Townson was lost by collision in her first year
of
service. On the morning of 24th November 1878 she was carrying a cargo
of cast iron ingots from Barrow to Ellesmere, beating up the Mersey in
a snow shower. She struck the bow of the Blue Funnel steamship Teucer, anchored mid-stream off the
entrance to the Alfred Dock. The schooner sank within five minutes, but the crew were all saved.
The Maggie Townson was sunk a little to the S of a line drawn
between Seacombe Landing Stage and the embayment of the St.George and Prince's
Landing Stages on the Liverpool side. The day following her sinking, a
lightship was placed near the wreck. The following day, Tuesday 26th November,
in endeavouring to avoid this lightship in thick fog, the Liverpool ferry
Gem collided with the Brocklebank ship Bowfell,
resulting in the loss of the lives of 19 passengers on the former vessel.
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Name
|
Year Built
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Gross Tons
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Length (feet)
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Breadth (feet)
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Depth (feet)
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Masts
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Figurehead
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Stern
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Lloyd's Classn.
|
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Maggie Townson
|
1878
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149
|
|
|
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3
|
|
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100A1, Special Survey
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Sources :
- Launch reported in the Lancaster Gazette, Saturday, 2nd February 1878.
-
Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1878-9 - names her master as Capt.E.Sharples.
- Mercantile Navy List 1878: Maggie Townson, schooner, 136 tons, registered at Barrow, official number 78571, signal letters RNKJ, owned by John Walton, of Barrow.
- Collision and loss reported in the Liverpool Mercury newspaper, Monday, 25th November, 1878, page 6 - gives name as 'Maggie Townshend'.
-
"The Shipwreck Index of the British Isles" vol.5. by R & B Larn, published
by Lloyds Register (2000).