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Official Number
93424 |
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Official Number
93424 |
| The Mary Barrow was a wooden three-masted
schooner, equipped with a topgallant yard set over double topsails
and described as a very beautiful ship by Basil Greenhill. She was built
in October1891, by William Henry Lean at Falmouth and was owned in Barrow
and manned by Ulverston seamen in her early years. Her Crew
List for 1891 shows that Captain James Crewdson of Ulverston was her
first master, and that he probably took delivery of the schooner in Falmouth
and sailed her to Lancaster ready for her first deepwater voyage. Capt.
Crewdson had been master of the JH
Barrow in 1881, and probably had a long association with the schooner's
owner, James Barrow.
The Mary Barrow has been said to have begun her life in the Newfoundland trade (bringing dried, salted cod to Europe) and in the trade to South America (see Source 3). Barrow and Ulverston vessels were not usually employed in the Newfoundland trade, but the trade from South America with bone, bonemeal or hides was well-established, and it is more likely that the schooner made her foreign voyages to Brazil, Uruguay and the Caribbean. |
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In 1894 Captain Crewdson brought the Mary Barrow back from South America with a crew of six. After an eventful five week passage she arrived at her home port with two of her crew dead from yellow fever, two crewmen laid up with the same disease, and only two men fit to work the ship. One of the sick crewmen was John Wilson, a descendant of the Ulverston shipbuilder of the same name (see Source 2). John Marshall was one of the crewmen who died. In an "account of wages and effects of a deceased seaman", signed by Capt.Crewdson and retained by John Marshall's family, he was listed as an Able Seaman, aged 19. He died, "cause unknown", on the 10th December 1894 as his ship entered the South Western Approaches, at Lat. 49 N, Long. 12.30 W. This document also records that the Mary Barrow sailed on a foreign voyage from the UK on the 14th August of that year. Other documents report that John Marshall was buried in an unmarked grave at Falmouth seven days after his death (see Source 6).
In the Liverpool Mercury on the 11th January 1908 it was reported that
the schooners Lizzie R.Wilce, Swansea to St Malo, and the Mary
Barrow of Barrow had driven ashore at St Ives, the crews rescued by
lifeboat.
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In Lloyd's Register 1913 the Mary Barrow is listed as being owned by H.P.Thomas of Barrow and registered at Liverpool. Her master was Capt. J.Henwood. By this time she was much involved in the Cornish china clay trade, and this seems to have been her main trade in the years between the wars. She was fitted with an engine in 1926 and the topgallant was replaced by a triangular "raffee" sail, but she seems to have avoided the fate of many schooners and retained a great deal of sail for an auxiliary vessel. She was managed by Charles Couch out of Fowey, then in 1928 she was owned in Newquay and was sold to Truro owners in 1932. |
| In his book "Schoonerman", Capt. Richard England
says that the Mary Barrow was bought in the 1930's by the Danish
skipper "Mad" Peter Mortensen, one of the most successful schooner captains
of the inter-war years. He traded with her until September 1938, when his
vessel was wrecked on the Isle of Man.
The Mary Barrow had left Ayr on the morning of Tuesday 26th September, bound for Truro with 230 tons coal. The following morning, at 0400, the vessel was in thick fog and had only 20 or 30 metres visibility. With the mate on watch, she was going dead slow when she struck rocks at Gibdale Bay on the Calf of Man. The five crew abandoned the schooner in their small boat, and kept close to the vessel until daybreak, when they rowed to Port Erin. The Mary Barrow had been valued at £2,000, but was only covered by £1,000 insurance. The crew were: William Mortensen, master; Joseph Jeffrey, mate; Peter Woods, William Jobs and William Andrew, deckhands (from Source 5). |
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