Dairy Maid

Official Number 56698

The Dairy Maid was a schooner built to Special Survey at Matthew Simpson's shipyard at Glasson Dock, Lancaster in March 1867. Like several of Simpson's other schooners, she entered the fleet of E.Porter and Co. of Fleetwood.

Still owned by Porter & Co., the Dairy Maid sailed from Runcorn on the 27th November 1893, under the command of Capt.Joseph Tildsley and with 180 tons of salt for ballast. She was kept  windbound at Liverpool until the 5th December, when she was able to clear the estuary and make passage towards her destination, Irvine. Unable to clear the Calf of Man due to a SW gale, Capt.Tildsley ran for the refuge of Ramsey Bay, where he anchored at 6.00 pm on the 6th December. Over the next three days the Dairy Maid endured increasing wind and lost first her starboard anchor, then, at 2.00 pm on the 10th December, her port anchor. Capt.Tildsley ran the schooner under jib sail onto a sandy beach one mile N of of the Dog Mills at Shellag Point. The four crew were rescued by the Rocket Brigade, and the schooner was later towed to Ramsey harbour for disposal.
 

Name	Year Built	Gross Tons	Length (feet)	Breadth (feet)	Depth (feet)	Masts	Figurehead	Stern	Lloyd's Classn.
Dairy Maid	1867	165	101.6	22.5	11.5	2			9A1

Sources :

1. Lloyds Register of Shipping 1877 (names owners as E.Porter & Co., master as T.Davies, signal code MNQP).
2. Wreck details from Isle of Man Shipwrecks website - an extract from the CD-ROM "Dictionary of Shipwrecks off the Isle of Man" - describes the vessel as a three-master.
3. Wreck reported in the Times newspaper, Tuesday, 12th December, 1893, page 10 - report from Castletown, dated 11th December.