James Williamson

 Official Number
84961

The James Williamson was a three-masted schooner, the first vessel built by Nicholson & Marsh after they had acquired Matthew Simpson's shipyard at Glasson Dock, Lancaster. The James Williamson was launched on Monday, 5th June 1882, fully-rigged and ready to sail. Her owners were Capt.John Bradshaw & Co., of Fleetwood, and she was intended for the coasting trade, under the first command of Capt.Daniel Forshaw. The schooner could carry 220 to 230 tons of cargo, and had accommodation in the forecastle for upto 8 seamen, and had been designed to sail without ballast. At the dinner celebrating the launch, held at the Pier Hall inn, Mr.Nicholson complained that building the vessel had not brought him any profit, but that it had occupied his men when ship repair work was not available.

In December 1913 the James Williamson was carrying a cargo of steel trimmings from Glasgow to Swansea when she was forced by bad weather to anchor off Carrickfergus. On the night of Saturday, 27th December she was struck by the steamer Eveleen, bound for Belfast from Ayr with a coal cargo. Three of the crew of the James Williamson managed to climb aboard the steamer, but the master remained on board and later had to be rescued, injured, from the rigging of the schooner after she had sunk.
 
Name
Year Built
Gross Tons
Length (feet)
Breadth (feet)
Depth (feet)
Masts
Figurehead
Stern
Lloyd's Classn.
James Williamson 
1882
138 
 94.0
22.7
 10.2
3
 
 
12 years A1, Special Survey 

Sources :

  1. Launch reported in the Lancaster Gazette newspaper, 3rd, 7th and 10th June 1882.
  2. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1883-4: James Williamson, three-masted schooner, official no.84961, signal letters WJCT, 138 gross tons, owned by J.Bradshaw & Co., registered at Lancaster, master Capt.D.Forshaw.
  3. Information from Peter Sandbach (from Lancaster Shipping Register) - loss reported April 1914.
  4. Wreck described in "Shipwrecks of the Ulster Coast" by Ian Wilson (4th ed., 2000) ISBN 0 948154 99 3.
  5. Wreck reported in the Times newspaper, Monday, 29th December, 1913, page 4 - states that the vessel belonged to Lancaster.