Ryelands

 Official Number
84964

The Ryelands was a three-masted schooner built by Nicholson & Marsh at Glasson Dock. She was launched on Tuesday, 11th January 1887, the christening ceremony being performed by Miss Lillie Smith, daughter of William Smith, corn merchant. The Ryelands was a sister ship to the Mostyn, launched in August 1884, and the keel of the new vessel had been laid in January 1885. In the autumn of 1886 the the scaffolding around the schooner had caught fire, and the vessel had been lucky to be saved. The Ryelands was to be commanded by Captain William Marrow, of Connah's Quay, and had been designed primarily for the coasting trade, and to sail without ballast. The hull of the schooner had been copper-fastened, indicating an intention to sheath her hull at some stage for foreign voyages. Soon after the launch the keel of the next schooner, the Rambler, was laid at the shipyard.

The Ryelands was launched fully-rigged and departed Glasson Dock on her maiden voyage on the 15th January, bound for Plymouth, arriving there on the 21st February. She then sailed to Guernsey (arriving 11th March), and was at Queensboro' from Swansea on the 1st June. She continued  trading essentially between Liverpool, Guernsey and London, though by 1889 she had made her first visit outside British waters, to Antwerp, and later that year went to Drammen (Norway), her first "foreign" voyage.

The Ryelands was a long-lived schooner, operating in the china clay trade between the wars. In about 1931 she was fitted with an engine and had her masts much reduced.  She was owned by Capt. Hugh Shaw between 1942 to 1946, when she was mainly employed in the Bristol Channel.

In her later years the Ryelands was much used in films. In 1949 she was the Hispaniola in  Walt Disney's "Treasure Island", then took the part of the Pequod in "Moby Dick" in 1954, a film in which the James Postlethwaite was also used. For this she was skippered by Alan Villiers. She had further parts in television films thereafter, and spent her final years as a tourist attraction at first Scarborough, then Morecambe. In 1972 she caught fire and was totally destroyed.
 
Name
Year Built
Gross Tons
Length (feet)
Breadth (feet)
Depth (feet)
Masts
Figurehead
Stern
Lloyd's Classn.
Ryelands
1887
149 
 102.2
22.9 
10.8 
 3
 
 
13 years A1, Special Survey 

Sources :

  1. Launch reported in the Lancaster Gazette, Weds., 12th January 1887 (briefly) and 15th January 1887 (in full). Details of voyages from shipping intelligence in the same newspaper.
  2. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1889-90: Ryelands, 3-masted schooner, 149 grt, off.no.84964, signal letters KJRG, owned by J.Helme, registered at Lancaster, master Capt.W.G.Marrow.
  3. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1898-9: Ryelands, same data as 1890.
  4.  "Coastwise Sail" by John Anderson (1948) and "Schooner Captain" by Norah Ayland.
  5. Photographs from the Ayland family.
  6. Historic Photographs Section, National Maritime Museum, has many photographs of this vessel, mostly from the 1930's.