Hannah
 Official Number
none

The Hannah was a large brig built at Norton, New Brunswick, Canada, in 1826. She was first registered at St.Johns, then Whitehaven. In 1840 she was registered at Maryport, owned by  Samuel Shaw and others, and under the command of Capt.John Briggs. In the years of the Irish Famine the Hannah was involved in taking emigrants to Canada. In July 1847 she arrived at Quebec from Sligo with passengers (see Source 3). In 1849 the Hannah was wrecked whilst carrying emigrants from Warrenpoint and Newry.

On the 3rd April the Hannah set sail from Warrenpoint, bound for Quebec under the command of Capt.Shaw. She had a crew of 12 and was carrying around 200 emigrants. She had good weather until the 27th, then met ice, and on the 29th April she hit an iceberg and started to sink. The master, his officers and some seamen abandoned the vessel in the ship's boat(s), leaving the passengers to their fate. The remaining seamen led the abandoned passengers from the brig and onto the ice. Within 40 minutes the Hannah had sunk, and the abandoned crew and passengers had to wait on the ice for a day until another vessel, the Nicaragua, arrived. 129 people were taken on board that vessel, which then departed for Quebec, her orignal destination. About 50 passengers had died, either by falling into the sea as they tried to reach the iceberg, or by exposure. Capt.Shaw and the other crew that had abandoned the Hannah were picked up by the Margaret Pollock and were landed at Quebec two days after the passengers. Some of the rescued passengers, including the ship's doctor, died at Quebec from their suffering (see Source 8).

Refer to the Hibernia for another example of a master of an emigrant ship deserting his passengers.

Name
Year Built
Gross Tons
Length (feet)
Breadth (feet)
Depth (feet)
Masts
Figurehead
Stern
Lloyd's Classn.
Hannah
1826
 287
 
 
 
2 
 
 
 

Sources :

  1. Canadian Ship Heritage Database
  2. "A List of the Cumberland Shipping corrected to February 1840" by William Sawyers, Comptroller of Her Majesty's Customs at the Port of Whitehaven, republished by Michael Moon (Whitehaven, 1975, ISBN 0-904131-09-2).
  3. The Ships List - Arrivals in Quebec (citing from  the New Brunswick Courier, Saturday, July 10, 1847).
  4. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1848-9: brig, 287 tons, registered Maryport, owned by Shaw & Co., commanded by Shaw, voyage Maryport-North America.
  5. Wreck reported in  the Liverpool Mercury (1st June 1849),  Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper (3rd June 1849), the Times (29th May 1849.
  6. See also "Loss of the Hannah, 1849"
  7. Wreck also discussed in "The Famine Shiips" by Edward Laxton, ISBN 0 7475 3500 0 (1996), though the Hannah is mis-identified as a 175 ton Irish-owned brig - this source reports that the master and other surviving crew were picked up from their boat four days after the wreck and landed at Quebec.
  8. Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, Wednesday, June 6, 1849.
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