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Francis Watson | Official Number
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Francis Watson | Official Number
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The Cumberland Pacquet, Tuesday, 8th
February 1825;
" On Saturday was launched from the building yard of Messrs.K.Wood and Son, Maryport,
a very fine copper-bottomed brig called the Francis Watson, burthen per register, 333 tons, and built for Messrs.Wood and Watson, of Liverpool."
At 333 tons, the Francis Watson
was very large for a brig, but the newspaper report is consistent with
the shipping registers, at least until 1830, when she was listed as a
ship. The first voyage of the Francis
Watson was from Maryport, departed Monday, 28th February 1825
for New Orleans.
On the 30th June 1829 the master of the Francis Watson, Sampson Bragge, was arrested at London, accused of the murder of his steward, Lewis Sinclair. Evidence was taken from the crew, describing the ill-treatment of the steward on the voyage, which had started at Liverpool, then proceeded to Batavia, then Singapore and finally London. The steward had become drunk at Batavia and had been removed from his post to do the duties of a seaman. He was not up to the task, and the ill-treatment started subsequently. It included starvation, denial of water, beatings from the captain, mate and the "black fellows", being hauled over the ship's side, being forced to eat a lump of chalk and being smoked out of a hiding hole. The ill-treatment lasted two months until the victim became deranged, then eventually died, off the Scilly Isles on the 13th June. Bragge and the mate were committed to Newgate to await trial at the High Court. At that trial the evidence was repeated, but the jury found that the death of Lewis could not be ascribed to any particular act of violence, and the prisoners were acquitted. A similar sorry tale of ill-treatment can be found in the story of the Valiant two years earlier, the perpetrator being Captain Joseph Bragg, of Whitehaven.
The Francis Watson, Bragg, was driven on shore and
wrecked,
after landing her cargo, in Algoa Bay, during a gale, on the 13th
January
1830.
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