Southerfield

Official Number 83584

The Southerfield was a barque launched at Maryport in October 1881. She was built by Robert Ritson, and was the last wooden sailing ship built at this shipyard.

On the 15th November 1884 the Southerfield collided with the British ship Nereide off the Royal Sovereign Lightship, resulting in the loss of the latter vessel. The Southerfield had left Falmouth on the 13th November, bound for London with a cargo of nitrate of soda.  She had a crew of 16 and was in charge of the Channel pilot, John Werry. She struck the Nereide after that vessel crossed her bows, in darkness at 5.30 am on the 15th. The Nereide was on passage from Gravesend to South America, with a coal cargo and a crew of nine. All the hands except the master of the Nereide managed to get aboard the Southerfield before the Nereide sank (see Source 3).

Source 4 reports that the Southerfield was lost by fire off Cape Horn in 1888. All her crew abandoned the vessel safely and were rescued by another sailing ship.
 

Sources :

1. Mystic Seaport Library Ship Register Search has shipping register details for most years from 1883 to 1889.
2. American Lloyd's Register of American and Foreign Shipping, 1883 - names master as Capt.H.McKenzie, vessel registered at Maryport, owned by R.Ritson & Co.
3. The Times, Tuesday, 8th December, 1885, page 4 - report of Wreck Commissioner's Court.
4. "Ships of West Cumberland" by Desmond G.Sythes, reprinted by the Friends of Whitehaven Museum, April 2006 (includes a photo of the Southerfield on her building slip)