Antigua Packet

Official Number 9364

The Antigua Packet was a 20 gun full-rigged ship built at Whitehaven in 1815 by Thos. & Jno. Brocklebank. Her first owners were Dawson & Co., and for them she made voyages to Canada and Barbados as well as Antigua.

In 1840 her master was named as John McKnight and her owners were still listed as John, Robert & Geo. Dawson (see Source 1). In July 1842 the Antigua Packet was noted as being at Antigua ready to depart for London, master M'Knight (Source 2).

The Antigua Packet was stranded and lost off Maryport on the 18th October 1863. She was carrying a cargo of greenheart timber from Demerara for Workington when she went aground in the Solway Firth. Her crew took to the boat but her master stayed aboard, and was believed lost when eventiually the sea swept over the vessel. He was the only casualty amongst the eleven crew.
 

Sources :

1. A List Of The Cumberland Shipping, Corrected To February 1840, by William Sawyers, Comptroller Of Her Majesty's Customs At The Port Of Whitehaven
2. "From Cumberland to Cape Horn" by D.Hollett.
3. Wreck info from "Shipwreck Index of the British Isles" Vol. 5 by Richard & Bridget Larn, pub. Lloyds Register, 2000, ISBN 1 900839 61 X.
4. 1857 Mercantile Navy List gives port of registry as Whitehaven, official number and signal letters KHBG.
5. Wreck reported in The Times newspaper, Monday, 26th October, 1863, page 11.