Beckermet

Official Number
58194

The Cumberland Pacquet, 6th June 1871;

" About the time that the Patterdale left the stocks, there was launched from the shipbuilding yard of Messrs.J.Shepherd and Company a handsome three-masted brigantine. Her dimensions are - length on keel, 104 ft; length for measurement, 106 ft 2½ in; breadth, 22 ft 10¼ in; depth of hold, 12 ft 11½ in; builder's measurement 258 ft and sixty-seven ninety-fourths; register tonnage, 229 tons. She has been built of first-class materials, is designed expressly for the West India Trade, is copper fastened, and is pronounced to be as good a specimen of workmanship as Whitehaven has produced for some time. Mr. Thomas Middleton, Whitehaven, is the managing owner. She will be commanded by Captain T.Dalrymple, of Dumfries. The christening ceremony was performed by Mrs.J.S.McGowan, and the vessel will henceforth be known as the Beckermet. There was a goodly number of spectators present, the fair sex being especially prominent. Not a single mishap occurred; and we hope that we may be able to say this of the Beckermet for a long time to come. "

Beckermet on the stocks at Whitehaven, provided by Bob Dalrymple, from an original at The Beacon, Whitehaven

The Beckermet was a wooden barquentine built at Whitehaven by Shepherd and Leech, and launched on Saturday, 3rd June 1871. 

In "Merchant Sailing Ships 1850-1875" David McGregor states that the Beckermet was one of only two barquentines ever built at Whitehaven, the other being the Chrysolite. McGregor also says "for much of the sixties and seventies the barquentine rig was described as 'three-masted brigantine' ..... and it is probable that the rig of many early barquentines is disguised under the term". In fact, the Beckermet was described as a brigantine in Lloyd's Register and in the Mercantile Navy List throughout her career.

The Beckermet was first commanded by Capt.Thomas Dalrymple. She was owned by Thomas Middleton and registered at Whitehaven throughout her life.

On the 1st October 1883 the Beckermet was stranded and lost in a N Force 7 on Sheringham beach, Norfolk. She was on passage from Cedar Keys, Florida, to Hartlepool with a cargo of soft wood. The crew of seven were saved.  


Name
Year Built
Gross Tons
Length (feet)
Breadth (feet)
Depth (feet)
Masts
Figurehead
Stern
Lloyd's Classn.
Beckermet
1871
229
107.1
23.1 
12.9 
3
 
 
10 years A1, Special Survey 

Sources :

  1. D. Hay, "History of Ship-Building in Whitehaven" (Manuscript), circa 1970, information provided by the Cumbria Archive Service, sent to me by Bob Dalrymple, a descendant of the first master of the vessel.
  2. "Merchant Sailing Ships 1850-1875" by David R. McGregor, ISBN 0 85177 315 8.
  3. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1871-2 (Supplement): Beckermet, brigantine, 223 tons, built by Shepherd at Whitehaven in June 1871, FYM in 1871, registered at Whitehaven, owned by Middleton & Co., master Capt.T.Dalrymple. 
  4. Mercantile Navy List 1880: Beckermet, brigantine, 223 tons, built at Whitehaven in 1871, official number 58194, registered at Whitehaven, owned by Thomas Middleton, of Whitehaven.
  5. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1883-4: Beckermet, brigantine, 229 grt, 223 nrt, built by Shepherd at Whitehaven in June 1871, FYM in 1871, official number 58194, registered at Whitehaven, owned by Middleton & Co., master Capt.J.Young - entry annotated "Stranded".
  6. Loss details from the "Shipwreck Index of the British Isles" Vol.3 by Richard and Bridget Larn. Wreck also reported in the Liverpool Mercury, Weds., 3rd October 1883 (vessel described as a schooner).