British Queen

Official Number 9360

The British Queen was a 218 ton brig built by Lumley Kennedy & Co. at Whitehaven, launched on the 24th May 1838. In 1840 she was owned by Robert & Henry Jefferson and her master was Capt. John Robinson (see Source 2). Source 4 reports : 6th May 1861: The Transit from Liverpool on May 7 at 47o56' N 47o40' W picked up the captain and crew of the brig British Queen, of Whitehaven, which vessel struck the ice on May 6, and after some few hours went down; the British Queen was from Liverpool to Greenspond, salt laden.

Sources :

1. "Shipbuilding in Whitehaven - A Checklist" by Harry Fancy, Whitehaven Museum (1984) - states that the British Queen foundered off Newfoundland, 1861, after striking an iceberg.
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.
3. "From Cumberland to Cape Horn" by D.Hollett.

Names master at time of loss as Capt. William Hinde.
4. http://www.nrc.ca/imd/ice/ice_charts/1861my.htm. Details confirmed in the Times newspaper, Monday, 27th May 1861, page 12, stating that the crew were landed at St.John's, Newfoundland.
5. Painting was by Oliver Hodgson, and shows the brig off Whitehaven in 1839 - from Sheila Cartwright, from a newspaper cutting.
6. 1857 Mercantile Navy List gives port of registry as Whitehaven, official number and signal letters KGWV.