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Official Number
1203 |
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Official Number
1203 |
The Crisis was a full-rigged ship built by Thos. & Jno. Brocklebank at Bransty, Whitehaven, launched 27th December 1847. She made her maiden voyage to Calcutta under Capt. Gibson, but later she operated mostly in the China trade. Capt.J.Bell took command in 1853, and in March 1854 started his second voyage, which was from Liverpool to Bombay, then to Whampoa, Hong Kong and Amoy. She returned from China to Liverpool, arriving in 1855. Capt. Bell made two more passages to China before being succeeded by Capt. Black in 1857.
The Crisis was regarded as a fast ship and once made the return journey from Hong Kong to Liverpool in 95 days, a very good time which bears comparison with true tea clippers. She seems to have usually carried a crew of nineteen or twenty men.
Still owned by Brocklebanks, the Crisis had been on passage from
Liverpool to Singapore with a general cargo when she was lost on Arklow
Bank in the great storm of 16th January 1862. The crew abandoned ship in
two boats. There are varying reports of the number of survivors, Source
2 indicating that eight men and the master, Capt.Thompson, survived, some
coming ashore at Clogher Head, seven miles from Drogheda, in the
ship's pinnace. However, Source 4 names only eight survivors and states
that the master (Capt.Thompson), the first mate and nine other crew were
still missing. The named survivors, who reached Clogher Head on the morning
after the vessel foundered, were : William Carson (2nd mate), Patrick
M'Donnell (steward), John Bentley (carpenter), Andrew Hill, John Kelly,
David O'Neele (seamen), Frederick A.Hill and John W. White (apprentices).
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