Sir Henry Pottinger

Official Number 7948

The Sir Henry Pottinger was a barque built by Thos. & Jno. Brocklebank at Bransty, Whitehaven in 1845. She traded for the Brocklebank Line to Calcutta in her early years, under the command of Capt. McWean. The following crew list for the Sir Henry Pottinger is reproduced from Source 2. It is for the barque's voyage from Liverpool to Calcutta, 1st May 1849.
 

From 1855 the Sir Henry Pottinger traded to South America under the command of Capt. R. Barnes. She was bound from South America for Swansea under the command of Capt. Barnes when she was wrecked on Carmarthen bar in late December, 1859. The barque was carrying a general cargo, and three passengers. One of her sixteen crew was drowned (see Sources 3, 4).

The Times reported that the cargo included silver ore, wool, bark and copper regulus from Caldera (which was insured at Lloyds for £40,000), and locates the wreck as Cofyn Sands, Carmathen Bay, nine miles from the shore. The vessel struck at 2am, Friday 30th December, in a SW gale. The location was a "sort of quicksand" and the vessel partly sank into the sand, making salvage difficult. The passengers were the master's wife and children, and they were evacuated from the ship in the small boat. The newspaper names the master as Capt.Burns and states that she was bound for Swansea.
 

Sources :

1. Launch reported in the "Cumberland Pacquet and Ware's Whitehaven Advertiser", Tuesday, 26th August 1845, page 3 - states that the vessel had a full length figurehead carved by Robson, of Liverpool.
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 - gives date as  the 29th December 1859, and states the vessel was bound from Valparaiso for Liverpool.
4. Wreck reported in  the Cumberland Pacquet and Ware's Whitehaven Advertiser, Tuesday, 10th January 1860, page 8.
5. Wreck reported in the Times newspaper, Tuesday, 3rd January, 1860, page 8 - gives the destination as Swansea, which seems more likely than Liverpool given the copper ore in her cargo - there was a copper works at Swansea.
6. 1857 Mercantile Navy List states that the vessel was registered at Liverpool, 315 tons. A second vessel of the same name was registered at Shields, ON 14663, 586 tons.
7. Merseyside Maritime Museum has a painting of the Sir Henry Pottinger in a cyclone, (in the Indian Ocean, on 14th January 1848) by Joseph Heard.