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Official Number
44139 |
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Official Number
44139 |
The Tenasserim was a full-rigged ship built by Thos. & Jno. Brocklebank at Bransty, Whitehaven. She was launched on the 10th September 1861 and served in the Brocklebank fleet for only four years. Her first commander was Capt. Tully, and he was succeeded by Capt.J.Howson.
Like the Crisis three years earlier, the Tenasserim was wrecked on the Arklow Bank, off the Irish coast. She was outward bound from Liverpool. She left the Mersey on the 23rd December 1865, bound for Calcutta, but ran aground a few days later (various sources state either Christmas Day or Boxing Day, and give the cause as thick fog, a "furious easterly gale" or a northerly gale !). After striking the vessel began to break up and the hull was completely under water and the mainmast had been carried away when the first lifeboat, the Arundel Venables, from Arklow, arrived. The survivors had lashed themselves to the foremast and rigging, and two of the crew had already died. The lifeboat was taken into the wreckage and 34 people were rescued. The Arklow lifeboat was under the command of coxswain Peter Kavanagh, who later received the RNLI's Silver Medal for his feats.
From the Times newspaper, Monday, 1st January, 1866, page 6 :
" The ship Tenasserim, bound for Calcutta from Liverpool, with general cargo, struck upon the Arklow Banks on Christmas-day, at 1 o'clock. It was soon evident to Captain Howson that all hope of saving the ship was useless; he therefore ordered the crew to the forecastle, where they remained for 12 hours, expecting each moment would be their last. Providentially the wreck was seen from the Arklow shore. Immediately the lifeboat, manned by the coxwain and a volunteer crew, started for the vessel, and brought the captain and 33 men safe to shore. Great praise is due to the gallant coxwain of the lifeboat, Peter Kavanagh, who upon this and many other occasions has risked his life to aid the drowning mariner. Unfortunately one of the crew was washed overboard, and one of the apprentices was drowned, being too sick to use any exertion of his own for his own safety. Yesterday one of the owners of this fine ship went down to Arklow to visit the scene of the wreck. The vessel is reported to be a total loss. The cargo, consisting of iron, wines, spirits, and bales of goods, estimated at £200,000, is said to have been uninsured. All the survivors, 34 in number, got down into the lifeboat by a rope from the foretopsail yard. The crew of the lifeboat consisted of 15 additional persons. In order to relieve the lifeboat from such a number, they made for the Arklow lightship, where they obtained some refreshment, and then a portion of the crew got into a smaller lifeboat, which was taken in tow by the other. All were landed at Arklow on Tuesday evening, between 8 and 9 o'clock. They were entertained yesterday at the Sailors' Home, and expected to be able to return to Liverpool, Whitehaven, and other places that evening. Some difficulty was found in accommodating them, owing to the want of room in the Sailor's Home. Besides the casualty already mentioned, one of the crew got his arm broke, and another sustained an injury of the foot while on board the wreck."Subsequently the Brocklebank fleet acquired a second ship named the Tenasserim (Official No.55026). She was an iron full-rigged ship of 419 tons, built by Harland and Wolff at Belfast and launched in 1866. She traded to Calcutta for the Brocklebanks until sold in 1890. Whilst under Norwegian ownership she was wrecked at Table Bay, South Africa, in May 1902.
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