Annan and Whitehaven Trader

Official Number 8164

The Annan and Whitehaven Trader was a sloop built at Annan in 1830. She was registered at Dumfries until 1872.

On the 26th September 1857 the sloop was capsized by collision with the Whitehaven to Liverpool steamer Queen, off the Fylde coast, eleven miles SW of Piel Island. The mate and his wife, John and Jane Irving, were drowned, the master/owner (also named John Irving) and a seaman being saved. The sloop had left Liverpool with a mixed cargo of salt, deals and oil and was bound for Annan. The wreck was towed into Fleetwood by a fisherman and Jane Irving's body was found therein. An inquest was held at Fleetwood and Jackson, the mate of the Queen, and Phillips, the seaman on look-out at the time of the collision, were sent for trial at Lancaster Assizes for manslaughter (see Source 4). The Cumberland Pacquet, a Whitehaven newspaper (see Source 5), presumably supporting the convicted seamen, who must have been Whitehaven men, produced a lengthy editorial condemning, and roundly abusing, the Fleetwood jury and their verdict.

The Annan and Whitehaven Trader was re-registered at Dumfries in February 1858 as a two-masted schooner. The vessel's registry was transferred to Douglas in January 1872.

Sources :

1. Mercantile Navy List 1857 - vessel registered at Dumfries, 44 tons.
2. Dumfries Shipping Register
3. First report of wreck in Cumberland Pacquet newspaper, 29th September 1857, page 5.
4. Cumberland Pacquet newspaper, 13th October 1857, page 5.
5. Cumberland Pacquet newspaper, 20th October 1857, page 6 - has a full description of the inquest on the master's wife.
6. Other newspaper reports of the collision in the Glasgow Herald (7th Oct.1857) and Preston Guardian (3rd and 17th Oct.1857).