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, eleven miles SW of Peel, Isle of Man. The mate and the master's wife, Jane Irving, were drowned, the master and a seaman being saved. The sloop was salt laden (Source 3), so presumably had left the Mersey, and possibly was heading for Peel, a herring port still famous for its kippers. 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.