Despatch

Official Number none

The brig Despatch was built at Whitehaven by Thomas Kirk and was launched on the 28th February 1801. In 1828 she was registered at Workington.

The  Despatch was wrecked on the 12th July 1828 near Isle aux Morts, on the South coast of Newfoundland.  Ann Harvey, a seventeen year old local girl, together with her father and her twelve year old brother (and a dog !), rescued one hundred and sixty people from the wreck over the following three days.  Ann Harvey became known as the 'Grace Darling' of Newfoundland and the British Government later awarded her and her family a medal and a sum of money for their heroic efforts (see Source 2).

Source 3 reports the loss of the brig on the 10th July 1828, on a rock 18 miles east of Cape Ray. The brig had sailed from Londonderry on the 29th May, bound for Quebec with Irish emigrants, under the command of Captain William Lancaster. The wreck resulted in the loss of about 29 passengers by drowning, and a further 20 subsequently died of exposure. Capt. Lancaster was drowned in the wreck but the other ten crew survived. The survivors were taken from Port aux Basque, Newfoundland, to Halifax, by HMS Tyne, two weeks after the wreck.
 

Sources :

1. "Shipbuilding in Whitehaven - A Checklist" by Harry Fancy, Whitehaven Museum (1984) - states that the vessel was registered at Workington in 1828, and was lost in America in the same year.
2. "Marine Disasters and Shipwrecks of Newfoundland and Labrador". Volume 1 1822-1938 by J.P. Andrieux, 2nd.edition, published 1992. Information provided by Valerie Wright.
3. The Strabane Morning Post, Tuesday, 2nd September, 1828 - reports the loss of the brig, named as Dispatch, and gives a list of the 158 passengers who survived the wreck.