Earl of Lonsdale

Official Number 7840

The Earl of Lonsdale was a 350 ton (new measure) ship built at Whitehaven by Lumley Kennedy & Co., launched on the 19th January 1839.

From The Cumberland Pacquet and Ware's Whitehaven Advertiser, Tuesday, 22nd January, 1839, page 3.

LAUNCH OF THE EARL OF LONSDALE

A splendid new ship to which the above name was given was launched from the building-yard of Messrs. Lumley Kennedy & Co. at this port, on Saturday last at noon..........

....This splendid vessel registers 350 tons, is coppered and copper-bolted throughout, of admirable workmanship, and her mould such as Mr.Kennedy, the master-builder, may well be proud of. In short, she is admitted by competent nautical judges to be as perfect a specimen of shipbuilding as ever left the shores of Cumberland. She has been two years on the stocks, and is of course well-seasoned. She has a full length figurehead - an admirable likeness of the revered Nobleman whose title she bears, and on her stern is a beautifully executed representation of Lowther Castle, in relief, both by Brookman, Maryport. - The Earl of Lonsdale was built for Mr.John Piele, jun., of the Standard, and is intended, we believe, for the East India trade.

The Earl of Lonsdale was lost off Whitehaven in 1860, when she was described as a barque, owned in Greenock by J.Kerr, and was employed in the Clyde/West Indies trade. Her master was named as Capt. M.Auld (see Source 3).
 

Sources :

1. "Shipbuilding in Whitehaven - A Checklist" by Harry Fancy, Whitehaven Museum (1984)
2. A List Of The Cumberland Shipping, Corrected To February 1840, by William Sawyers, Comptroller Of Her Majesty's Customs At The Port Of Whitehaven
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. Cites as source a book "Cape to Cape".
4. 1857 Mercantile Navy List gives port of registry as Greenock, official number and signal letters JVPN, tonnage 350.