John Scott

Official Number 6484

The John Scott was a wooden brig built at Whitehaven by John Scott, and launched on the 24th July 1835. In 1840 her master was named as Capt.Mark Robinson (see Source1) and the vessel was owned by the master and others.

Bound from Whitehaven to Newport with a cargo of iron ore, the John Scott got into difficulty in bad weather on the evening of Saturday, 1st February, 1873. Trying to make the shelter of Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) harbour, the brig had grounded on the Codling Bank. The seven crew abandoned her in their small boat, but oars were broken and the boat was capsized. Only one man, John White, of Whitehaven, survived, drifting to the shore on the upturned boat. The abandoned brig herself was wrecked at Indiaman reef, Ballygannon Point (Kilcoole, Co.Wicklow). The bodies of the six men who drowned were washed up between Greystones and Newcastle. The dead were named at the subsequent inquest as William Musgrave, aged 45, master, of Whitehaven; Michael Dunne, of Kingstown, apprentice; John Smith, AB, aged 23, of Whitehaven; David Cramer, mate, of Whitehaven; William Lindsay, aged 55, AB, of Whitehaven; and Patrick Flynn, aged 20, of Kingstown. All except Flynn were buried at Greystones.

Sources :

1. "A List Of The Cumberland Shipping, Corrected To February 1840, by William Sawyers, Comptroller Of Her Majesty's Customs At The Port Of Whitehaven".
2. Mercantile Navy List 1857 - vessel registered at Whitehaven, 225 tons, signal letters JPBG.
3. Clayton's Register of Shipping 1865 - vessel registered at Whitehaven, 222 tons, owned by John Hodgson, of Whitehaven.
4. "Shipbuilding in Whitehaven - A Checklist" by Harry Fancy, Whitehaven Museum (1984)
5. From "Wreck and Rescue on the East Coast of Ireland" by John de Courcy. See also "Shipwreck Index of Ireland", Richard & Bridget Larn.
6. The wreck and subsequent inquest were reported in the Freeman's Journal (Dublin newspaper), Monday 3rd and Tuesday 4th February, 1873. Also in the Times newspaper, Tues., 4th February 1873, page 6.