John Scott

Official Number
6484

The John Scott was a wooden brig built at Whitehaven by John Scott, and launched on Friday, 24th July 1835. The vessel was owned and registered at Whitehaven throughout her life.

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.

Name
Year Built
Gross Tons
Length (feet)
Breadth (feet)
Depth (feet)
Masts
Figurehead
Stern
Lloyd's Classn.
John Scott
1835
225
88.2
24.2
16.2
2
 
 
 

Sources :

  1. "Shipbuilding in Whitehaven - A Checklist" by Harry Fancy, Whitehaven Museum (1984)
  2. Launch reported in the Lancaster Gazette, Saturday, 1st August 1835 - names the builders as Whiteside & Scott.
  3. "A List Of The Cumberland Shipping, Corrected To February 1840, by William Sawyers, Comptroller Of Her Majesty's Customs At The Port Of Whitehaven": her master was named as Capt.Mark Robinson and the vessel was owned by the master and others.
  4. Mercantile Navy List 1857: John Scott, 225 tons, official number 6484, signal letters JPBG, vessel registered at Whitehaven.
  5. Clayton's Register of Shipping 1865: John Scott, brig, 222 tons, built 1835, vessel registered at Whitehaven, owned by John Hodgson, of Whitehaven, master Capt.Bell.
  6. "Wreck and Rescue on the East Coast of Ireland" by John de Courcy. See also "Shipwreck Index of Ireland", Richard & Bridget Larn.
  7. 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.