Lady Lilford

Official Number 45666

The Lady Lilford was a small schooner built at the Whitehaven shipyard of Hugh Williamson in November 1862. Like the Christiana Davis and Eugenie, built at the same shipyard, she became part of the Barrow fleet of shipowner James Ashcroft. In the Barrow Times in Jan.1879 her master is named as Halsall.

The Lady Lilford was registered at Barrow in 1876 (previously Preston), and James Ashcroft owned 32 shares. He sold the vessel to James Murray in 1884 and the registry was then transferred to Greenock.

The Lady Lilford left Glasgow bound for Port Talbot on 24th July 1911 and was run down off Mew Island, at the entrance to Belfast Lough, by the steamship Antrim at 11.53pm on the 26th July, with the loss of all hands. The Antrim was a Midland Railway steamer engaged on the Belfast-Heysham route. She had been travelling towards Belfast, and had sighted the schooner late because of the dimness of her green navigation light. Despite reversing engines, the collision could not be avoided by the Antrim, which lowered boats and searched for survivors for 45 minutes, without success. The undamaged Antrim proceeded to Belfast. Later the body of one of the four crew of the Lady Lilford was washed ashore at Islay, Isle of Arran. The Board of Inquiry held at Liverpool attached no blame to the steamer's master or crew (see Source 3, which also reported that the schooner was owned in Ireland, but still registered at Greenock).

Sources :

1. Official Number from the Mercantile Navy List 1867 - vessel registered at Preston and owned by James Ashcroft, Barrow-in-Furness (another vessel of the same name, official number 12099, was owned and registered at Ardrossan).
   
2. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1868: schooner, 67 tons, owned by Ashcroft & Co., registered at Preston, master Capt.J.Taylor.
   
3. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1877: names owner as Ashcroft,  master as J.Taylor, vessel registered at Preston.
4. Information from Barrow Shipping Register from Pete Sandbach.
5. The Times newspaper, Wednesday, 9th October, (page13) reports the wreck; Thursday, 19th October (page 7) reports the Board of Inquiry; and Tuesday, 24th October, 1911 (page 10) reports the Board's judgement.