Mary Nicholson

Official Number 45429

The Mary Nicholson was a ship built by Lumley Kennedy & Co. at Whitehaven. She was launched in September 1862 under the name of Princess Alexandra, but was re-named when acquired by her first owner, John Nicholson. She was registered at Liverpool and entered the Liverpool - China trade. She departed Whitehaven on the 24th December 1862 under the command of Capt.Freebody and spent the next three years in the "Eastern Seas", returning to England when she docked at London, from Hong Kong, on the 4th January 1866.

In October 1869 the Mary Nicholson was dismasted in a typhoon in the Kino Channel, near Higogo, 240 miles SW of Yokohama, bound from Yokohama to Hong Kong in ballast. The crew abandoned her, and on the 2nd October, in lat.32N and long.136E, she was boarded by the crew of the Clydevale, also bound from Yokohama.

The Liverpool Mercury, Thursday, 25th November 1869;

"A few days ago we published the fact that the Liverpool ship Mary Nicholson had been passed derelict off the coast of Japan, but that nothing had been heard of the crew. A telegram has been received from her captain (Freebody), dated from San Francisco, and stating that the ship had been abandoned. The crew, with the exception of a seaman named Riley, were all saved ...... The Mary Nicholson was the property of Mr.John Nicholson, of Kirkdale, Witham, Wigtownshire, whose Liverpool agents are Messrs.Nicholson and M'Gill, We believe the vessel is uninsured, Mr.Nicholson not insuring 'on principle.' The ship is valued at £10,000."

1. "Shipbuilding at Whitehaven - a Checklist" by Harry Fancy, pub. Whitehaven Museum (1984).
2. Return from "Eastern Seas" reported in the Cumberland Pacquet and Ware's Whitehaven Advertiser, Tuesday, 9th January 1866, page 8.
   
3. Mystic Seaport Ship Register Search can be used to find  shipping register details from 1863 to 1870.
   
4. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1863-4: ship, master Capt.J.Freebody, registered at Liverpool, owned by Nicholson.
5. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1868-9: ship, master Capt.J.Freebody, registered at Liverpool, owned by Nicholson.
   
6. Wreck reported in the Glasgow Herald, 1st December 1869, and in the Liverpool Mercury, 20th November 1869.
7. Jardine Matheson Archive (ref.MS.JM/A8/12/27) hold an account for the last voyage of this vessel, "A current account, headed 'Supplementary a/c', for the 'Mary Nicholson', dated Yokohama, 30 October 1869, with three orders for payment from John Freebody to Herbert Smith, 9-30 October 1869, and a receipt from Freebody, 30 October 1869."

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