Mary Spencer

Official Number
15380

The Mary Spencer was a full-rigged ship, launched from the Whitehaven shipyard of Lumley Kennedy & Co. on the 12th August 1847.

The Mary Spencer had been reduced to barque rig, and was owned and registered in South Shields when she was lost by fire in 1886. She departed Aquillas, Spain, on the 2nd April, bound for Tayport with a crew of 11 and a cargo of esparto grass. On the 20th April, with the barque becalmed, the cargo was seen to be on fire. Despite attempting to fight the fire for nearly a whole day, the crew were forced to abandon the vessel on the morning of the 21st, the position being  lat. 46.30 N, long. 13 W. The crew rowed to a German barque, the Marie Antoinette, which was becalmed six miles off, and later were transferred to another vessel, the Coquette, before being landed at Plymouth.

Name
Year Built
Gross Tons
Length (feet)
Breadth (feet)
Depth (feet)
Masts
Figurehead
Stern
Lloyd's Classn.
Mary Spencer
1847
 479
 
 
 
 3
 
 
 

Sources :

  1. "Shipbuilding in Whitehaven - A Checklist" by Harry Fancy, Whitehaven Museum (1984) - states 429 tons, ship rig.
  2. Mercantile Navy List 1857: Mary Spencer, 479 tons, official number 15380, vessel registered at Whitehaven.
  3. Clayton's Register of Shipping, 1865: Mary Spencer, barque, 449 tons, vessel registered at Whitehaven, master Capt.Fisher, owned by William Boadle, of Liverpool.
  4. Mercantile Navy List 1880: Mary Spencer, barque, 436 tons, built at Whitehaven in 1847, official number 15380, signal letters LSCH, vessel registered at South Shields, owned by William Robson, of Middle Dock Landing, South Shields.
  5. Wreck information from the Times newspaper, Monday, 3rd May 1886, page 6.