Pearl

Official Number
58186

The Pearl was a schooner built by Shepherd and Leech at Whitehaven. She was launched on the 2nd July 1867 and was owned by George Nelson, of Whtehaven, in her early years. She was yellow-metalled, so must have been involved in foreign trade.

A schooner Pearl, belonging to Gloucester, was abandoned at Pwllheli on the 24th December 1925.

The Pearl, still owned in Gloucester, was bound for Kinsale with a coal cargo when she struck rocks at Garretstown, Ireland, in a SE gale on the evening of the 19th December 1927. The crew managed to send distress signals and took to the rigging, and during the night a rocket line was fired to the ship by the coastguard. Some of the crew must have still been aboard because the rope was secured and the people onshore began to haul the vessel towards safety. The rope parted, and the morning revealed the schooner aground on a reef a quarter of a mile offshore. The crew had either been swept from the ship or had been lost trying to reach shore in the small boat.
 
Name
Year Built
Gross Tons
Length (feet)
Breadth (feet)
Depth (feet)
Masts
Figurehead
Stern
Lloyd's Classn.
Pearl
 1867
122
 82.6
20.3
 11.2
 2
 
 
10 years A1, Special Survey 

Sources :

  1. "Shipbuilding in Whitehaven - A Checklist" by Harry Fancy, Whitehaven Museum (1984)
  2. Mercantile Navy List 1868: Pearl, 122 tons, official number 58186, registered at Whitehaven, owned by George Nelson, of Whitehaven.
  3. Lloyds Register of Shipping 1980-1: Pearl, brigantine, 122 grt, 110 nrt, built by Shepherd at Whitehaven in July 1867, official number 58186, signal letters KSCQ, registered at Whitehaven, owned by G.Nelson & Co.., master Capt.J.G.Thompson.
  4. Lloyds Register of Shipping 1922-3: Pearl, registered at Gloucester and in the ownership of W.T Symonds and Co.
  5. Abandonement in 1925 from Gwynnedd Maritime Database
  6. Mercantile Navy List 1927: Pearl, schooner, 96 tons, built at Whitehaven in 1867, official number 58186, signal letters KSCQ, registered at Gloucester, owned by William T.Symonds, of 72 Bute Street, Cardiff.
  7. Loss in 1927 described in "Ships of West Cumberland" by Desmond G.Sythes (first published 1969, republished by The Friends of Whitehaven Museum, 1992).
  8. British registry closed in 1927 - from the National Archives, ref. BT 110/592/7.