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Vicar of Bray | Official Number
25349 |
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Vicar of Bray | Official Number
25349 |
The Carlisle Patriot, Saturday, 1st May 1841;
"A handsome new barque, built for Captain George Seymour, of Bray, late of the Warlock, of Whitehaven, was launched on Thursday week from the building yard of Mr.Hardy,
of Whitehaven, named the Vicar of Bray, 225 tons,old measurement, and 281 new, and intended for the East India trade."
The Vicar of Bray was a barque
built at Whitehaven in 1841. She still survives as a wreck in the
Falkland Islands, and has some historical significance as the sole surviving
example of the vessels that supplied San Francisco during the 1849
Gold Rush.
The Vicar of Bray was built by Robert Hardy at Whitehaven and was launched on the 22nd April 1841. Hardy was not as prolific as other Whitehaven shipbuilders, such as the Brocklebanks and Lumley Kennedy, and built only eighteen vessels over a 27 year period, the most significant of which were the China trader John Dugdale and the Indiaman, Floraville. The Vicar of Bray was his penultimate large vessel, being followed only by the brig Hyperion, in 1844. The barque had a high classification at Lloyd's, 12 years A1, indicating good quality materials and workmanship. Her survey report stated that she was "as good as can be made", and that she had been built of English oak and West African hardwoods.
On the 16th June the Vicar of Bray entered Liverpool for loading, and a month later she departed the Mersey, under the command of Capt.Seymour and bound for Rio de Janeiro and Lima. The round trip took a year, and the vessel entered inwards at the London Custom House on the 1st July 1842. The barque seems to have continued in this trade to South America for the next few years, her return cargoes probably being copper ore.
Newspaper reports show the Vicar of Bray arriving at Cowes, Isle of Wight, on the 8th February 1849, from Huanchaco, then departing Gravesend on the 27th March, for Valparaiso. In November/December she arrived at San Francisco from Valparaiso, under the command of Capt.Duggan. Her crew apparently deserted her upon arrival, and it took some time before Capt.Duggan could find replacements. On the 1st October 1850 the barque was reported sailing from Callao, bound for Liverpool. Oddly, in March 1850 the Times carried an advertisement for the Vicar of Bray, C.Duggan commander, to sail from London on the 10th October, as one of several vessels offering a regular packet service to San Francisco. The vessels were advertised as having excellent accommodation for passengers, and were said to be "favourably known in the Pacific". An advert appeared in July 1852, for the "well-known clipper barque Vicar of Bray", Robert Harrison commander, lying at St.Katherine's Dock and seeking cargo and passengers for Valparaiso. Her agent was George Seymour, of Cornhill.
In March 1859 a further Times advert stated that the Vicar of Bray had been recently lengthened and rebuilt. She was seeking cargoe for Lima, and her agents were Seymour, Peacock and Co., of Fenchurch Street. In May 1862 Adelaide was the advertised destination.
The Vicar of Bray arrived at Sydney from Melbourne in October 1862, under the command of Capt.Edwin Bobot, and with 12 other crew aboard (see Mariners & Ships in Australian Waters for crew list).
In March 1870 the barque, Capt.Lewis, arrived at Bristol from Mauritius with a cargo of 6737 bags of sugar. She then went to Cardiff to load a cargo of 29 tons of machinery and 436 tons of coal, and cleared for Valparaiso on the 25th May. The Vicar of Bray , along with severall other vessels, was damaged in a storm, with loss of sails and boats, and damage to the bulwarks and stanchions, and was forced to put into Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands to discharge her cargo and undergo repairs. The barque was bought by the Falkland Islands Company in 1873, and seems to have been refitted for trading between London and the Falklands. Her career came to an end when she arrived at Stanley from London on the 23rd September 1880. Her entry in Lloyd's Register that year was appended with the note "Now a Hulk". Her hull was used as a jetty at Goose Green, and today, partly submerged, still survives there.
In 1979 the wreck was surveyed for the US National Maritime Historical Society, with a view to transporting her to the SF Maritime Museum.
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