Ann Falcon

Official Number None / 26594

There were two vessels named Ann Falcon built at Workington. Unusually, their careers overlapped, so it is not a simple task to trace their history.

Ann Falcon, built 1841, no official number.

The first Ann Falcon was an hermaphrodite brig, built at Workington and registered there in 1841. She operated in the coasting trade and was lost in 1852. Bound from Limerick for Glasgow with a cargo of oats, she drove ashore on the island of Doagh, near Malin Head, during a Force 9 NW gale on the 17th February 1852, and subsequently went to pieces. Four men were saved, and one other was washed off the rocks and drowned.

Ann Falcon, built 1844, official number 26594.

The second Ann Falcon was a barque, launched on the 10th January 1844 from the building-yard of James Alexander, at Workington. She was 260 tons old measurement, and had been built for Captain Bowness, formerly of the Leo, of Liverpool, and was intended for foreign trade.

In August 1873 the Ann Falcon, described as a brigantine, put back leaky twice in attempting to sail from Cardiff to Palermo (or, in some reports, Palma, Majorca). The vessel was subsequently condemned, and charges against the crew, who had been imprisoned for refusing to sail at the second attempt, were dismissed. The charge that the vessel was unseaworthy was refuted by Richard Bowness, the managing owner at the time, but it seems that the Ann Falcon was nearing the end of her career. By 1877 she was operating only in the Irish Sea, and she probably became a hulk soon after.

Sources (Ann Falcon, built 1841) :

1. Entry no.20 for 1841 in the Workington Shipping Register 1839-55 (Ref.TSR/3/1 at Cumbria Record Office, Whitehaven) - states that this vessel was wrecked 16th February1852.
2. Lloyd's Register of Shipping, 1849-50: Ann Falcon,  schooner, 117 tons om, 108 tons nm, built Workington 1841, owned by Alexander, belonging to Workington, master Capt.D.Rees, 8 years A1, Workington coaster.
   
3. Wreck reported in the Times newspaper, Saturday, 21st February, 1852, page 7.
4. Wreck reported in "The Lifeboat: the Journal of the National Lifeboat Institution", No.5 (July 1852), page 80 - describes the vessel as a brigantime, 108 tons, and the date as17th February1852.

Sources (Ann Falcon, built 1844) :

1. Launch reported in the Cumberland Pacquet newspaper, 16th January 1844, page 3.
   
2. Lloyd's Register of Shipping, 1849-50: Ann Falcon,  barque, 265 ton, built Workington 1844, owned by Armstrong, belonging to Workington, master Capt.Bowness, voyage London - Mauritius.
   
3. Mercantile Navy List 1857: Ann Falcon, registered at Workington, 265 tons, Official Number 26594.
4. Mercantile Navy List 1867: Ann Falcon, registered at Workington, 249 tons, Official Number 26594, signal letters PLSV, registered owner James Alexander, of Workington.
5. Lloyd's Register of Shipping, 1874-5 Ann Falcon, barque, 248 ton, built Workington 1844, owned by Alexander, belonging to Workington, master Capt.J.Russell (vessel last surveyed in 1868).
6. Newspaper correspondence in 1873 from the Standard (London), Saturday, 13th September (page 6) and Friday, 26th September (page 5).
   
7. Workington Shipping Register 1855-76 (microfilm JAC1725 at Cumbria Record Office, Whitehaven) - registration of the Ann Falcon cancelled in 1881 - "vessel converted to a hulk".