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Blencathra | Official Number
11567 |
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Blencathra | Official Number
11567 |
The Blencathra was one of six vessels built at Workington for the Lamport & Holt line. Five of these were built by Charles Lamport, namely the Cathaya, Blencathra, Coniston, Glaramara and Chalgrove. The Blencathra was a 466 ton barque built by Charles Lamport at Workington in 1857, and owned for her full career by Lamport & Holt.
The Liverpool Mercury, 5th January 1857;
" SHIP LAUNCH AT WORKINGTON.- On Thursday there was launched
at the shipbuilding yard of C.Lamport Esq., a beautiful clipper
ship, barque, called the Blencathra, the old name for Saddleback,
burthen nearly 500 tons, length 156 ft., breadth 27 ft., depth 18 ft. She
is built for Messers.Lamport and Holt, Liverpool and is intended for the
West India trade. She is diagonally braced with iron under the ceiling
and her clamps, stringers and waterways are dowelled to timbers and beams
at every yellow metal bolt. Her ceiling is diagonal trussing between deck,
and her beams are also trussed with hard wood under the deck to prevent
any tendency to twist. "
The Times, Friday, 16th May 1873, page 7;
" RESCUE BY A SPANISH SHIP.- Messrs.Yeves & Co., of 24,
Fenchurch-street, send us a copy of a letter addressed by Mr.William Hunter,
the master, John Forman, the mate, and 14 seamen of the British bark Blencathra,
to Señor Don Manuel Elortegui, captain of the Spanish brig Lucas,
of Gijon. It appears from it that the Blencathra was abandoned,
and that her crew were saved from inevitable death during a storm by the
Spanish ship, which came to their rescue regardless of danger, when they
were sinking, their strength exhausted, and when all hope was gone. The
Spanish captain took the Englishmen on board his ship. He treated them
"like brothers", divided with them all he had, and cut short the rations
of his sailors on account of the addition of 16 men on his crew of 10.
He had the men he had rescued on board his ship for 17 days, and in consequence
of scarcity of food was obliged to deviate from his course for Bilbao and
put into the port at Gijon. The captain and crew of the English ship express
in the warmest terms their gratitude to the Spanish captain and his men
for their generous and gallant conduct, and hope that he will receive some
compensation for the losses sustained. The letter is authenticated by Mr.William
Penlington, English Consul at Gijon. "
The Blencathra had been bound from Pensacola for Plymouth. At
the time of her loss she was described as a North Shields barque. She
developed a leak in severe weather and the crew abandoned her in their
boats, being picked up by the Lucas after "knocking about for a long time".
NOTE: Another vessel named Blencathra was built at Whitehaven.
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