Carricks

Official Number none

The Carricks was a brig built at Workington in 1812. She seems to have spent most of her career as a "coffin ship", carrying Irish emigrants to Canada.

In 1832 (see Source 2) the Carricks was listed as being owned by Potts & Co., and her masters were named as Capt. J.Potts and Capt.J.Hudson. She was stated to be sailing to Quebec, and was noted to have been sheathed in 1830 and to have a draught under load of 14 feet. In 1840 she was registered at Whitehaven and was still owned by James Potts and Co., and was under the command of Capt.Robert Dawes (see Source 1).

In March 1847 the Carricks sailed from Sligo bound for Quebec under the command of Capt.R.Thompson, severely overloaded with emigrants from the Irish estates of Lord Palmerston. On the 28th April she ran into a severe storm  in the Gulf of St Lawrence and was wrecked about 4 miles E of Cape Rosier. Numbers of those lost vary with different reports, but it appears that of 176 passengers, nine had already died on the voyage, and a further 119 died after the wreck, leaving 48 survivors. Of the crew, all survived except for one boy.
 

Sources :

1. A List Of The Cumberland Shipping, Corrected To February 1840, by William Sawyers, Comptroller Of Her Majesty's Customs At The Port Of Whitehaven.
2. Lloyds Register of Shipping 1832 (Underwriters Green Book) - information from Gilbert Provost's Lloyds Register website.
3. Rossespoint website - Shipwrecks on other shores
4. The Ships List - Arrivals in Canada June 1847
5. http://www.geocities.com/grbosse.geo/carricks.html - with picture of memorial to the shipwreck victims. Cites a report from the Quebec Gazette, 11th June 1847, page 2.