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Chebar |
Official Number
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Chebar |
Official Number
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The Chebar was a barque built by Peile, Scott & Co. at Workington, launched on the 6th February 1840.
The Cumberland Pacquet & Ware's Whitehaven Advertiser, Tuesday, 11th February 1840;
" On Thursday last, a splendid new vessel was launched from the
building-yard of Messrs.Peile, Scott & Co., at Workington, called
the Chebar,
burthen per register 403 tons, coppered, full-figure head, and carved
taffrail, executed in the first style of art by Mr.Jas.Brooker, of
Maryport, and emblematical of the majestic power attempted by the
mechanical performance of the whole vessel. She has a full poop,
topgallant forecastle, and is intended for the East India trade. - From
the circumstance of this vessel being the first completed by Mr.Fell
throughout with his Patent Binding, under his own direction, and
subject to the strict scrutiny and vigilance of Henry Grayson, Esq.,
partner of the building establishment, and for whom the vessel was
built, she is presumed to be in point of strength, combined with great
neatness of appearance, as perfect a vessel as can well be conceived.
In short, the Chebar has been pronounced by all persons skilled
in that branch of mechanism, who have experienced her, to be, not only
equal in architectural design to any that has ever been executed in
this county, but equal in strength to any ever built in England.
Another ship built for John Sparks, Esq., at the same yard, similarly
constructed and similarly inspected during the process of building, is
nearly ready for launching."
The following ship from the yard, mentioned in the above report, was the Thomas Sparks. The Chebar herself
loaded at Liverpool and departed for China on the 15th April under the
command of Capt.Robert Smallwood, subsequently returning to Liverpool
under the unusual circumstances described in the following report:
The Cumberland Pacquet & Ware's Whitehaven Advertiser, Tuesday, 26th May 1840;
" The new barque Chebar (late Smallwood) of
Workington, which sailed from Liverpool for China on the 16th ult., put
back on the 16th instant, leaky. Captain Smallwood, as soon as the leak
was discovered, set the hands to the pumps, in the hope that the cause
of the leak might be discovered and removed. It was not until the third
or fourth day after the leak had begun that he finally determined to
bear up for an English port. His intention was to run for Plymouth,
declaring to his mate that he could not face his owners by returning to
Liverpool! At this time, though he had exerted himself to the utmost,
even taking his turn at the pumps, he became exceedingly low and
melancholy, occassionally wishing that the ship would sink. At length,
on the 2nd instant, in a fit of temporary insanity, he swallowed
laudanum. His officers, on finding that he had taken poison, took means
to relieve the stomach of the laudanum, in which they succeeded. At
night he became more tranquil, and it was hoped that he had abandoned
all intention of destroying himself. In the course of the night,
however, when there was no person in the cabin but himself, he jumped
out of one of the cabin windows and perished. Captain Smallwood had
been twelve years in command of vessels, was a steady, sober man, and
highly esteemed by his employers. He fell a victim to a morbid sense of
the responsibilty of his perilous situation. The mate, after the death
of the captain, took the command of the ship, and bore up for
Liverpool, instead of Plymouth. The deceased was a native of this town,
and son of Mr.Robert Smallwood, joiner, Liverpool. He was part-owner of
the above vessel, and formerly commanded the ship Hero, of this port."
The Chebar continued in the China trade for her full career, usually stopping at intermediate ports such as Bombay, Penang and Singapore, and sometimes departing from London rather than Liverpool.
The Chebar, bound from London for Bombay with a general
cargo and one passenger, and a crew of eighteen, under Captain Grayson,
collided in the early morning of the 14th December 1849 with a Swedish
brig, the Hilde de Charlotte, Captain Jacobson, off Cape Finisterre. The Chebar lost
her jibboom, figurehead and headgear, but took off most of the crew of
the sinking brig, then returned to Plymouth for repairs.
The Chebar departed Hong Kong on the 12th April 1851, bound for London, under the command of Captain Grayson. She struck on the Bromvers shoal, east coast of Sumatra, on the 8th May. She had to cut away her foremast and lost five anchors and much rigging, but was got off on the 12th and was taken into Batavia on the 14th. Upon examination the barque was found to be too badly damaged to proceed, and she was condemned in July. Her cargo of oil and other goods was transferred to the Bangalore.
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