Clifton

Official Number none

Source 1 lists two vessels named Clifton. The first was launched at Harrington on the 21st April, 1810, by Askew, Ellwood & Co. Possibly this vessel is that which suffered the shipwreck detailed below. A full-rigged ship, 313 tons,  named Clifton was launched at Workington by William Wallace, on the 19th February 1825.

Source 2 gives a detailed report, in the form of a letter from the master, of the shipwreck of the Clifton, of Workington, which was wrecked on the 25th November 1814, about 18 miles NE of Cape St.George, Newfoundland. Unable to find any inhabitants and believing they could not load sufficient provisions aboard their boats to take them to an inhabited island, the crew removed provisions from the wreck and determined to stay through the winter. The first to die was the cook, an African, on the 30th December. Two apprentices, W.Gile and W.Hailwood, deserted and may have reached inhabitants at St.George's Bay. The rest of the crew only left the place of their shipwreck on the 23rd April, when the ice broke sufficiently for them to launch their boats. Unfortunately, they were soon iced in, and the crew began to die - Wm.Hayton, Henry Todhunter, William Crompton (of Newcastle), John Durham (of Whitehaven), Thomas Chapman (carpenter, of Ulverston), Joseph Atkinson and John Cannon. On the 30th April the boat passed the Bird Islands, drifting out to sea, and was hauled onto an iceberg. Joseph Losh was buried there on the 3rd May. Two days later the iceberg was between St.Paul's Island and Cape Breton, and the boat was pulled off by the three remaining survivors. They attempted to make Cape North, but were forced by ice to row 20 miles SE, eventually landing on the 6th at an uninhabited place. Still prevented by ice from moving on, they stayed there and on the 12th May Thomas Walstaff (of Exeter) died - the master kept his body in the boat "to make use of" (presumably meaning, as a source of food). The two remaining survivors, of an original crew of fourteen, Capt. John Osborne, of Workington, and John Makinson, a boy, were able to leave when the ice broke on the 14th and reached the safety of Sidney, Cape Breton, on the 15th May 1815.
 

Sources :

1. "Shipbuilding at Workington - a Checklist" by Harry Fancy, pub. Whitehaven Museum (1985).
2. From "The Times" newspaper, Saturday, 15th July, 1815, page 3.