Hugh Ewing

Official Number
58195

The Hugh Ewing was an iron schooner built by R.Williamson & Son at Harrington in August, 1871. The vessel had a water ballast tank and required little or no ballast apart from this.

The hugh Ewing was bought by Australian owners in 1881 for operating in the Queensland coastal trade, primarily in transporting coal to Townsville.

The Hugh Ewing, Captain C.W.Ericksson, was lost on the morning of the 13th August 1886 on No.1 Herald Reef (part of Swain Reefs, which form the outer part of the Great Barrier Reef). She had been on passage from Brisbane to Townsville with 340 tons of coal. The master and seven crew were saved by the barque Rachel. The subsequent enquiry into the wreck blamed the master for failing to take account of a current, and suspended his certificate for three months.

Name
Year Built
Gross Tons
Length (feet)
Breadth (feet)
Depth (feet)
Masts
Figurehead
Stern
Lloyd's Classn.
Hugh Ewing
1871
192
 111.8
 22.1
 11.0
 
 
 
100 years A1, Special Survey 

Sources :

  1. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1871-2 (Suplement): Hugh Ewing, iron schooner, 176 tons, built by Williamson at Harrington in August 1871, owned by Paterson & Co., registered at Whitehaven, master Capt.T.Coulthard, voyage Harrington - Rotterdam.
  2. Mystic Seaport Library Ship Register Search has shipping register details for most years from 1877 to 1887.
  3. The Welsh Mariners website names the master from 1877 to 1879 was Capt.Evan Hughes.
  4. Mercantile Navy List 1878: Hugh Ewing, schooner, 176 tons, built at Harrington in 1871, official number 58195, signal letters LCMF, registered at Whitehaven, owned by William Price, of Harrington.
  5. "Wreck of the Hugh Ewing" in the Brisbane Courier, Tuesday, 17th August 1886, page 5, and the report of the board of enquiry in the same newspaper, 26th August 1886, page 4.