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Official Number
3910 |
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Official Number
3910 |
The Mary Sparks was built by Peile, Scott & Co. at Workington, launched in August 1845. She was 545 tons and was to be commanded by Capt.Joseph Bushby, of Liverpool, who was later to command the Clymene.
From the Manchester Guardian, 31st January 1851, Front page advertisement :
"Packet ship for Hong Kong and Canton, to sail 15th February...the clipper-built ship Mary Sparks, A1 twelve years, 544 tons register, George Graham, Commander, lying in the London Docks. This ship is a regular trader, well known for her uniformly fast passages, and the master is thoroughly acquainted with the China Seas. "From 1866 the Mary Sparks was registered at Dundee and was described as a barque. She was wrecked at Terschelling, Zuyder Zee, on the 18th December 1869 with the loss of all hands but one.
From the Belfast Newsletter, Monday, 27th December 1869:
" LOSS OF A BARQUE AND ALL HANDS BUT ONE.- A telegram was received on Monday night from Amsterdam, conveying intelligence of the loss of the barque Mary Sparks, Captain Nelson, of Dundee, at the island of Terschelling. Her crew consisted of about 16 men, including the master, and of these the carpenter, Joseph Mckenzie, belonging to Montrose, was only saved. The Mary Sparks was a vessel of 496 tons register, and belonged to Mr.Crighton, Dundee. She was bound from Green Island with a cargo of logwood for Hamburg, and arrived off Falmouth on Wednesday last. Here several of the crew were paid off on account of sickness, and new hands were put into their places. The captain took on board a pilot named Joseph Cooper. The names of the crew who are known yet, besides those of the captain and the carpenter, are; John Christie, first mate, London; James Mustard, second mate, Dundee; and J.Macnaughtan, apprentice, Dundee. The remainder of the crew are supposed to belong to distant places. The vessel is insured. On her voyage from Jamaica to Falmouth she picked up a shipwrecked crew, which she landed at the latter place."From the Glasgow Herald, Thursday, 30th December 1869:
" THE WRECK OF THE MARY SPARKS - ARRIVAL OF THE SURVIVOR; The only survivor of the crew of the barque Mary Sparks, of Dundee, which was wrecked at the mouth of the Zuyder Zee on the 18th December, arrived here on Tuesday. His statement of the loss of the vessel and the crew is very sad. The Mary Sparks, as our readers are already aware, was on a voyage from Jamaica for Hamburg with a cargo of logwood, and had proceeded as far north as the Island of Terschelling, at the mouth of the Zuyder Zee, when she struck on a rock. The accident took place on Saturday night the 18th December, and shortly after its occurrence the vessel began to break up. The weather was bitterly cold, the sea ran high, and the crew, 14 or 15 in number, looked long and anxiously for deliverance from death, which stared them in the face. No assistance, however,came to hand. The poor fellows, benumbed with cold and worn out by the excessive hardships they had to encounter, held out as long as they could, but latterly they began to drop off the vessel one by one, and sank into the deep, the captain being the fourth to succumb. By next morning the whole had disappeared but the carpenter, who was rescued in the forenoon, in a very exhausted condition, by a pilot boat. M'Kenzie was kindly treated by his rescuers and taken to Amsterdam, from which place he arrived on Tuesday. The only things saved from the vessel are three sails, some rigging, and about 1000 kilos of logwood."
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