Vicuna

Official Number
20459

The Cumberland Pacquet and Ware's Whitehaven Advertiser, Tuesday, 6th October 1857, page 5;

"SHIP LAUNCH AT HARRINGTON.- A beautiful new barque, of 330 tons register, was launched from the building yard of Messrs.R.Williamson and Son, of Harrington, yesterday. She was built for Captain William Wilson, late of the barque Elizabeth Archer, and is named the Vicuna, and has been classed A1 at Lloyd's for 14 years."

In 1883 the Vicuna was owned by the Hull Ice Company, and was registered at Hull. The Vicuna, bound for Hull with ice from Norway, was caught in a NNE gale and driven ashore at Holme Point, Brancaster Bay, Norfolk, on the 7th March 1883. The crew of nine were taken off by the RNLI Hunstanton lifeboat. The wreck was still visible in 2007.

Name
Year Built
Gross Tons
Length (feet)
Breadth (feet)
Depth (feet)
Masts
Figurehead
Stern
Lloyd's Classn.
Vicuna
1857
330
 121.5 
25.4 
 16.7
3 
 
 
A1, 14 years 

Sources :

  1. Mercantile Navy List 1868: Vicuna, 319 tons, official number 20459, signal letters NBGV, registered at Liverpool, owned by John Robinson, of Liverpool.
  2. Mystic Seaport Library Ship Register Search has shipping register details for most years from 1881 to 1885.
  3. Record of American and Foreign Shipping, 1885 NB. In this register from 1881 to 1885 the vessel is mistakenly also listed under the name Vienna.
  4. Mercantile Navy List 1880: Vicuna, barque, 304 tons, built at Harrington in 1857, official number 20459, signal letters NBGV, registered at Bristol, owned by Thomas R.Egelstaff, of Clifton Wood Terrace, Bristol.
  5. Wreck reported in the Times newspaper, 17th March 1883, page 14, Maritime Losses and Casualties.
  6. Rescue of crew reported in the Times newspaper, Wednesday, 11th April 1883, page 6, Royal National Lifeboat Institution.