Airey Force

Official Number 69270

The Airey Force was a ship built by Williamson & Son at Harrington, launched on the 22nd March 1873. She was registered at Liverpool and her first commander was Capt.John Sprott of Harrington. She sailed twice to Sydney, and her crew consisted on 26 men on these voyages. In February 1875 she was wrecked on Mangariva Island on the return journey from the second voyage, 21 crew surviviving this wreck. Some of these men were subsequently lost when the vessel taking them from Tahiti to San Francisco, the schooner Margaret Crockard, was itself capsized in a gale.

From Ware's Whitehaven Advertiser and Cumberland Pacquet newspaper, 25th March 1873, page 2 ;

HARRINGTON LAUNCH - On Saturday was launched from the shipbuilding yard of Messrs.R.Williamson & Son, a fine iron sailing ship of 1,154 tons O.M., and 1,062 register. A larger company than usual attended to witness the interesting event, including a number of owners of the vessel and their friends. Mrs.John Sprott, wife of the captain, christened the ship just before she glided from the ways to her future element., and named her the Airey Force, after a waterfall on the banks of Ullswater. The Airey Force is the fifth vessel built by the above firm for Captain Sprott, of Liverpool, and she will be no insignificant addition to that gentleman's already fine fleet of ships. Her materials and workmanship are of the highest order. She is fitted with all the most recent improvements; has been built under special survey, and will be classed A100 (or the highest grade) in Lloyds Register. The vessel, after she had been successfully launched, was towed around into Harrington Harbour, where she will be masted, rigged, and equipped ready for sea. She is expected to sail from that port in about three weeks; and is to be commanded by Captain John Sprott, of Harrington, brother to the managing owner.

WRECK IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC.-The San Francisco Chronicle states that the British bark Marama, which arrived at that port on the 30th April from Tahiti, brought news accounting for the non-arrival of the schooner Margaret Crockard, which left Papete for San Francisco as long ago as the 22nd of February with a complement of eight men, a light cargo of oranges and logs, and, as passengers, the captain and crew (21 in number) of the British ship Airey Force, which was wrecked about three months ago on Mangariva Island, in the South Sea, the crew succeeding after many hardships in reaching Tahiti. On the second day out the Crockard encountered a gale, and at night a heavy squall threw her on her beam ends, and after a short struggle she turned bottom upward. The calamity came so suddenly that those who were below had not time to escape. The crew of the schooner, being on deck, had time to make their way to one of the boats. Captain Godfrey escaped through a skylight. Of the four passengers in the cabin, Captain Coltier, of the Airey Force, alone succeeded in making his way out. Of his men, who were all below, but seven were ever seen afterwards. Fourteen men, including the two captains, succeeded in getting clear of the vessel. They managed to pick up a few oranges and a kit of mackerel. With no other provisions but these, they set out for the Island of Matahiva, 130 miles distant, this being the nearest land. It proved to be uninhabited. To their dismay they were unable to find any fresh water, and the only food it yielded was a few cocoanuts. Foreseeing that they must perish if they remained there, the captain resolved upon a desperate attempt to reach Tahiti. With six men he started on the following day in an open boat. On the second day after leaving the island they were picked up by the Tahitian schooner Island Belle, which immediately started for the island and rescued the remainder of the party in an exhausted condition. The captain of the Island Belle fed and cared for them and transported them to the Island of Awaa, where he transferred them to the schooner Mary, by which they were conveyed to Papete, where they arrived twenty-six days after the loss of their vessel.

Sources :

1. "Shipbuilding at Workington - a Checklist" by Harry Fancy, pub. Whitehaven Museum (1985).
2. See Mariners and ships in Australian Waters  for list of crew when the Airey Force arrived at Sydney from Liverpool in September 1873 - Capt.John Sprott.
3. See Mariners and ships in Australian Waters  for list of crew when the Airey Force arrived at Sydney from London in October 1874 - Capt.William Cottier.