Paul – Page 7 – Messages from the Sea

A Cargo of Cotton

Found 26 August 1866, Slains Castle, Cruden Bay, Aberdeenshire.

In a bottle:

Ship City of New York. Sailed 6th December with a cargo of cotton, bound for Granton. Went out of her course 13th Jan. Boats all lost. Ship going down. God have mercy on our souls. — GEORGE ADAMS, carpenter.

Picked up by a gardener at the 16th century Slains Castle, more than a hundred miles north of the City of New York’s stated destination of Granton, Edinburgh. An Inman passenger liner also named City of New York was reported safe.

[Shields Daily Gazette, 1 September 1866]

Gone Down in the Bay of Biscay

Found 12 August 1861, Lamlash Bay, Isle of Arran.

In a bottle:

Gone down in the Bay of Biscay, the screw-steamer Hiero. Have taken to the boats but don’t expect to see land again. May the Lord have mercy on us! — John Sorston, First Mate, July 17, 1861.

There is no record of the Hiero in Lloyd’s Register, suggesting it was a small vessel of under 100 tonnes.

[Dundee Courier, 21 August 1861]

Please Let My Dear Wife Know

Found 14 November 1897, on the beach at Dartmouth Harbour, Devon.

In a white spirit bottle:

Going down now at Flamborough Head.
S.S Princess of Sunderland, Nov 13 1893.
Should any one pick this up please to let my dear wife know, lives at 25 Lawrence Street, Sunderland. Engines are broken down.
God help us. Going down every minute. Good bye all, my wife and little ones.
May God for give me all.
Signed
Mustard A.B.
Princes of Sunderland
Nov 13 1893

The “Gale of 1893” was a violent storm that wrecked numerous vessels and took around 200 lives over the course of 48 hours around the British Isles. The Princess was returning to its home port of Sunderland from Bilbao with a cargo of iron ore. By the time it reached the North Sea, the storm had reached hurricane force. According to one report, “the sea was running mountains high, and the hurricane was accompanied by blinding showers.” The ship was spotted in distress by the coastguard at Flamborough Head, a chalk cliff promontory on the Yorkshire coast. The coastguard attempted to fire a safety line using rocket apparatus, but the ship drifted north onto rocks and was smashed to pieces. A piece of the ship bearing its name was washed up on the rocks. All 19 crew members died. Three smaller ships were wrecked on the same rocks during the storm.

The Princess was Sunderland-built and was owned by John Sanderson, the Mayor of Sunderland. All of the crew were from the Sunderland area. Robert Mustard was an able seaman (A.B.). The message was found almost exactly four years to the day after the wreck, having drifted for more than 500 miles around the English coast, by Dartmouth bridge engineer George Humphrey. It was passed via Customs House authorities and the Board of Trade to Mustard’s widow.

[Sunderland Echo, 20 November 1893 and Shields Gazette, 16 December 1897]

Leaking Badly

Found 23 July 1883, off Long Island, New York.

In a bottle, picked up by Captain Chase of the steamer General Bartlett:

Schooner Smuggler leaking badly. Seine boats gone. Can’t keep afloat much longer. If this is found send news to Gloucester. Off Cape Elizabeth, July 15.

From Gloucester, Massachusetts, the 1877 schooner Smuggler was regarded as one of the most handsome schooners ever built. Although the Smuggler did become grounded on a ledge in July 1888, it was freed on the following day, and proceeded on its journey apparently undamaged. This message was therefore either an over-panicked dispatch or a hoax.

[New York Times, 24 and 25 July 1883]

Laden With Paraffin

Found July 1867, in the Sound of Sleat, west coast of Scotland.

In a bottle, on a slip of paper torn from a pocket diary.

March, Thursday, 21. Sprung a leak in the Minch–ship Diana, of Hull, laden with paraffin; no hope; ship going down. Master, John Tod.

The Minch is a strait between the west coast of Scotland and the Western Isles, north of the Sound of Sleat. In April 1867, it was reported that several casks of paraffin had drifted ashore around the Sound of Sleat.

[Inverness Courier, 27 June 1867]

May the Lord Comfort My Mother

Found January 1893, Holderness coast, Yorkshire.

On a plank of wood:

Caller Ou run down by unknown steamer–Dawson–No more time, sinking. May the Lord comfort my mother.

The Caller Ou left Hull 14 month prior to the message being found and was never seen again. Dawson was an apprentice on the vessel. The unknown steamer was never identified.

[Sheffield Evening Telegraph, 16 January 1893]

Run Over by a Steamer

Found July 1904, floating off Stavanger, Norway.

On a piece of bark:

Borregaard — I can tell you she is sinking between England and the Orkney Islands. We were run over by a steamer. This is the last I can inform you.

The Norwegian steamer Borregaard was sailing from Fleetwood to Sarpsborg, and was last seen off Dunnet Head in Caithness. No other trace of the ship or its 13 crew was ever found.

[Nottingham Evening Post, 30 July 1904]

Forgive Me for What I Have Done

Found 1 June 1889, off the Butt of Lewis, Outer Hebrides.

In a small glass bottle:

19th May, 1856–To Mrs Clunas, Burns Lane, Lerwick, Shetland.–Whaler Yoular. About my last hour. Forgive me for what I have done. May we all meet in Heaven. John Clunas, Grimt.

Discovered while hauling in nets by the crew of the fishing boat Isabella Reid, the message was passed to the superintendent of customs.

Strangely, another message from a J Clunas with a reference to Lerwick, Shetland was found in 1897.

[Aberdeen Evening Express, 3 June 1889]

Mutiny

Found July 1914.

In a bottle:

Angus–all hands–mutiny–collision with foreign barque.

The handwriting was identified as belonging to the second engineer of disappeared Hull trawler the Angus by his landlady, who produced letters from him as evidence. The landlady thought the note to be genuine, but could not explain the word “mutiny” as the crew were “very friendly”.

[Aberdeen Journal, 11 July 1914]

Spanish Steamer Opened Fire

Found June 1889, off the Carnarvonshire coast, Wales.

In a bottle:

S.S. Enore — 3 p.m., April 24th, 1898; sixty-five miles W.S.W. of Smalls Lighthouse. At four a.m. this morning a Spanish steamer bore down on us, and fired three shots; two went through our side above water. We stopped, and they sent a boat and nine or ten men to ransack our ship, taking everything of any value, and leaving many of our crew wounded. After the boat left, the Spanish steamer opened fire on us, and had thoroughly riddled our starboard with shot holes. Nine of my crew are killed altogether, and the ship is now sinking very fast. It is impossible to float another fifteen minutes. The small boats were smashed by Spanish sailors. We have no hope left at all. Good-bye. — C. McNeill.

Smalls Lighthouse is located on the Smalls Rocks, some 20 miles west of the Pembrokeshire coast. 24 April was the day before the beginning of the four-month Spanish-American War. Some newspapers referred to the message as a “war despatch”. Lloyd’s stated that there was no such steamer named the Enore. “Of course there isn’t,” responded the Cardiff Evening Express. “What remained of that gallant barque, after the Spaniards had done with it, disappeared beneath the pitiless waves at a quarter-past three p.m.”

[Cardiff Evening Express, 1 July 1898]