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Description
The schooner JOHN SAINT BARBE was one of the shipping losses during the Royal Charter Gale, 25-26 October 1859. It was built at Rye, East Sussex, in 1827. Its port of Cardigan registration entry (shown in the image above) provides us with a technical description:
Official number 25268; 1 deck, 1 mast, rigging schooner, stern square, build carvel, framework wood. Length from the forepart of the Stem under the bowsprit to the Aft side of the Head of the sternpost 60.78ft; Main breadth to outside of plank 18.6ft; Depth in hold from tonnage deck to ceiling at midships 9.9ft. Gross tonnage 65.39.
If you move your mouse over this image, you'll find more information about the schooner's working life and the Welsh people who were associated with it from 1841. Before this date, its owner and master was Thomas Rowland of Fair Street Horsely Down, Southwark, London.
The Welsh owners included a father and son - William Lloyd Junior of Milford, master mariner (36 shares); William Lloyd Senior of St Dogmaels, master mariner (24 shares); and Robert Richards of Milford, sail maker (4 shares).
The JOHN SAINT BARBE was carrying a cargo of oats when it driven ashore at Lavernock Point. It is likely that it was anchored off Cardiff and Penarth and was caught by the change in wind direction to the northeast. The strength of this wind was noted as gale force 11. One crewmember was drowned in the incident.
Sources include:
Lloyds Register of British and Foreign Shipping 1st July 1858 to 30th June 1859, number 431 in Port of Milford Shipping Register 1837 - 1854, Pembrokeshire Record Office T/SHIP/2/5, folio 192
Port of Cardigan Shipping Register 1855 - 1950, Pembrokeshire Record Office T/SHIP/1/7, 3 in 1859
Sir Francis Beaufort was the Hydrographer of the
Navy from 1829 and 1855. He was also responsible for the development of a scientific branch of the Admiralty to include the Hydrographic Department, the Royal and Cape Observatories, the Nautical Almanac, the Chronometer Branch, and a Compass Branch in 1842 to look at the problems of the using compasses in iron ships. But it is his scale for measuring wind speeds and sea state for which is he is most remembered. How would he have described the height of the waves and the state of the sea for gale force 11?
Where are the stern and stem posts on a vessel?
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