Loss of the schooner "Wyre"

[clive_hughes]

Thank you Michael,  it clearly wasn't the Master in this case.

[KizmeRD]

On 14/08/2022 at 18:28, Michael Lowrey said:

Wyre was an old vessel, built in 1855 in Fleetwood. Her listed owner in the 1918 MNL is John T. Miller of Liverpool. Wyre though was registered in Fleetwood; she was of 57 nrt.

According to the 1914 Mercantile List WYRE was owned by John Hoey of Annagassan, Co. Lough. He appears to have been a coal merchant. 

https://collections.mun.ca/digital/collection/mha_mercant/id/33935/rec/6

[clive_hughes]

Thanks, I hadn't come across that online source previously.

[charlie962]

Through the newspaper archive one can pick up fascinating snippets of her life, and the dangers involved, eg:

 Nov 1859. Cargo of pig-iron. Had her foretopmast and jibboom carried away during a squall off the Mull of Galloway.   

30/11/1860. A sailor named Richard Duckinfield, schooner Wyre, when aloft scraping masts, fell to the deck..about 30ft..left leg broken.

12/1/1861 Glasgow. As a consequence of ice bringing down the bridge at Broomislaw and driving many vessels from their moorings...including...schooner Wyre of Fleetwood, bowsprit and jibboom torn away, cathead and other damages... Altogether so much wreck has never before been seen at the same time at Glasgow. 

14/2/1861. Put in at Dundalk, 9th inst, schooner Wyre, of and for Fleetwood from Preston, with loss of mainboom and sails. Cargo of pig-iron. Captain Myerscoff was unfortunately killed by the boom when it broke.

May 1862 Fleetwood.To be sold by auction, 1/16th shares. Schooner Wyre, Fleetwood, John Myerscough master. Registered to carry 71 tonnes. 

May 1862. Bought at auction part share in schooner Wyre for 50pounds by Mr Harrison, rope spinner of Preston.

Feb 1868. For sale, well formed, in very good condition. Apply Samuel Hope, coal agent, Fleetwood. 

11/4/1876 with a cargo of stone headed for Fleetwood, in difficulty in a gale off Lytham. Stranded on the Horse Bank. Lytham Lifeboat rescued two but a boy was washed overboard.  

24/4/1876. Wreck of the Wyre. Having been lightened by throwing her cargo of stone overboard she was floated off the Horseback at high water and removed to Preston for repairs.

 

8/10/1890.  Anchored 2 miles off Annagassan, cargo of coal, hold on fire.  

.   ...........

1932. Death of 92 year old Alice Gillett of Fleetwood. In her early married days she sailed out of Fleetwood with her husband John Gillett who was the master of the schooner Wyre. (Edit) John Gillott was Wyre's master on a coal and pig-iron trips in 1872/73/4. But by 1881 census he is dock labourer at Fleetwood. Born c1840 Westby. Died before 1911 census. Was he the master at that 1876 wreck? (Note name is both Gillott and Gillett)

 

There is more in the Irish newspapers and and more detail of the above incidents in the UK papers. 

Charlie

 

Edited 18 August , 2022 by charlie962

[KizmeRD]

The guys that crewed these small coastal sailing vessels in tidal waters with heavy cargoes of coal, pig iron, granite stone etc were true sailors of the old school. (No power to get you out of trouble when the wind dropped, no electronic aids to navigation, no VHF radio to summon help if you got into trouble).

MB

[clive_hughes]

Thank you Charlie for all that additional background information on her career - it's tempting to say she was an "unlucky" ship, but I suspect there were many others which had that number of accidents (and deaths) over a period of over many decades afloat.  

MB is so right -  real working seamen who had not just the physical ability to carry out the various duties which sailing a ship involved, but a knowledge of the sea, its moods, the winds and tides.  On top of that, the willingness to work as a team even in small vessels, with little chance of anyone else to call on for help if things turned bad.  My own ancestors on my father's side were such, sailing the world's seas and yarning about their experiences in the pub when too old to do any more...one of them so bored his audiences about the multitude of ports into which he'd sailed that he earned the local nickname "Dic Pob Man" - Welsh for "Everywhere Dick"! -and "Pob Man" became the family nickname locally.  Other than that his family connections with the sea spurred my father to volunteer for the RN in WW2, nothing much else has been handed down to me from that era!  

Clive

[charlie962]

52 minutes ago, clive_hughes said:

that additional background information on her career

Unable to find more about Jones, Thomas and Rooke I found it very informative to track back over the history of one vessel. The dangers of the sea and the weather won't have changed. But the crew faced additional risk from German submarines and the mines of both sides. Due respect to those who continued to ply that essential trade under those conditions, particularly those who paid the full price. 

Charlie

Edited 18 August , 2022 by charlie962

[clive_hughes]

Thank you once again for looking Charlie: I'll carry on making local enquiries and report any progress.  Like you, I've been enlightened by this search for the career and fate of a little ship and her crew.

[KizmeRD]

Found this…

“Not so fortunate were the crew of the schooner Wyre. That the Irish sea still held its perils despite all the progress in safety is proved by her melancholy tale. Having traded for 60 years, she was laid up during World War One by her owner John Hoey of Annagassan, Co.Louth. He sold her in 1918 to John T. Miller of Liverpool and in the winter of that year she left Whitehaven for Annagassan with coal just after the schooner Lucie also bound for Annagassan. A storm arose and during the night, when the Lucie was off Carlingford Lough, her crew saw the lights of the Wyre some miles to seaward. It was the last seen of her. The wind was easterly and it was thought she foundered off the South Down coast.”

Raymondscountydownwebsite

MB

Edited 20 August , 2022 by KizmeRD

[charlie962]

Excellent. 

Charlie

Edited 20 August , 2022 by charlie962

[KizmeRD]

Source is Raymond’s County Down website…

http://countydown.x10.mx/html/kilkeel3.htm

MB

[clive_hughes]

An interesting site you've found there MB: not just about the Wyre but the November 1916 "Retriever"/"Connemara" sinkings at Carlingford Lough in terms of the Inquest.  There are other sites covering that tragedy, but not that bit of legal aftermath.  Like Richie Thomas, the "Connemara" crew was commemorated on war memorials on Anglesey despite their deaths not being an "act of war".  

Thanks again

Clive

[KizmeRD]

Clive, if you contact Raymond Kelly himself, he may be able to tell you the source of the information on his website.

MB

[clive_hughes]

Thanks, I'll do that MB.

[corisande]

Is it possible that there were two Wyres.

One a steel ship from Annagassan , the other a wooden schooner from Fleetwood ?

It is the only solution that make sense to me

[KizmeRD]

26 minutes ago, corisande said:

Is it possible that there were two Wyres.

One a steel ship from Annagassan , the other a wooden schooner from Fleetwood ?

It is the only solution that make sense to me.

Sorry, would you care to explain the reason for you comments? Where’s the inconsistency exactly?

We are talking about an old wooden schooner that had several owners during her long career.

MB

[corisande]

My earlier post on this thread lists the Wyre as an Annagassan Steam Coaster carrying coal

This Irish Wrecks site has this entry, which is probably your Wyre

http://www.irishwrecksonline.net/Lists/DownSouthListC.htm

[KizmeRD]

I think the Irish Wrecks website got close, but what they published was not entirely accurate.

Annagassan harbour would be challenging to put a steam drifter alongside, let alone a larger steam coaster carrying a heavy cargo of coal.

Whereas it’s just the sort of place that a small wooden schooner like WYRE would be comfortable getting in and out of (and during the mid-Victorian era it was known for this type of vessel).

Also the shipping registers don’t have any entry for a steam coaster of this name during the period in question.

MB

Edited 25 August , 2022 by KizmeRD
Added a note about the none too large harbour.