Week 567 (29th January 2012)

CLIO

Vessel

The wooden brigantine Clio, of London, (Official Number – 71,407), 236 tons gross, 225 tons register, was built at Prince Edward Island, Canada in 1874 and was owned by Ellis, Kislingbury and Company. The Clio was 113.7 feet in length, had a beam of 26.4 feet and a draught of 12.9 feet (34.7 m x 8.0 m x 3.9 m).

History

The Clio, John Dennis, master, laden with 150 tons of coal for ballast, left Greenock on Tuesday 21^st September 1875 bound for Liverpool on only her second trip, where she was to take in a cargo for the West Indies. The next day she encountered a heavy gale from the east-southeast, which during the night greatly increased in violence. She experienced the full force of the storm when off Point Lynas.

During the storm the crew had to keep wearing the ship, and every time she was put about she lost ground, and the result was that on Thursday night 23^rd September 1875, the vessel was off the coast of the Isle of Man. At 4.30 a.m. on Friday 24^th September 1875, the Bahama Lights were sighted. At this time the crew were not aware that the Clio was so close to land. They tried to wear her gain and immediately she was wore they found that the land was close on the lee side; indeed so close were the rocks, that the breakers were distinctly visible.

Captain Dennis immediately ordered as much sail on the ship as she could possibly carry in such a gale, the object being to try to reach off the shore. The vessel managed to weather the headland a little to the north of Clay Head, but it was found impossible to weather Clay Head, which just farther out to sea. There was no room to weather the ship and she would not stay; consequently she drifted onto the rocks

Of the crew of seven men Daniel Falconer (mate), Gilbert Ward, James Daugherty, and Francis Larkin saved themselves by leaping from the vessel onto the rocks soon after she struck. The master, John Dennis, of Appledore, Henry Johnson and Michael Irving, stayed on the Clio but she quickly went to pieces drowning Dennis and Irving but Johnson survived by clinging onto a piece of timber and was washed ashore on the beach at Garwick.

For information on the book "Shipwrecks of the Isle of Man" follow this link.