Week 396 (11th November 2008) 

BURNS AND BESSIE

 

Vessel

The wooden schooner Burns and Bessie, of Barrow (Official Number - 62,709), 96 tons register, was built by Charnley at Ulverston in 1870 and was owned by Nathaniel Caine, of Broughton-in-Furness. She was 79.6 feet in length, had a beam of 19.8 feet and a draught of 9.6 feet (24.3 m x 6.0 m x 2.9 m).

History

The Burns and Bessie, Peter MacPherson, master, left Port Glasgow at 9.00 a.m. on 10th March 1888 bound for Millom with a cargo of 100 tons of coal slack shipped by Colin Dunlop and Company and James Kelly, both of Port Glasgow, and consigned to Hod Barrow Mining Company, of Millom.

All went well until 7.30 a.m. on 11th March when the steamship Glen Garrock, which had been towing the Burns and Bessie, cast her off. After this time the wind gradually increased and by 10.00 a.m. a gale force easterly was blowing. The schooner was now two to three miles off the Point of Ayre when her cargo of coal slack shifted to the leeward, causing her starboard side to be under the water to the combings of the hatches. Before her crew could let any water off the deck by removing the bulwarks, she shipped another sea causing her cargo to shift still further and now more than half the schooner was under water.

The crew could do very little was she was quite unmanageable and would not wear or stay, but they managed to head her towards the beach at the Point of Ayre with a view to beaching her in order to save their lives as they feared that she would founder eventually.

The Burns and Bessie was run up onto the shingle beach and rapidly became a total wreck. The deck house and boat were swept off the deck and her crew had no means of saving themselves. They took to the rigging and bowsprit to keep above the waves sweeping their vessel. The Point of Ayre Lighthouse keeper, Henry Wallace, went to the aid of the mariners by immediately rushing to the water’s edge and then plunging in with a rope, his wife, Mary Wallace holding the other end on shore. The assistant light keeper, Thomas A Christian and Miss Ellen Blyth, also entered the water and eventually all four men from the schooner were safely brought ashore.

In recognition of the rescuers’ bravery the Royal Humane Society award a Bronze Medal to Henry Wallace, Vellum to Thomas Christian and Ellen Blyth and Parchment to Mary Wallace.

It was the opinion of the mate, Thomas Scott, that a combination of her coal slack cargo and the lack of shifting boards in her hold meant that there was a good chance that the cargo would shift in a heavy sea. The other two crew members were Morrison and W Blackburn.

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