The Loss of the Barque “Wilson” of Bristol, 1833. Everyone aboard SAVED!

This short entry is in the grand tradition of Serendipity, or “One thing leads to another”.  Elsewhere in this blog, you will find the Beara Peninsula in County Cork, on Day 3 of the Lindegaard travels in Ireland, April 2025, when we were visiting my special treat for that day, the Allihies (defunct) Copper Mine.

It was when scouring the newspapers for Allihies and Be(a)rehaven * or anything to do with the mine (there being a dearth of available literature on the subject), I stumbled on the above strand of catnip, dated 28^th September 1833, and sent to the Albion & Star, London.

As the cutting reveals it referred to the barque “Wilson” of Bristol, asking that the ship’s owners should be told that the vessel was lost, though the occupants of Boat No. 1 had managed to reach safety on the north coast of Bere Island, after 52 hours at sea rowing the ship’s long boat. At the time there was no news of the second boat, and it was feared that its occupants had met with a watery grave.

But good tidings soon followed. The First Mate of the “Wilson”, David Davidson and his party aboard No. 2 boat, called “the pinnace”, (a small utility boat, which could be rowed or sailed – if you’re lucky, you learn a new word every day – had also managed to scramble to land on the same island, on the east coast of Bantry Bay, at Sheep’s (or Shee) Head.

Davidson said that when they were ten days’ out from Gloucester, the “Wilson” had sprung a leak. They had navigated their way down the Bristol Channel, along the South Wales coast, and out into the wild Atlantic, sailing in ballast towards St Andrew’s, New Brunswick, (Canada). They hoped to keep the leak under control by continuous pumping, but despite their endeavours, it increased and by 25^th September they could barely keep the vessel above water. By 2 a.m. on the 26^th when the decision was taken to abandon ship, the water had reached as high as the beams. They were then about 90 miles from Sheep’s Head.

“Mr Davidson and his party reached here on the 27^th in an exhausted state having had a miraculous escape as a very heavy gale came on soon after they had left the ship in which the boats parted company, and he is still ignorant of the fate of Captain Foster and his companions.”

In our time of instant communications, it is sobering to read that neither party knew the other had reached land safely, having come ashore at different places on the island though reportedly within an hour of each other.  The island today has 200 regular inhabitants (greatly increased by the summer tourist trade) but I visualise another story lurking in the wings. In 1833, there may have been even fewer residents, and I see the exhausted mariners of Foster’s boat trudging about trying to find help until rewarded at last when a lonely cabin door was opened by the fearful wife of an absent fisherman, who spoke no English, but who sent a child running for Patrick O’Sullivan… Who was he? The Island chieftain?

“The two parties met at last on Monday evening at Cork to their mutual surprise and gratification.” (Waterford Mail, 9.10.1833)

Bere Island.

The news of the fate of the “Wilson” was extensively covered by Irish and London papers. I cannot believe it was missed by the Bristol press, and it may be that those years are not presently available online.  For that reason, I cannot suggest who the owners were, whether of Bristol, Gloucester or elsewhere. It is too late by nearly 200 hundred years to let the families know that their men were safe, but I append the names again in case any of them are almost mythical ghosts in some family historian’s FT. Better late than never.

Boat no. 1

• Captain Edward Foster
• Charles Pritchard, 2^nd mate
• John Doyle, James Clerke, Edward French, Thomas Groves, John Hughes, (cook), James Batt, (boy)

Boat no 2

• David Davidson, chief mate
• Michael M’Grath, Thomas Johns, William Raven, David Vesey, Henry Foakes (boy)

(All “seaman”, except as shown.)

* NB. Bere, Berehaven, Beara are all valid names. The Irish form Beara is preferred these days.

Acknowledgments

Title picture is a 19th century gouache picture of a Barque ‘Ann Wilson’ under full sail in the Bay of Naples, Italy. Mount Vesuvius can be seen erupting in the background. Believed to be from the fleet belonging to the Baines Company, Liverpool. The painting is dated 1858. With thanks: https://www.lennoxcato.com/antique-furniture/19th-century-gouache-picture-of-a-barque/364608