Engineering:Brunswick (1814 ship)

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Short description: British merchantman and whaler 1814–1842
For other ships with the same name, see Brunswick (ship).
History
United Kingdom
Name: Brunswick
Owner:
  • 1814:James Shrapnell Bowden & Benjamin Wright[1]
  • 1824:James Bowden and William Wright[1]
Builder: Thomas Steemson, Paull, Hull[2]
Launched: 7 February 1814[2]
Fate: Wrecked 7 April 1842
Notes: Hackman conflates this Brunswick with Brunswick.[2]
General characteristics
Tons burthen: 357,[3] or 357​8⁄94[2] (bm)
Armament: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 10 × 9-pounder carronades

Brunswick was launched at Hull and initially was a Greenland whaler. Her owner withdrew her from the northern whale fishery in 1836 and then deployed her sailing to New York and Sierra Leone. She was apparently on a voyage to India when she was wrecked on 7 April 1842.

Career

Brunswick first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1814 with W. Blythe (or Blyth), master, Wright & Co., owner, and trade Hull–Davis Strait.[3] Blythe would be her master from 1814–1816, and again from 1818–1814, when she left whaling.[1] The whaling data below is primarily from Coltish,[4] augmented with data from Lubbock.[5]

Year Master Owner Trade Notes and source
1815 W. Blythe Wright & Co. Hull–Davis Strait Lloyd's Register (LR)
1820 W. Blythe Wright & Co. Hull–Davis Strait Repairs 1819; LR
Year Master Grounds Whales Tuns whale oil
1814 Blythe Greenland 12 164
1815 Blyth Davis strait 10 57
1816 Blyth Greenland 16 228 (580 butts)
1817 Thompon Greenland 6 92
1818 Blythe Davis Strait 11 146
1819 Blythe Davis Strait 19 (or 19) 224 ("best fished" Hull ship of the season[6])
1820 Blythe Davis Strait 15 221 (or 18; 530 butts)
1821 Blythe Greenland 24 268 (or 269, plus 14 tons of bone)
1822 Blythe Davis Strait 4 53

In 1823, at the end on May, a strike by a whale fluke killed one seaman and injured three others.[7]

Brunswick left the ice at the whale fishing grounds on 16 August 1822. She arrived at Hull on 18 September with 50 tons of oil. She reported that conditions on the fishing grounds were very bad. Seven ships had been sunk, several had been beset by ice, and the rest had not killed more than an average of four fish each.[8] Laetitia, Clark, master, arrived at Aberdeen and reported a more complete accounting of how many whales each vessel had taken, and which were beset by ice.

A fuller account of Brunswick's survival exists. By this account, also, she left for England on 27 August and arrived in the Humber on 10 September. The 13 days transit from Davis Straits was a record.[9]

Year Master Owner Trade Notes and source
1825 W. Blythe Wright & Co. Hull–Davis Strait Repairs 1821, 1822, 1823; LR
1830 J. Blyth Wright & Co. Hull–Davis Strait Repairs 1821, 1822, 1823; LR
1835 W. Blyth Wright & Co. Hull–Northern Fishery LR
Year Master Grounds Whales Tuns whale oil
1823 Blythe Davis Strait 36 283 (or 281½, +317CWT of bone)
1824 Blythe Davis Strait 10 150½
1825 Blythe Davis Strait 20 270
1826 Blythe Davis Strait 7 (or 6, incl. one found dead[10]) 97
1827 Blythe Davis Strait 12 210

On 22 May 1825, Brunswick was close to Estridge, of Dundee, when she sank. Brunswick took on board seven of Estridge's crew.[11] In 1825, Brunswick was the best fished ship of the Davis Strait fleet.[12]

On 7 June 1827, a harpooned whale struck one of Brunswick's boats, overturning it. Two men drowned. An hour later, another of her boats killed a whale, which turned out to be the whale that had overturned the first boat. On 16 June Brunswick and Zephyr came across the wreck of Mercury. Brunswick was able to salve 34 butts of blubber.[13]

Year Master Grounds Whales Tuns whale oil
1828 Blythe Davis Strait 17 238
1829 Blythe Davis Strait 14 214
1830 Blyth Davis Strait 6 89

Eighteen-thirty was the most disastrous year in the history of British northern whaling. Brunswick was among the vessels most seriously damaged, though she was not lost.[14]

Year Master Grounds Whales Tuns whale oil
1831 Blythe Davis Strait 7 100
1832 Blythe Davis Strait 24 225
1833 Blythe Davis Strait 23 186
1834 Blythe Davis Strait 5 77

In 1834 Wright & Co. withdrew Brunswick from whaling and put her into general trade.

Year Master Owner Trade Notes and source
1836 Smith Wright & Co. Hull–Quebec
Hull 		Damage and small repairs in 1837; LR
1839 T.Porter Wright & Co. Hull–New York
Hull–Sierra Leone 		Large repair 1839; LR
1840 T.Porter Wright & Co. Hull–Sierra Leone
London 		Large repair 1839; LR
1841 T.Porter Wright & Co. London
Hull–East India 		Large repair 1839; LR

Fate

Brunswick, Porter, master, was wrecked on 7 April 1842 on the Sunk Sand, in the North Sea off the coast of Suffolk. The smack Good Agreement, Brown, master, rescued the crew and brought them into Wivenhoe. Brunswick was on a voyage from Hull to London.[15][16]

The entry for Brunswick in Lloyd's Register for 1841 bears the annotation "Wrecked".[17]

Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Laing (2003), p. 73.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Hackman (2001), p. 257.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lloyd's Register (1814), Supple. pages "B", Seq. №B13.
  4. ↑ Coltish (1842).
  5. ↑ Lubbock (1937).
  6. ↑ Lubbock (1937), p. 214.
  7. ↑ Lubbock (1937), p. 243.
  8. ↑ Lloyd's List №5733.
  9. ↑ Lubbock (1937), pp. 248–249.
  10. ↑ Lubbock (1937), p. 262.
  11. ↑ Lubbock (1937), p. 258.
  12. ↑ Lubbock (1937), p. 260.
  13. ↑ Lubbock (1937), p. 272.
  14. ↑ Lubbock (1937), p. 278.
  15. ↑ "Ship News". The Standard (London) (5538). 8 April 1842. 
  16. ↑ "Shipping Intelligence". The Hull Packet (Hull) (2991). 15 April 1842. 
  17. ↑ Lloyd's Register (1841), Se.№B553.

References



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