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Official Number
83976 |
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Official Number
83976 |
The James Postlethwaite was a three-masted schooner, built by
William Ashburner and Son at Barrow. She was a sister ship to the ME
Johnson, the ship that had preceded her in the yard, and she was
launched on the 11th August 1881. She was the last schooner to be built
by William Ashburner, who died shortly afterwards, and his son Richard
built only one more schooner at the yard, the J
& M Garratt. The first master of the James Postlethwaite
was Capt. Robert Roskell.
| The James Postlethwaite could carry about
240 tons, but she only operated in the coasting trade, never travelling
further abroad than the French Channel coast. She was managed by Thomas
Ashburner and Co. from her launch until the Ashburner fleet was sold off
in 1909. In these years her masters included Capt. Robert Foulkes and Capt.
Robert Latham, who also commanded the Mary
Ashburner and the Margaret Banister, and who was the son
of Capt. John Latham who had drowned with the Mary
Bell.
In 1909 at an auction at Connah's Quay the James Postlethwaite was sold for £955 to an Irish shipowner, Capt. Ned Hall of Arklow. He later had the misfortune to be berthed in Hamburg on the day that Britain declared war on Germany. Capt. Hall and his crew were interned as British subjects, and the James Postlethwaite had her masts removed and was used as an ammunition barge in the Elbe estuary. In 1919 she was towed to South Shields to be refitted, and resumed her career under Capt. Hall, making a first trip from Shields to St.Valery. In 1926 Capt.Hall installed an engine, removed the topsail yards and had her topmasts shortened. Capt. William Hagan took over her command, but he also suffered misfortune when the ship was sunk by collision with a collier in Carlingford Lough in May 1929. Fortunately the ship was salvaged and she resumed her trade around the Irish Sea. In 1945 she was given a bigger engine but her masts were more drastically reduced and she was now little more than a motorship. She made her last visit to Barrow in 1952 and soon after she was laid up at Arklow, the schooner trade by now being virtually defunct. |
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The James Postlethwaite had one last role to play. In June 1954
she was towed from Arklow to Youghal, where John Huston was filming "Moby
Dick". She was outfitted as a whaler, and was moored in the docks to act
as background scenery. After the filming was completed she remained moored
at Youghal whilst her owners awaited a tow back to Arklow, but in November
a gale smashed her into the quay, causing irreparable damage. She was beached
and remained derelict for three years until she was finally set on fire
on the 7th October 1957.
The wheel of the James Postlethwaite was salvaged and is now on display next to the bar at the Moby Dick Inn at Youghal, where the proprietor, Paddy Linehan, has many photographs and mementoes from the filming. |
More photographs from the
Craig/Farr Collection
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