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Moresby | Official Number
86208 |
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Moresby | Official Number
86208 |
The Maryport Advertiser and Weekly News, Friday, 7th July, 1882;
" SHIP LAUNCH AT WHITEHAVEN : Yesterday afternoon a most successful
ship launch took place from the yard of the Whitehaven Shipbuilding Company.
The vessel, which was christened the "Moresby", by Miss Mary Mason,
of Egremont, is 235 feet in length, 36 feet in breadth, 23 feet in depth,
and 1,200 tons register, and is a sailing ship. She has been built
for Capt.Dodd, of Liverpool, and others, and is intended for the Colonial
and West Coast Trade. "
The Moresby was an iron ship built in 1882 by the Whitehaven
Shipbuilding Company.
The Moresby sailed from Cardiff on the 21st December 1895, bound for Pisagua, Chile with a cargo of 1,778 tons of coal. She carried a crew of 23, and was under the command of Capt. Caleb Francis Coomber. The master's wife and young daughter were also aboard. On the 23rd December the ship met rough weather and at about 1 pm, following the schooner Mary Sinclair, she sought some shelter in Dungarvan Bay. Both vessels were seen to be in distress by the Ballinacourty lighthouse keeper as they headed towards the beach. The Mary Sinclair was run aground at Clonea, but the Moresby changed course and was steered towards the lighthouse. At 2.30 pm, she succeeded in setting an anchor, about ¾ of a mile off the lighthouse.
At about 4 pm the Ballinacourty lifeboat was launched to give assistance to the distressed vessel. She reached the ship, but at that time the crew declined to be taken off. The Moresby carried two lifeboats, a cutter, and a gig, and had only recently completed a BoT survey, and was considered to be a well-found ship. During the night, however, the weather worsened and the Moresby sent out distress signals. About 4.30 am on the 24th December the vessel's anchor broke and the ship went over on her side. The captain and his wife and child, together with eleven of the crew, were forced to seek safety in the rigging of the mizzen mast. The remaining eleven crewmen were towards the bow. By 11a.m. the ship's masts were close to the water and she was clearly breaking up. The crew had waited in vain for the return of the lifeboat, and eventually had to take the desperate decision to try to swim for the shore.
Capt. Coomber jumped overboard with his daughter, and the mate accompanied the master's wife. Other crewmen followed them, but there was an ebb tide, and this swept them away from the coast. The Ballinacourty lifeboat was launched at about noon, but only five people were rescued. Twenty people, including Capt Coomber and his wife and daughter, were drowned.
The Times, Friday, 7th February 1896, page 10;
" The Board of Trade inquiry into the loss of the ship Moresby
and 20 lives was concluded yesterday afternoon, when the Court sat to give
judgement, which was read by the president, Mr.William Orr. It was to the
efffect that the Moresby, when she left Cardiff, was in all respects
in a good and seaworthy condition, and carried the boats and life-saving
appliances required by the Board of Trade. The master, Captain Comber,
probably put into Dungarvan Bay under the impression that he was entering
Cork Harbour. Thirteen were needed to man the lifeboat at Ballinacourty,
and 17 were enrolled. Four of these belonged to the coastguard service,
and the others might be described as labourers and fishermen. It seemed
to have been impracticable to enrol a greater number of men at Ballinacourty.
The lifeboat was out between 2.30 and 4.15 on the afternoon of December
23, but it did not appear that the service they then rendered were such
as to unfit any of them for further service during the following night.
Nevertheless they twice refused to serve by the coxswain (Cummins) that
evening. The Court considered that no valid reason had been given by Mr.James
Hare, one of the coastguard officers at Ballinacourty, for not acting immediately
after the first signal of distress was made by the Moresby on the
night of the 23rd. Cummins, who was a competent officer of the coastguard,
took proper and sufficient measures to assemble the lifeboat crew at midnight,
only a few of the men, however, responding to his summons, but he did not
take the proper and necessary steps to assemble a crew at 6 o'clock the
next morning, nor did he communicate the intelligence of his inability
to get the crew together to the local hon.secretary. It was the duty of
Mr.Hare, when he found the lifeboat coxswain had failed in assembling a
crew, to have launched the coastguard galley and made an attempt to save
the people on the Moresby. In the opinion of the Court the failure
of the lifeboat to render assistance was due to the inability of the coxswain
to obtain a crew at Ballinacourty. Great blame, they considered, attached
to Mr.Cullinan, hon.secretary of the local lifeboat committee, for taking
no steps to communicate with the coxswain on the night of December 23,
when he heard that the crew had refused to go out again, and for taking
no steps to call a meeting of the committee so as to secure the services
of another crew. Great blame attached to Mr.Hare for not returning to Ballinacourty
and giving directions with a view to saving the crew of the Moresby.
No blame attached to John Sampson, coastguard officer of Bon Mahon. Great
blame, in the opinion of the Court, attached to Cummins for not sending
messengers at 6 o'clock on the morning of December 24 to summon those lifeboat
men who had failed to attend at his signal, for not telephoning to the
local secretary, and for not using more exertions to get volunteers when
the rocket apparatus had failed."
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