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Official Number
76889 |
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Official Number
76889 |
| Launch report from the Barrow Times, Sat. 3rd August 1878, page 5.
LAUNCH OF A SCHOONER - On Thursday morning a splendidly built schooner was safely launched from Messrs. Ashburners' Shipbuilding Yard. Her dimensions are as follows : Length , 98 ft. 5 in.; breadth , 22 ft.; depth 9 ft.; gross tonnage, 96; nett tonnage, 85. As she left the stocks she received the name "Isabella" from Miss Isabella Banister, daughter of Captain Bannister, who is master of the vesssel and part owner. Messrs. Ashburner are the managing owners. She is classed A1 for 10 years, and has been built under the special survey of Mr.W.Bath. There is a sister ship on the stocks to the Isabella, and the latter, which is intended for the coasting trade, is expected to take in cargo next week for the Bristol Channel. The sails were made by the Barrow Sailmaking Company, under the management of Mr. Hurford. Prior to taking command of this vessel Capt. Bannister was master of the Margaret Bannister. The Isabella is the 35th vessel which has been built at this yard. |
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The Isabella was engaged in the coasting trade, principally in
the Irish Sea and on the west coast. From about 1890 she was effectively
a Dee River vessel, and had acquired a master from Connah's Quay. Her Certificate
of British Registry at the Cumbria Record Office has the names of her masters
noted on the back. They were :
| 02/08/1878 | Thomas Banister | 29/01/1897 | Thomas Hughes | 24/09/1919 | William Thomas Tope |
| 16/04/1882 | Robert Latham | 04/02/1897 | James Iddon | 29/10/1920 | James Stevens |
| Date illegible | Daniel Banks | 08/09/1900 | William James Coppack | 09/02/1921 | Ernest ( Cadly ?) |
| 09/09/year illegible | Thomas Davis | 25/10/1901 | Humphrey Shaw | 28/02/1927 | William Lewis |
| Date illegible | Name illegible | 18/05/1904 | Robert John Wright | 16/07/1927 | Sydney Benet |
| 15/10/1891 | William Hughes | 06/04/1910 | Clement Foulkes | 22/12/1930 | Joseph Henry Fellows |
| 02/09/1896 | Thomas Hughes | 25/041910 | Robert John Wright | ||
| 02/12/1896 | Thomas Hughes | 27/09/1917 | Charles Thomas |
In 1909 the Ashburners sold their fleet by auction at Connah's Quay,
the Isabella being sold for £590 to Tom Coppack and Capt.
Robert Wright of the Result, father of
the Isabella's then master. She was resold for £2340 in 1917
to owners at Plymouth, the inflated price being due to the shortage of
shipping due to war losses amongst the schooner fleet. In 1930 she was
sold back to the Dee River, bought by Capt. Fellows, and he installed an
engine in her. She was laid up in 1934 at Par, along with the Emily
Warbrick, a Fleetwood schooner that you can just see in the background
of the photograph. Sold for use as a yacht, she spent the War years at
Woodbridge in Suffolk, owned by an RAF officer, and she was still in use
as a houseboat in 1948. I think she was broken-up by Camper and Nicholson
at Southampton shortly thereafter.
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