Bessie Arnold

Official Number
58199

Original figurehead, repaired by Marvin Elliott, at the Kilmory Free Church, Isle of Arran.The schooner Bessie Arnold was built at the Ferguson and Baird shipyard at Connah's Quay, and was launched in June 1872. She was registered at Whitehaven and was owned by the Duddon Shipping Association, effectively the shipping fleet of the Hodbarrow Mining Company. Her owners named in Lloyd's Register and the Mercantile Navy List were all directors of that company, and the schooner herself was probably named after a daughter of another director, Harry Arnold. The first master of the Bessie Arnold was Capt.John Dodd, of Connah's Quay, and he retained her command until the 1890's.

The Bessie Arnold would have operated in the typical trades of the Duddon schooners, taking iron ore from Millom to South Wales and the Clyde, returning with coal or timber pit props. She would have also operated in the general coasting trades around the Irish Sea. Since Capt.Dodd was from Connah's Quay, Dee river cargoes would probably have been common - bricks, tiles and earthenware from Hawarden, coal from Mostyn, ore to the steelworks at Shotton.

Capt.John Dodd left the Bessie Arnold in the 1890's and died aboard the Mary Ann Mandall in 1897.


Original and replica, carved by Marvin Elliott.

The Bessie Arnold left Millom bound for Glasgow on the 26th December 1908 and was wrecked two days later. The Bessie Arnold, with what appeared to be three men aboard, had stranded in a severe gale at Sliddery, on the Isle of Arran. The James Stevens No.2, the sailing lifeboat based at Campbeltown, was launched under the command of Coxswain George McEachran. The lifeboat approached the wrecked vessel in very severe conditions, and her crew saw that some of the schooner's crew were still aboard. As the lifeboat drew near the Bessie Arnold, a large wave threw the lifeboat onto the schooner's deck. The lifeboat was badly holed, and began to fill rapidly after being washed back into the sea. Unfortunately the schooner's crew had been swept overboard to their deaths, and a lifeboatmen had also been cast into the sea. He was rescued after twenty minutes, the lifeboat then returning to her home station.

The five men lost with the vessel were the master, Capt. John Jones (of 45 Market St., Millom), Walter Austin, Joseph Eager, Michael McMillan (of Kilmory parish, cook) and Thomas Gowan (of 45 Sheriff St., Dublin). The mate survived.


The Times, Tuesday, 29th December 1908, page 10;

" The schooner Bessie Arnold was totally wrecked yesterday at Sliddery, near Blackwaterfoot, Island of Arran. Four of the crew were drowned and one was saved by the rocket apparatus. The Campbeltown lifeboat went to the scene of the wreck, but owing to the position of the vessel, which lay 40 fathoms from the shore, the lifeboatmen were unable in the heavy sea to rescue the other members of the crew. Three men were seen clinging to each other, apparently benumbed. One large wave swept the lifeboat between the fore and mainmasts of the vessel. The bowman, Neil Mackenzie, was washed out of the lifeboat and two of the schooner's men were drowned. Mackenzie had a remarkable escape, being rescued in an exhausted state by his comrades, after he had been in the water twenty minutes. The rocket apparatus was by this time working, and rescued the only survivor of the schooner's crew. The lifeboat had a very rough passage across Kilbrannan Sound to Campbeltown. Her hull was damaged by contact with the schooner. "

Coast Guard Henry Oscar Welch was awarded the Sea Gallantry Medal for his participation in the rescue.

The original figurehead of the Bessie Arnold is now in the Free Church, Kilmory, Isle of Arran, and a replica has been created by Marvin Elliott and has been placed on the graves of the seamen lost in the wreck.

Name
Year Built
Gross Tons
Length (feet)
Breadth (feet)
Depth (feet)
Masts
Figurehead
Stern
Lloyd's Classn.
Bessie Arnold
1872 
 129
86.8 
22.2
11.4 
2
 Female
 
13 years A1 

Sources :

  1. Research by Trevor Morgan
  2. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1872-3 (Supplement): Bessie Arnold, schooner, 114 tons, built by Ferguson at Chester in June 1872, official number 58199, registered at Whitehaven, owned by William Morgan, master Capt.J.Dodd.
  3. Mercantile Navy List 1875: Bessie Arnold, schooner, 114 tons, built at Connah's Quay in 1872, official number 58199, registered at Whitehaven, owned by William Morgan, of Duddon, Cumberland.
  4. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1883-4: Bessie Arnold, schooner, 119 grt, 114 nrt, built by Ferguson at Chester in June 1872, official number 58199, registered at Whitehaven, owned by W.J.Barratt, master Capt.J.Dodd.
  5. Mercantile Navy List 1892: Bessie Arnold - data as MNL 1875, except managing owner Robert Johnson, of Steel Grove, Millom, Cumberland. The same data was included in the MNL 1904.
  6. Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1895-6: Bessie Arnold, wooden schooner, 129 grt, 114 nrt, built by Ferguson at Conah's Quay in June 1872, official number 58199, registered at Whitehaven, owned by R.Johnson, master Capt.T.Dodd.
  7. Obituary of Capt.John Dodd in the Cheshire Observer, 13th March 1897.
  8. Wreck is listed on the website of the website of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.
  9. The Sea Gallantry Medal by Bernard de Neumann.
  10. Photographs (CLICK to enlarge) of the original and replica of the figurehead of Bessie Arnold, courtesy of woodcarver Marvin Elliott