Eliza Bond

Official Number
18225

The Eliza Bond was a schooner built by Thomas Hughes at Chester in 1856. Henry Bond, the master, after whose daughter the vessel was named, collected her from the ship builder. There appears to have been some confusion when coal was loaded for shipment to Lancaster where the owners intended to register her. A special pass had to be obtained to allow the laden vessel to sail before she had been officially registered.

Tha managing owner was Thomas Roper of Newland who had succeeded his father, Richard, as a principal in Harrison, Ainslie & Co., a Furness iron ore firm. Other owners listed at registration were: Henry Bond, Barrow, Master Mariner; John Bell, Ulverston, gentleman; Elizabeth Robinson, Bardsea, widow; James Ashburner, Bardsea, Maltster; James Cox, Ellesmere Port, Grocer; John Cross jnr, Ellesmere Port, Ship Broker; William Shelley, West Bromwich, Merchant.

There are good records at the Public Record Office and in Ulverston showing the movements of this vessel. She plied the coast from Barrow, Duddon or Ulverston mainly to the ports of the Mersey and the Dee. She occasionally went to Scotland, the Isle of Man and Ireland. So far, records up until 1895 have been found. She transported amongst other things, coal, ore, sulphur, gunpowder and general goods.

The Eliza Bond was berthed at Liverpool for the 1881 Census (1st April). The only person aboard was Thomas Moore, aged 78, of St Davids, Pembrokeshire, Wales, described as a cook. 

The Eliza Bond was owned in Wales in her later years, and was then sold, in September 1902, to Simon Roche of Ballygow, Co. Wexford, described as a coal merchant and shipowner in the Lancaster Shipping Register. According to this document, the Eliza Bond was totally lost in South Bay, Wexford, on the 19th October 1907.

Crew Lists 1864, 1869, 1870 to 1874
 
Name
Year Built
Gross Tons
Length (feet)
Breadth (feet)
Depth (feet)
Masts
Figurehead
Stern
Lloyd's Classn.
Eliza Bond
1856
70 73/100
72.7
18.0
7.7
2
 
Round
12 years A1

Sources (all information provided by Sue Bond) :

  1. Registration Document at Cumbria Record Office, Barrow
  2. Lloyd's Register of Shipping (1857 - 1866)
  3. Clayton's Register of Shipping 1865: Eliza Bond, schooner, 71 tons, built in 1856, classed 12 years A1, owned by Thomas Roper, of Newland Furnace, master Capt.Bond.
  4. Mercantile Navy List 1870: Eliza Bond, 71 tons, official number 18225, registered at Lancaster, owned by Thomas Roper, of Newland, Ulverston, Lancashire.
  5. Accounts of Voyages and Crew, class BT99, Public Record Office
  6. Hawkes G I (1987), Shipping on the Dee, Maritime Wales, vol.11, pp.112 -33.
  7. Records of the Boards of Customs, class CUST79, Public Record Office
  8. Registers of Arrivals & Departures: Ulverston Canal at the Heritage Centre, Ulverston.
  9. 1881 Census details from Bob Sanders, Ships in Port 1881 website.
  10. Mercantile Navy List 1899: Eliza Bond, schooner, 56 tons, built at Chester in 1856, official number 18225, registered at Lancaster, managing owner Griffith Jones, of 20 Rosehill Street, Conway.
  11. Mercantile Navy List 1907: Eliza Bond, schooner, details as 1899, except managing owner Simon Roche, of Ballygow, Bannow, Co.Wexford.