WEST RIDING barque 1875

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aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

WEST RIDING barque 1875

Post by aukepalmhof » Fri Nov 25, 2011 7:22 pm

Tristan da Cunha issued three stamps in 1985 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the tragic event in its history.
In 1882 troubles started for the islanders on Tristan da Cunha when rats came ashore from the wreck of the HENRY A PAULL.
The rats contributed in 1885 to the failure of the main crop of the islands the potato, which were eaten and destroyed by the rats. When not any ship had made a call at the island from December 1884, the islanders found themselves in dire circumstances.
When on 28 November 1885 the barque WEST RIDING was sighted while the weather was poor, and the islanders thought the ship would not attempt to call, 19 men manned the lifeboat and set out to catch up with the ship and make some barter for needed food and supplies.

The WEST RIDING was built as a cargo vessel under yard No 75 an iron hulled barque rigged vessel by Dobie & Company, Govan, Scotland for T. Thompson, Liverpool.
Launched as WEST RIDING
Tonnage 953 gross, 913 net, dim. 203.9 x 33.6 x 19.9ft.
1875 Completed.

Her maiden voyage was from Liverpool to Sydney under command of Captain Geo Legget and a crew of 21 men.
1878 Command was taken over by Captain W.R. Thomas.
28 November 1885 at 04.00 in the morning the WEST RIDING was in a position 9 mile e.n.e off Tristan da Cunha when the crew sighted a boat nearing under sail from the islands. At that time a high sea was running with squalls otherwise the visibility was good.
Orders were given to haul down some sails, and the vessel heaved to.
Around 07.40 when the boat was about 1 mile away, the mast and sail disappeared from sight but shortly thereafter she was seen again but now propelled by oars with course to the WEST RIDING.
Shortly thereafter she disappears and was not seen again.
The WEST RIDING commenced searching and for more as two hours she was looking for the boat.
Due to a strong counter current the captain could not sail to the island to inform the islanders.
Captain Thomas decided to stop the search and continued his voyage to Australia.

The Tristan da Cunha island history gives:

When the WEST RIDING called at Tristan da Cunha to get some fresh water, nineteen islanders driven by a great need of provision and being almost on the verge of starvation, put off in their new lifeboat is a very rough and stormy sea to try and intercept the sailing ship. But just when near the WEST RIDING, about four miles away, a sudden and most violent squall capsized or filled the boat and all its crew, except four were drowned.

The boat was given to the islanders by the British Board of Trade, in recognition of the islander’s services in rescuing and caring for the crew of the British four-masted barque SHAKESPEARE. The life boat was the same type as used by whaling ships.
She was fitted out with life-buoys.

25 January 1895 the WEST RIDING still under command of Captain Thomas and owned by T. Thompson sailed from London to Fremantle, West Australia. She was spoken by the bark PRIMERA under command of Captain Connell on 10 March two days after crossing the Equator. At that time all was well on board.
That was the last what has been heard of the WEST RIDING and she disappears thereafter with her total crew.

Tristan da Cunha 1985 10p sg399

Source: Log Book . Launceston Examiner of 27 July 1895. The Early History of Tristan da Cunha.
Watercraft Philately July/August 1990 page 2
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AndyS
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2010 7:17 pm

Re: WEST RIDING barque 1875

Post by AndyS » Fri Nov 25, 2016 3:59 pm

Hi

My reading says 15 on lifeboat. Whatever the actual loss was, it defines "tragedy"; an overused word in today's world.

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