Billow Technical Specification

Completed September 1881; Official No. 84527; Code Letters WCDS.

Owners: 1881 Robert Morton Middleton & Co. West Hartlepool; 1886 Jackson Bros. & Cory, London.

Masters: 1881-85 C Darnell; 1887-89 Douglas; 1891-92 P Allan; 1893 J Middleton.

Voyages: 29 October 1883 she called at Queenstown for bunker coal & reported the loss of two of her boats. She then sailed for Antwerp arriving on 1 November 1883:

Stockton & Hartlepool Mercury 19 December 1885:

‘Poplar 16 December 1885-At 7.45am, the weather foggy, the steamer Billow of West Hartlepool coming up Deptford collided with the Barque Kiemet of Dram, towing down, much damaging her port bow & driving her into the Sir Walter Raleigh moored at buoy. The Raleigh’s upper works & port quarter were carried away.’

Billow left New Orleans bound for Antwerp & stranded outside Skutakar about 28 September 1892. The salvage steamer Argo was despatched: 9 October 1892 from New Orleans for Antwerp with grain the first mate, John Smith of Moor Terrace, Hartlepool, was washed overboard & drowned during a heavy gale.

Sank after a collision three quarters of a mile from Portugalete on 15 October 1893.

Lives lost October 1893:

Atkinson, ?  chief mate, Newport

Davies, ? steward, Cardiff

Saunders, J, third engineer, South Shields

Roberts, ? seaman

Hoskins, ? fireman

Cory, Lohden & Co., was formed in 1869 by Ebenezer Cory and Jacob Lohden. They went into partnership with George and Walter Jackson of London as ship agents and ship insurance brokers. In December 1881 Jacob Lohden left the partnership and started up as J. Lohden & Co. Ebenezer started up as E. Cory & Co. By 1885 the company had become Jackson Bros. & Cory. Ebenezer was also part of the firm of Cory, Wilcocks & Co., colliery agents of Fenchurch Street, London. Jackson Bros. & Cory was broken up in 1923 and became Jackson Bros.

Cory, Lohden & Co., had nine ships between 1869 and 1881. E. Cory & Co., had three ships between 1881 and 1886.

Family History:

Ebenezer Cory was born in April 1841 at Cardiff to parents Richard and Sarah. He married Jane Pyman, daughter of George Pyman, in 1865 and they had three children. Jane died in 1870 and Ebenezer remarried in 1871 to Janet Gow Irvine, daughter of Robert Irvine, shipbuilder. The couple had five children. The family lived at Stranton, West Hartlepool before moving to Surrey.

Ebenezer shot himself on 7 October 1886 at Claremont Villa, Trewsbury Road, Penge at the age of just 45. Those close to him stated that he had been unwell for a time. The subsequent inquest found that he had committed suicide whilst of unsound mind. Ebenezer left a personal estate of £7,235.

R.M. Middleton founded Middleton & Co. with the purchase of the steamship Rose Middleton from William Gray in 1874. All of the company’s eight ships were built in Hartlepool, four by William Gray and four by Withy. When the first Alverton was wrecked in 1879 they gave the name to another ship purchased in 1880.

The last of the ships were sold in 1886 and 1887, although Robert continued as a shipbroker and shipowner.

'Notice is hereby given that the partnership heretofore subsisting between us, the undersigned, Robert Hayes Carrick, of Bute Docks, Cardiff, in the county of Glamorgan; Otto Kramer Trechmann, of West Hartlepool, in the county of Durham; Albert Frederick Trechmann, of West Hartlepool aforesaid; and Robert Morton Middleton (the younger), formerly of West Hartlepool aforesaid, but now of Ealing, in the county of Middlesex, carrying on business as Ship and Steamship Owners, Ship and Steamship Managers, Ship and Insurance Brokers, Coal Exporters, and Commission Agents, at Cardiff and Barry Dock, in the county of Glamorgan, and Newport, in the county of Monmouth, under the style of "Trechmann, Carrick & Company," has by mutual consent been dissolved by the retirement of the said Robert Morton Middleton from the said Partnership, as from the 12th day of November, 1897. All debts due to and owing by the said late firm will be received and paid by the said Robert Hayes Carrick, Otto Kramer Trechmann, and Albert Frederick Trechmann, who will continue to carry on the said partnership business of Trechmann, Carrick, and Company" at Cardiff, Barry Dock, and Newport aforesaid. 12th November, 1897.'

Family History:

Robert Morton Middleton was born on 25^th January 1846 at Sowerby, Yorkshire to parents Robert Morton (banker’s agent for Backhouse Bank) and Mary Ann (nee Hutton) Middleton.  He grew up in Northallerton and also went into banking as a clerk for Backhouse Bank. Robert moved to Hartlepool and married Rose Helen Meredith on 7^th July 1870 at Christ Church. During their marriage they had five daughters and a son.

On the 1871 census Robert was listed as a banking accountant living at York Road, Stranton with his wife. By 1881 he was listed as a shipowner living at Hudworth Cottage, Castle Eden with his wife and five daughters. On the 1891 census Robert was listed as a shipowner and investment agent living at Ealing, Middlesex with his wife, four daughters and their son.

Robert was a keen botanist and a collector of natural history specimens and became a fellow of the Linnean Society. He stayed for a short while in Tennessee and then in Valparaiso, Chile. In 1890 he donated a large number of specimens to McGill University in Canada. He returned to England, probably in 1891 as he is listed in the census as living at Ealing, and was a temporary assistant at the Natural History Museum until his death.

Correspondence to and from Robert regarding natural history can be found on the internet.

 Robert died of appendicitis aged 63 on 9^th August 1909 at Carshalton, Surrey leaving effects of £9,268. His wife, Rose, died in 1923.