Phyllis

Completed June 1891: Official No. 98511: Code Letters MFHJ.

Owners: 1891 JS Allison & Co, West Hartlepool; 1906 Seaton Shipping Co (JS Allison & Co mgrs) West Hartlepool; 1910 P. Ambatielos & G. Carantinos, Cephalonia –renamed Krete; 1915 Aalborg S.S. Co (N.J. Stroyberg) Aalborg–renamed Jacob Kjellerup; 1916 Dampskibs Selsk “Gylfe” (T. Just) Aalborg 1919–renamed Gronsund; 1920 Dampskibs Selsk “Gylfe” (DL Didricheen mgr) Copenhagen;  1926 Dampskibs Selsk “Gylfe” (T.H. Christensen) Rodby Haven; 1927 D/S A/S Halls (T.H. Christensen mgrs) Rodby Haven; 1928 D/S Hafnia A/S (T.H. Christensen) Copenhagen.

Masters: 1892-94 Benjamin Granger (b. 1849 Robin Hood’s Bay); 1897 Williams; 1899 Beaton; 1904 George Proctor; 1906 William Henry Fountain (b. 1866 West Hartlepool C.N. West Hartlepool 1894); 1907 George Proctor; 1909 William G Bevan.

Voyages: 1891-1910 Savannah for the Baltic, Cardiff for Constantinople & Kustendje for Gibralter; 25 March 1909 stranded near Kavac; 29 March 1909 stranded at Nagara Point; 9 December 1909 stranded at Cartagena, Colombia.

Jacob Allison purchased his first ship, Atalanta, in 1888 and founded J.S. Allison & Company in 1889. In 1906 the company became the Seaton Shipping Company Co. Ltd.

In 1911 the management of the Seaton Shipping Co. Ltd. was  transferred to Sydney Hogg & Co.

Jacob Shepherd Allison was born c1863 at Stranton. He was married in the Tower Street Congregational Church on 22 October 1889 to Elizabeth Pyman Cory, eldest daughter of Ebenezer Cory & granddaughter of George Pyman. Having served on the Town Council for ten years he became Mayor in 1906.

Living on the Green at Seaton Carew Jacob had been having strychnine injections administered by a nurse for insomnia. He did not like the injections and had asked if the strychnine could be taken in liquid form and the nurse had told him it could under a doctor’s orders.

On the afternoon of Tuesday 10 April 1910 the clerk went into the office and Jacob asked him to phone the doctor as he thought he was poisoned. Just before he died Jacob told the doctor he had drunk from a bottle of strychnine that he had purchased to kill rats.

At the inquest held the following day a verdict of ‘Death by Misadventure’ was given as there was no motive for suicide. Jacob was just 47 years old.