Dorothy

Completed April 1896; Official No. 102746: Code Letters PGMV.

Owners: 1896 Jacob S Allison & Co, West Hartlepool; 1906 A. Mawson Shipping Co Ltd, Cardiff–renamed Millwall; 1913 Moller & Co, London–renamed Sagittarius; 1919 N.G. Livanos, Chios, Greece–renamed Archangelos; 1924 G.K. Kristakis, Chios, Greece; 1927 W. Hendrik van der Zee, Smyrna, Holland-renamed Hendi.

Masters: 1896 FW Swinbanks; 1897 Johnson; 1897 D McGregor; 1899 JH Williams; 1900-02 H Jones; 1903-04 Eden James Minter (b. 1862 Whitstable); 1905 A J Whyte; 1906-09 R Griffiths.

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.