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Kirtle - a general history

Completed May 1883; Official No. 86953: Code Letters HLMD: Code Letters MBDH.

Owners: 1883 G. Steel & Co (R. Livingstone, manager), West Hartlepool: 1889 Steel, Young & Co, West Hartlepool: 1894 Glasgow Shipowners Co. Ltd. (Glen & Co Ltd) Glasgow: 1900 Giani & Muller, Antwerp-renamed Baltique.

Masters: 1883-85 Wills: 1885 WT Atkinson: 1887-92 Ernst: 1892-93 J Gansden: 1894 GT Alleyne: 1895-96 D Morris: 1897 W Major: 1898-99 WC Silley: 1900-09 J De Vries.

On a voyage from Elba for Philadelphia with a cargo of iron-ore & a crew of 22 Kirtle had her decks swept & lost boats, sails & steering gear in a NW force 9 gales in the Gulf of Lyons in the Mediterranean in February 1886. The master was persuaded by the crew to allow the boatswain, mate & three of the crew to take a lifeboat to try to get help from the Bermudas. The lifeboat never reached shore & all five lives were lost. The steamer was eventually towed to port by a passing steamer. At the subsequent inquiry the master’s certificate was suspended for six months for bad judgement in allowing the lifeboat to leave the steamer even though he was pressured into this decision by the crew.

Lives lost February 1886: Atkins, George, seaman; Boulogne, Louis, seaman; Jeftles, George, seaman; Sullivan, boatswain; Trestrail, TJ, 1st mate, Newport.

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