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Lloyds - a general history

Completed April 1862; Official No. 44834; Code Letters TWQS.

Owners: John Pile (Hartlepool) Joseph Spence & Co, London; 1863 Hamburg; 1863 Joseph Spence (London) West Hartlepool- renamed Sea Queen; 1864 sold to European buyer.

Masters: 1862 C Smith; 1863 T Leighton.

Voyages: on 11 April 1862 the Lloyds sailed from London, supposedly for Vera Cruz, but in fact sailed for Nassau & then ran into Charleston with a cargo allegedly worth one million pounds. She left Charleston on 5 August & arrived in Liverpool on 20 September 1862 with another very profitable cargo consisting of cotton & rosin (resin). In October 1862 she sailed for the Mediterranean & on her return was sold to owners in Hamburg. A few weeks later she was renamed Sea Queen & registered at West Hartlepool; February 1863 the Sea Queen sailed from Liverpool to London to load for Matamoras & whilst off Dungeness she was in collision with the Hartlepool built John Mowlem. This was the fault of the pilot she had taken aboard off Dungeness; left Falmouth in April 1863 bound for Matamoras & made a further two trips before being sold & lost track of.

In the Northern Daily Mail of 9 May 1888 there was a piece published on the Pile family & there is mention of the Lloyds as having run the largest cargo into Charleston during the American Civil War.

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