Sarah Ann - a general history

Official No. 70121: Code Letters NTSP.

Owners: 1875 Coverdale & Co, West Hartlepool: 1879 JBL Merryweather & Co, West Hartlepool.

Masters: 1875-77 R Clark: 1877-80 G Kennedy: 1880-81 J Dixon: September 1881 Hay: 1884-88 CA Todd.

Voyages: from Sulina for Falmouth with wheat & a crew of 22 in a NW Force 11 gale about 70 miles SW by W of Lizard in the English Channel Sarah Ann suffered damage & her cargo shifted on13 November 1875.  One life lost; August 1881 from Barrow for New York:  January 1886 from Baltimore for Avonmouth.

Northern Daily Mail, March 27th, 1886:
‘Rescue by a West Hartlepool Steamer—A letter has been received by Mr Merryweather, managing owner of the SS Sarah Ann of West Hartlepool giving details of a rescue affected in the Atlantic of four of the crew of the brigantine Ten Brothers of & from Martinique, bound to Boston with a cargo of sugar. When the disabled vessel was sighted she was water-logged & totally dis-masted & had been so for 55 days of the 70 she had been at sea. The lifeboat by which the rescue was affected was in the command of Mr Andrews, the mate & it was so severely damaged by the heavy sea running at the time that it was little short of a miracle that she ever got back to the steamer. The entire crew of the brigantine were Negroes & the master & mate were quite drunk & not only resisted all persuasion to leave the sinking vessel, with which they declared they would go down, but they most inhumanely prevented a small boy from being rescued with the other four. Such had been their privitations that one man had died on the morning previous to the rescue & lay dead on the deck, whilst two of the rescued four were so crippled that they had to be sent to hospital at Galway. Judging from the weather experienced since the rescue-Captain Todd has every reason to fear that the brigantine would sink within a very few hours, she being 700 miles or more from land when the rescue occurred.’
(Unable to find any further record of Ten Brothers)

South Durham & Cleveland Mercury, March 17th, 1888:
‘A Lloyds’ telegram says, Sarah Ann anchored off Lundy. Master reports on Sunday morning, Trevose Head bearing ESE about eight miles saw the City of Exeter steamer of Exeter, from Penarth for St Nasaire, flying signals of distress. Bore up when he signalled ‘will you take me in tow’ while getting ready he signalled again ‘we are leaking & the boats stove.’ We commenced to get our lifeboat out but before succeeding saw the vessel roll over & sink. We managed to save one seaman, named Simonsen, a Norwegian, whom we landed at Lundy.’

With a cargo of wheat & a crew of 21 Sarah Ann disappeared after 11 November 1888. 21 lives lost.

Northern Daily Mail, November 28th, 1888:
‘No further tidings have been received; we regret to say, of Messrs Merryweather & Co’s screw-steamer the Sarah Ann of West Hartlepool. On the 11th inst she passed the Dardanelles on the voyage from Tagenrog for Naples & at the time she was in the Archipelago a severe snowstorm occurred. Most of her crew were shipped at Penarth.

Lives lost November 1888:

Bracey, WJ, able seaman, Cardiff

Deans, G, second mate, Cardiff

Dryburg, J, third engineer, Dyke St, West Hartlepool

Farrow, W, able seaman, Cardiff

Harrison, TJ, fireman, Cardiff

James N, second engineer, Cambourne, Cornwall

Jefferson, M, boatswain, Cardiff

Johnson, W, cook, Cardiff

Jones, A, fireman, Cardiff

Jown, A, steward, Cardiff

King, H, able seaman, Cardiff

Larsen, E, able seaman, Cardiff

Prodham, CJ, chief engineer, Rium Terrace, Hart Road, West Hartlepool

Rees, J, fireman, Cardiff

Reice, WD, able seaman, Cardiff

Shotton, WJ, able seaman, Cardiff

Sinclair, E, chief mate, Pilgrim St, West Hartlepool

Snowdon, J, fireman, Cardiff

Thomas, H, donkeyman, Cardiff

Todd, A, engineer’s steward, Cardiff

Todd, CA, master, St Paul’s Road, West Hartlepool

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