Rosa Mary - a general history

Official No. 70122: Code Letters NWLP.

Owners: 1875 John Coverdale & Co, (5 Radcliffe Terrace) Hartlepool;1881 Mr. Charles S Todd of Victoria Terrace; 1882 John Coverdale & Son, West Hartlepool; 1885 R.H. Coverdale, West Hartlepool.

Masters: 1876-80 Thomas Webster: 1881 F Finn:  1881-87 J Free (died November 1887 at Dunkirk): 1887-90 Thomas Webster: 1891-92 RP Pult: 1893-94 D Jenkins.

In about the year 1877 she grounded in the Red Sea & was refloated.

Bound from Hartlepool for St Nazaire with a cargo of coal, on November 24th, 1887, she was in a collision with the Dutch steamer WA Scholten in the English Channel near Dover. Many of the 214 crew & passengers, who were mainly Dutch & German emigrants, of the WA Scholten were drowned. The passengers who had lifebelts were picked up from the sea by the Sunderland steamer Ebro. Rosa Mary was found not to be at fault as she was at anchor at the time of the collision.

A substantial article titled 'The Wreck of the W.A. Scholten', by Martyn C. Webster, appeared in a popular shipping journal (either Sea Breezes, Ship's Monthly or Shipping Today and Yesterday), date unknown. An illustration of the damage to the Mary Rosa appeared in the Saturday, December 3rd, 1887 edition of the Dover Standard newspaper.

Crew November 1887:

Alersham, able seaman

Boyes, William Robert, able seaman, Hartlepool

Thompson, George, chief engineer, Hartlepool

Wells, George, chief mate

Bound from Paterammi, Ulfsborg for West Hartlepool with a cargo of deals & a total crew of 16 & 2 passengers the Rosa Mary sank after a collision with the Liverpool steamer Manningham 87 miles NNE of Norrs Kar Island, Gulf of Bothnia on 5 June 1894. No lives lost.

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