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Jeanie - a general history

Completed April 1874; Official No. 58770: Code Letters MWQH.

Owners: 1874 J Coverdale & Co (5 Radcliffe Terrace) Hartlepool

Masters: 1874-75 Clark: 1876 J May 1875-77 E Vic: 1878-81 Joseph Hay.

Jeanie left Middlesbrough on 22 March 1881 bound for Alexandria with a cargo of 1,250 tons of iron railway chairs & a crew of 30 all told. At about 2.30 am on 30 March the vessel struck about 2 ½ miles from Cape Trafalgar light on Alcetera Bank near Cadiz. The crew managed to drive her within her own length of the beach & launched the jollyboat. There was heavy surf breaking & the jollyboat capsized drowning one man & the vessel broke up with the loss of all her cargo. The casualty took place because the master had mistaking the Trafalgar light, which was fixed & should have been revolving, for the Spartel light which caused the vessel to be steered too close to shore. The inquiry accepted that the light, not the master, was at fault & he was exonerated of blame. One life lost.

Crew March 1881:

Vickers, Thomas William, chief mate

Life lost March 1881:

Barker, able seaman

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