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Vesper - a general history

Official No. 52569: Code Letters LVQR.

Owners: 1865 Robert A. Mudie, Dundee; 1873 Benjamin Ralph Huntley, West Hartlepool.

Masters: 1869-73 Robert Mudie; 1874 A Patterson; 1876 Jacob Tolsen.

Voyages: 1869 Dundee for Sunderland.

Vesper left Glasgow on 11 January 1876 with a cargo of 619 tons of coal & sugar & a crew of 16 bound for Dunkirk. On 13 January she struck on the Kish Bank, County Dublin & broke in two. The crew left in the starboard lifeboat & landed at Killiney. The inquiry into the casualty found that the vessel was lost through the carelessness of the master in not taking ordinary precautions whilst approaching a dangerous locality, & in neglecting to use the lead. He was ordered to pay 5s towards the cost of the inquiry & was severely reprimanded for causing the log to be altered as to distances from the lights after the vessel was lost. The conduct of the chief mate could not be too strongly condemned for erasing & altering, at the request of the master, the figures in the ship’s log, with the intention of misleading the court as to the distance the ship was off the land. The master did not hold a certificate.

Crew January 1876:

Boddy, Thomas, 2nd engineer

Brown, Robert, mate

Cane, Alexander, able seaman

McLeod, Alexander, able seaman

Vipond, Alexander, chief mate

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