(Named after the family estate of the chairman of the West Hartlepool Steam Navigation Company)

Completed August 1859; Official No. 27881; Code Letters PTDQ.

Owners: West Hartlepool Steam Navigation Co (Ralph Ward Jackson & William Charles Ward Jackson) West Hartlepool; 1863 ANW Ludders, Germany renamed Venezuelan; 1863 TB Forwood (Leech & Co) Liverpool; 1864 West India & Pacific S.S. Co, Liverpool-renamed Sea Queen; 1867 George Frederick Seymour & Cooper (London) Liverpool; 1869 George Frederick Seymour (Sunderland) Liverpool.

Masters: 1861 Edgar Child (C.N.14022 Sunderland 1856); 1862-63 W Irvine; 1866 Spence; 1867 Thomas Verrill (C.N.100 Sunderland 1856); April-October 1868 George Frederick Seymour; 1868-70 Joseph Benjamin Wells.

As the Sea Queen left the Tyne on 12 February 1870 bound for Malaga with a cargo of coal & a crew of 24 it was reported that those that had watched her leave had commented on her being so deeply laden with the weather so uncertain. She was wrecked during a severe gale on Scroby Sands off Caistor near Yarmouth on 13 February. Distress signals were seen to the east of Cockle Light the previous night but no assistance could be given because of the severity of the storm.

At the subsequent inquiry numerous witnesses came forward to state that the vessel was dangerously overladen & unseaworthy. Some of the widows & families stated that the crewmen were worried about sailing in her but would have been imprisoned if they had refused. Also mentioned was the fact that although she had four masts, only two were used on her last voyage. At the conclusion of the inquiry it was decided that the loss of the vessel could not be proven to be because of any of these factors so no-one could be allotted blame.