Hartlepool History Then & Now

Thomas Hampton - a general history

Completed December 1870; Yard No. 104: Official No. 65036.

Owners: Wilkinson, Watt & Co, West Hartlepool; 1873 John P Best, Antwerp-renamed William Chapman.

Masters: 1873 Barnes; 1873 Clark; 1874 Haussen; 1875 Turner.

Voyages: during a fierce storm on 19 December 1870 Thomas Hampton made her trial trip from Hartlepool for the Tyne in ballast; 2 July 1871 arrived Queenstown from Ibrail; September 1872 from Liverpool for Constantinople; November 1872 from Falmouth for Alloa; January 1873 from Shields for the Mediterranean she struck a rock a little to the south of Whitby but refloated undamaged later that evening.

Bound from Rotterdam for Dantzig with a cargo of railway iron & a total crew of 19 William Chapman struck the Horn Reef off the coast of Jutland during bad weather & was totally wrecked on 27 October 1875. The crew left in two boats with one being picked up by the steamer Mercur & one by the steamer Langley. No lives were lost.

Crew October 1875:

Fenwick, William, 3rd engineer, Hope Street, West Hartlepool

Foster, C, mate, Marske-by-the-Sea

Hill, William, fireman