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Mancunia - a brief history

The Mancunia was a four-masted, clipper-bow steamship launched from the William Gray shipyard on July 21st, 1898. She had been built to the order of the Manchester & Salford Steam Ship Co. Ltd. (Sivewright, Bacon & Co., Managers). She reached a speed of 11 knots on her trials on October 6th, after which she sailed in ballast to Bluefields, Nicaragua, under the command of Captain E. Wattley.

She was put up for sale in 1915, and while lying in Barry Docks awaiting auction, she was purchased by the Seatonia Steam Ship Co. Ltd. (Jacob Hessler & Co., West Hartlepool, Managers), for £40,000.
On November 1st, 1916, when some 55 miles off the south-west coast of Ireland, she was stopped and sunk by the German submarfine U-49 (Kapitanleutnant Hartmann). She had left Montreal in October 1916-stopped off at Musgrave Town, Newfoundland & left on 20 October bound for Barry, Wales with a cargo of pitprops. No lives were lost, but her Master, Captain A. Pattison, was taken prisoner aboard the U-boat. The rest of her crew were later picked up by the Swedish steamer Axel Johnson and the Icelandic trawler Bragi.

Official No. 108834: Code Letters QHGC.

Masters: 1900-04 E Wattley: 1905-07 W Dunbar: 1908-11 CH Laing: 1915-16 A Pattison.

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