Conqueror - a general history

Built at Montrose, Forfar: Official No. 5124: Code Letters JGKP.

Owners: 1843 G Dickie, Montrose; 1847 G Gleg, Arbroath; 1848 John Owen, Cardiff; April 1848 William George & Robert Henry Jackson & William Kilvington (Yarm) Hartlepool; August 1853 William Merryweather, James Graham, William Booth, Henry Weatherell, Charles Compton, R Hainsworth & John Richardson (Stranton) Hartlepool .

Masters: 1843-46 W Brown; 1847-48 S Gibson; 1848 Henry Johnson; November 1850 John Phillips; February 1851 Henry Johnson; December 1852-54 Robert Hall; March 1855 Charles Colet Cole; 1855-62 G Green; 1862 Hainsworth.

Voyages: 1843-46 Montrose for Archangel; 1847 Clyde for Barcelona; 1855 Hartlepool for London

Stockton & Hartlepool Mercury 12 January 1856.

Intelligence has been received at Hartlepool of a painful occurrence by which four of the crew of the Hartlepool vessel Conqueror, all young men, have met with a premature death. The letter received by Mr William Merryweather, part owner, is from the master of the Conqueror & recites the circumstances to the following effect; On Saturday 8 December last (the account from which we quote is dated December 9^th) the Conqueror lay in the harbour of Larasche, on the coast of Morocco, having taken in a large proportion of her cargo (grain) & was ready to proceed. In this semi-barbarous port the vessel had had a considerable stay & it may be surmised that both captain & crew were by no means sorry at the prospect of early setting sail for the return voyage. This was not to be however. The harbour, which owes to nature more than to art any capability it furnishes for the shelter of shipping, is barred off from the wide ocean outside by immense accumulations of shifting sands. These form banks which fluctuate in position more or less from every change in wind; & which are often the greatest possible hindrances to navigation immediately after the prevalence; for however short a period, of turbulent waves or the visitation of a gale. Such a visitation had just passed over the place & the master, with a prudent forethought, rendered necessary by the circumstances, on the 8th ult ordered a boat’s crew, consisting of a mate & four other men, to ascertain the condition of the bar. Outside the sea, it may be supposed, still ran high. The boat’s crew, however, pushed gallantly out & proceeded to their work. They were under observation at the time; but the accident which occurred is unexplained by the meagre details which have come to hand. The boat was, from some cause or other, suddenly upset & the poor fellows it contained consigned to the deep. Not all of them; one escaped but only one! The mate, who is a married man & a resident, if not a native, of Sunderland, managed to keep himself above water until assistance arrived, but all the others had meantime sank to rise no more. The names & ages of the deceased are as follows; Edward, 21 & Daniel Downing aged 21, both of the port of Crookhaven in Ireland; Robert Brown, 19, a native of Newhaven; Robert Reid, 18, from Aberdeen. The mate who is the only survivor is named Cook & has a wife & family residing in Nesham-square, Sunderland.

To the above sad history, a letter subsequently received states that the bodies of the unfortunate youths, who had thus untimely perished, have since been recovered, identified & followed to the grave by their fellow seamen who at least had the melancholy satisfaction of seeing the last sad rites of Christian internment rendered in this far distant land. Two of the bodies had been washed ashore about ten miles distance from where the accident had occurred & the others were recovered still further along the coast. Much inconvenience it was probable would be experienced by the captain by this sweeping & calamitous reduction of his crew; but, when he wrote, he intended attempting to proceed by the assistance of some Moors in the hope that his crew would be adequately recruited from Gibraltar.

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