Brunswick (1814 ship)

British merchantman and whaler 1814–1842

For other ships with the same name, see Brunswick (ship).

History
United Kingdom
Name| Brunswick
Owner|

* 1814:James Shrapnell Bowden & Benjamin Wright[1]
* 1824:James Bowden and William Wright[1]

Builder| Thomas Steemson, Paull, Hull[2]
Launched| 7 February 1814[2]
Fate| Wrecked 7 April 1842
Notes| Hackman conflates this Brunswick with Brunswick.[2]
General characteristics
Tons burthen| 357,[3] or 3578⁄94[2] (bm)
Armament| 2 × 9-pounder guns + 10 × 9-pounder carronades

Brunswick was launched at Hull and initially was a Greenland whaler. Her owner withdrew her from the northern whale fishery in 1836 and then deployed her sailing to New York and Sierra Leone. She was apparently on a voyage to India when she was wrecked on 7 April 1842.

## Career

[edit]

Brunswick first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1814 with W. Blythe (or Blyth), master, Wright & Co., owner, and trade Hull–Davis Strait.[3] Blythe would be her master from 1814–1816, and again from 1818–1814, when she left whaling.[1] The whaling data below is primarily from Coltish,[4] augmented with data from Lubbock.[5]

Year  | Master  | Owner  | Trade  | Notes and source

|
|
|
|

1815  | W. Blythe  | Wright & Co.  | Hull–Davis Strait  | Lloyd's Register (LR)
1820  | W. Blythe  | Wright & Co.  | Hull–Davis Strait  | Repairs 1819; LR
Year  | Master  | Grounds  | Whales  | Tuns whale oil

|
|
|
|

1814  | Blythe  | Greenland  | 12  | 164
1815  | Blyth  | Davis strait  | 10  | 57
1816  | Blyth  | Greenland  | 16  | 228 (580 butts)
1817  | Thompon  | Greenland  | 6  | 92
1818  | Blythe  | Davis Strait  | 11  | 146
1819  | Blythe  | Davis Strait  | 19 (or 19)  | 224 ("best fished" Hull ship of the season[6])
1820  | Blythe  | Davis Strait  | 15  | 221 (or 18; 530 butts)
1821  | Blythe  | Greenland  | 24  | 268 (or 269, plus 14 tons of bone)
1822  | Blythe  | Davis Strait  | 4  | 53

In 1823, at the end on May, a strike by a whale fluke killed one seaman and injured three others.[7]

Brunswick left the ice at the whale fishing grounds on 16 August 1822. She arrived at Hull on 18 September with 50 tons of oil. She reported that conditions on the fishing grounds were very bad. Seven ships had been sunk, several had been beset by ice, and the rest had not killed more than an average of four fish each.[8] Laetitia, Clark, master, arrived at Aberdeen and reported a more complete accounting of how many whales each vessel had taken, and which were beset by ice.

A fuller account of Brunswick's survival exists. By this account, also, she left for England on 27 August and arrived in the Humber on 10 September. The 13 days transit from Davis Straits was a record.[9]

Year  | Master  | Owner  | Trade  | Notes and source

|
|
|
|

1825  | W. Blythe  | Wright & Co.  | Hull–Davis Strait  | Repairs 1821, 1822, 1823; LR
1830  | J. Blyth  | Wright & Co.  | Hull–Davis Strait  | Repairs 1821, 1822, 1823; LR
1835  | W. Blyth  | Wright & Co.  | Hull–Northern Fishery  | LR
Year  | Master  | Grounds  | Whales  | Tuns whale oil

|
|
|
|

1823  | Blythe  | Davis Strait  | 36  | 283 (or 281½, +317CWT of bone)
1824  | Blythe  | Davis Strait  | 10  | 150½
1825  | Blythe  | Davis Strait  | 20  | 270
1826  | Blythe  | Davis Strait  | 7 (or 6, incl. one found dead[10])  | 97
1827  | Blythe  | Davis Strait  | 12  | 210

On 22 May 1825, Brunswick was close to Estridge, of Dundee, when she sank. Brunswick took on board seven of Estridge's crew.[11] In 1825, Brunswick was the best fished ship of the Davis Strait fleet.[12]

On 7 June 1827, a harpooned whale struck one of Brunswick's boats, overturning it. Two men drowned. An hour later, another of her boats killed a whale, which turned out to be the whale that had overturned the first boat. On 16 June Brunswick and Zephyr came across the wreck of Mercury. Brunswick was able to salve 34 butts of blubber.[13]

Year  | Master  | Grounds  | Whales  | Tuns whale oil

|
|
|
|

1828  | Blythe  | Davis Strait  | 17  | 238
1829  | Blythe  | Davis Strait  | 14  | 214
1830  | Blyth  | Davis Strait  | 6  | 89

Eighteen-thirty was the most disastrous year in the history of British northern whaling. Brunswick was among the vessels most seriously damaged, though she was not lost.[14]

Year  | Master  | Grounds  | Whales  | Tuns whale oil

|
|
|
|

1831  | Blythe  | Davis Strait  | 7  | 100
1832  | Blythe  | Davis Strait  | 24  | 225
1833  | Blythe  | Davis Strait  | 23  | 186
1834  | Blythe  | Davis Strait  | 5  | 77

In 1834 Wright & Co. withdrew Brunswick from whaling and put her into general trade.

Year  | Master  | Owner  | Trade  | Notes and source

|
|
|
|

1836  | Smith  | Wright & Co.  | Hull–Quebec
Hull  | Damage and small repairs in 1837; LR
1839  | T.Porter  | Wright & Co.  | Hull–New York
Hull–Sierra Leone  | Large repair 1839; LR
1840  | T.Porter  | Wright & Co.  | Hull–Sierra Leone
London  | Large repair 1839; LR
1841  | T.Porter  | Wright & Co.  | London
Hull–East India  | Large repair 1839; LR

## Fate

[edit]

Brunswick, Porter, master, was wrecked on 7 April 1842 on the Sunk Sand, in the North Sea off the coast of Suffolk. The smack Good Agreement, Brown, master, rescued the crew and brought them into Wivenhoe. Brunswick was on a voyage from Hull to London.[15][16]

The entry for Brunswick in Lloyd's Register for 1841 bears the annotation "Wrecked".[17]

## Citations

[edit]

1. ^ a b c Laing (2003), p. 73.
2. ^ a b c d Hackman (2001), p. 257.
3. ^ a b Lloyd's Register (1814), Supple. pages "B", Seq. №B13.
4. ^ Coltish (1842).
5. ^ Lubbock (1937).
6. ^ Lubbock (1937), p. 214.
7. ^ Lubbock (1937), p. 243.
8. ^ Lloyd's List №5733.
9. ^ Lubbock (1937), pp. 248–249.
10. ^ Lubbock (1937), p. 262.
11. ^ Lubbock (1937), p. 258.
12. ^ Lubbock (1937), p. 260.
13. ^ Lubbock (1937), p. 272.
14. ^ Lubbock (1937), p. 278.
15. ^ "Ship News". The Standard. No. 5538\. London. 8 April 1842.
16. ^ "Shipping Intelligence". The Hull Packet. No. 2991\. Hull. 15 April 1842.
17. ^ Lloyd's Register (1841), Se.№B553.

## References

[edit]

* Coltish, William (1842). An account of the success of the ships at the Greenland and Davis Straits fisheries 1772-1842 inclusive.
* Hackman, Rowan (2001). Ships of the East India Company. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-96-7.
* Laing, George (2003). Baffin Fair: Experiences of George Laing, a Scottish Surgeon, in the Arctic Whaling Fleet 1830 and 1831. Hutton Press.
* Lubbock, Basil (1937). Arctic Whalers. Glasgow: Brown, Son & Ferguson.

* v
* t
* e

Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1842

Shipwrecks|

* 26 Jan: HMS Vindictive
* 25 Mar: HMS Skylark
* 1 Apr: USS Missouri
* 7 Apr: Brunswick
* 19 Apr: HMS Investigator
* May (unknown date): Zavala
* 28 Aug: Waterloo
* 12 Sep: Ingermanland
* 2 Oct: USS Concord
* October (unknown date): San Antonio
* 29 Nov: HMS Formidable
* 5 Dec: Water Witch
* Unknown date: Sir Andrew Hammond

Other incidents|

* 24 Apr: Mary Carver

1841 1843
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