DALE CASTLE H195
Official No: 99568 Port Number and Year: Hull, 1892 (H195)
London, ? (LO149)
Description: Iron side / beam trawler; steam screw, coal burning. Ketch rigged.
Crew: 10
Built: by Cook Welton & Gemmell, Hull, in 1892 (Yard no. 93)
Tonnage: 141 grt 54 net
Length / breadth / depth (feet): 98 / 20.5 / 10.7
Engine: T.3-Cyl; 35 rhp; by Muir & Houston, Glasgow
Owners:
As H195
13 May 1892: Castle Steam Trawling, Swansea
Manager: G. H. D. Birt, Docks, Milford
As LO149
c.1904?: Unknown owners?
Renamed ST.PIERRE
1904: H. Le Renard, Cherbourg.
Renamed MAMELINA No.10
1908: Soc. Anon. Mamelena, San Sebastian, Spain.
Renamed PASSEREAU
1917: French owners.
By 1930: H. Le Renard, Cherbourg
1931: Chalutiers Cherbourgeois, Cherbourg. [Same owners in Lloyd's Register 1945-46]
Landed at Milford: 17 May 1892 - 10 Jun 1904
Skippers: 1892: W. R. Saunders
1893: G. Smart; Alfred Barrett;
1894: Barrett
1895: Barrett
1896: J. Chamberlain; James Gray; Chamberlain; Gray
1897: Gray; W. Dayes; D.W. Williams
1898: William Nightingale; Robert Limbrick; Saunders; William Jones; C. Read; Richard Robson
1899: Robson; Smith; Taylor
1900: Taylor; Salter
1901: Salter; Barrett
1902: Barrett; George Cook; W. Davies
1903: Davies; Jones; Davies; Webb; Davies; Walter Aldridge
1904: Aldridge; King
Notes:
Accidents and Incidents:
From the Haverfordwest & Milford Haven Telegraph of Wednesday 1st April 1896:
A LOCAL MAN KILLED AT PLYMOUTH
An inquest was held at Plymouth on Monday on the body of Thomas Webb, boatswain of the steam trawler "Dale Castle", from Milford Haven. He had gone ashore on Friday evening with a companion, who left him, and he was not seen alive again. His body was found in the Cattewater. A verdict of "Found Drowned" was returned.
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From the Haverfordwest & Milford Haven Telegraph of Wednesday 23rd May 1898:
Alleged Tragedy on the High Seas
SENSATION AT MILFORD HAVEN
A FISHERMAN CHARGED WITH MURDER
MAGISTERIAL PROCEEDINGS THIS DAY
The Court House, never too large for the audience, was this morning filled to suffocation with a mixed crowd of interested sight-seers, all of them more or less smelling of the sea, and as the day was very sultry, the heat towards noon became almost unbearable. The occasion was the charge of murder preferred against Charles Jenkins, a sailor, who is alleged to have thrown another seaman overboard in the Bay of Biscay on May 17th.
Dr Griffith was in the chair, supported by Col. Roberts and Mr. John Rees.
The father of the deceased was present, and during the proceedings frequently burst into tears.
Supt. Francis, who prosecuted on behalf of the police, called Alfred Jones, skipper of the steam trawler "Dale Castle", sailing from Milford, who said: Last Saturday week, May 14th, the vessel left Milford Haven about mid-day. He had on board a crew consisting of himself, the mate, one passenger (witness's son), and seven seamen. Prisoner, Charles Jenkins, was one of the crew, and shipped as a deckhand. The deceased, Bertie Wilson Patten, was on board as a trimmer. He was aged 15, and this was his first voyage. He was a very active and willing boy. He was crippled and had a slight limp, one leg being shorter than the other. On the 17th May the vessel was in the Bay of Biscay, off the coast of France. The weather was moderate, with the wind blowing from the S.S.E., and the sea was fairly smooth. About 8.30 the trawl was down and they were towing the net. The boat was going about 2
1 knots an hour. The vessel was heading N.W., going with the wind. He last saw deceased on the quarter deck, close to the engine room entrance. This was about 8.30. Prisoner was there with the lad. There was no one there besides. Witness was on the bridge, over 20 feet away. The bulwark at this spot is about two feet high. As he came off the bridge about 8.30 prisoner passed him, and witness said "Hullo, what's the matter with you, you look down?" Prisoner said nothing in reply. At 9 o'clock his attention was called to the fact that the lad was missing. It was prisoner who informed him of this saying, "The b——— trimmer's overboard." Witness asked him how he knew. Prisoner answered "I've been searching and I can't find him." Witness went down into the engine room and asked the chief engineer where the trimmer was. Witness then ordered the engineers into the bunkers but he was not there. Witness then went on deck and into the forecastle to search but could not find him. Witness also informed the mate. The same day about twenty to seven witness saw prisoner at tea and asked him why he did not tell him when he came off the bridge that the boy was missing. Prisoner in reply to the question at first said nothing, but afterwards while he was still having his tea, prisoner said "d―――n you and the trimmer too." Witness said nothing more to him then. He tried to catch the body with the nets, but failing turned for home. On Sunday night as they were running for home, prisoner came to him and said, "I thought Skipper you would have ushed [ sic ] this affair up." Witness said he had nothing to hush up and he should speak the truth. He told prisoner that he knew prisoner had been to the others trying to get them to square the "old man" to say the boy accidentally fell overboard and there would be no judge and jury in it. Prisoner then went off the bridge and left him. Next morning, Monday, the 23rd, witness told prisoner to do some work, but he refused, saying he was done. Milford was the first port the vessel arrived at. Witness had been one voyage with prisoner before. The vessel arrived on Tuesday (yesterday) at two o'clock, when he reported the matter to the police. He did not know of any quarrel or ill-feeling between prisoner and the boy.Prisoner: Did you not say that you would do your utmost to get me hung?
Witness: No.
Prisoner: When you asked me to go into the bunkers to work did I not ask you to let your son go in with me?
Witness: No, you only said you had "done".
Henry Watkins, chief engineer on board the "Dale Castle", said on the 17th May, the deceased was pulling up ashes between 7.30 and 8. o'clock in the morning, and throwing them over the side. After deceased had finished he came to the engine-room and witness told him and Henry Sillies, the second engineer to go to breakfast. The trimmer went and washed his hands and then went up to breakfast. That was the last witness saw of the lad. About twenty minutes after this prisoner Jenkins came to the engine-room. It was rather unusual for a deck hand to come into the engine-room. Prisoner passed witness, the second engineer, and the skipper's son, and slewing round when he got to the stoke hole said "The b――― trimmer is over the side." Witness thought it was a joke and replied "You want something to talk about." Witness did not for a moment believe it. Witness then went up on deck smoking a cigarette. Witness next saw prisoner coming through the bunker door into the stoke hole, and was surprised to see him there. Prisoner said "It's right, the b―――'s over the side." This would be about 8.30. Witness did not reply and prisoner went on deck. Shortly afterwards the skipper came to him and asked if he had seen the trimmer. Witness said he had not and began to have some suspicion that something was wrong. This was bout 9.30. He thought perhaps the boy had gone and turned in again as he was not acquainted with the sea, and witness practically let him do as he liked. He followed the skipper up on deck, and they searched the whole ship but failed to find the boy. While the search was proceeding, prisoner came to witness who was then in the coal bunker, and said "They were pelting fish at him (the trimmer) at breakfast time." Witness warned prisoner to be careful what he was talking about and prisoner said no more. On Saturday between 9 and 10 at night, prisoner came to witness and said, "I've been having a yarn with Jack (the mate on the bridge) about this affair, and don't you think if we were all to put our heads together and get in the same mind to hush this matter up, and then there would be no judge, or jury or magistrates about it." Witness replied that if he was called on he should speak nothing but the truth. Prisoner on one occasion after this asked him if he thought the skipper would make a report of it. Witness did not think deceased was capable of doing the work of trimming right away, and when he was sick witness had told him to go and turn in.
Prisoner: Didn't I trim his coal for him when he was not well?
Witness: I believe you were in the bunker with him.
Prisioner: And didn't I pull his ashes up for him?
Witness: You did not on my watch.
After further evidence had been taken, the prisoner was remanded till Wednesday next.
[ Note: On 27th May 1898, Jenkins was charged with murder, but on 10th June the prisoner was discharged through lack of evidence. ]
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From the Western Mail of Monday 16th January 1899:
SHIPPING CASUALTIES
[Lloyd's telegrams]
Saturday
...............
Dale Castle, steam trawler, arrived Milford today with deck fittings damaged through heavy weather.
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From the Pembrokeshire Herald of Friday 4th January 1901:
The Storm
damage to trawlers
Of the great storm last Thursday evening, the men working on the trawlers running out of the port speak with awe, and say that it was the worst experienced for many years. The battered appearance of some of the boats that came in Friday and Saturday spoke volumes as to the severity of the tempest.
...................
The Dale Castle, belonging to the Castle Trawling Co. had also a rough time. At one period during the storm, she was practically over on her beam ends, and the skipper only saved himself from being washed overboard by the heavy seas by clinging to the funnel chain. The coal and ice were shifted, and the fires put out, the pump choked, and the cabin filled with water.
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Other trawlers ran to various places for shelter, but as already stated, they all reached Milford safely. After the holidays there was some difficulty experienced in getting the crew together.
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