RECHABITE SA18

Official No.: 13425.    Port Number and Year: St. Ives, 1857. (SS8)

                                                                              18th in Swansea, 1867. (SA18 )

Description:  (1843) Forecastle deck, 3 masts, lugger rigged, round stern, carvel built.  No bowsprit, galleries or figure head. 

(1849): Altered and re-registered.

(1867): One deck, one mast, sloop rig, round stern, carvel build, frame wood.

Crew: 2 men (occasionally also to one boy.)

Registered at Swansea: 18 Oct 1867.

Built: 1843; William Paynter of St. Ives.

Tonnage: 18.62 grt  ? net.  (1867)

Length / breadth / depth (feet):  45.2  / 12.5  / 5.6

Engine: Nil.

Owners:

 

14 June 1843: Thomas Gyles, St Ives borough.  (Owner, fisherman and skipper.)

 

Mar 1848: Thomas Thomas, St. Ives, Cornwall.

By 1857: SS8.

 

By 1866: James Merrifield, Hayle, Cornwall.

 

24 Sep 1867: Henry Langlois, Swansea. (Shipping agent.)  

                                                                       

12 Oct 1867: Frederick Edwin Vivian, 2 Gloucester Place, Swansea. (Coal merchants and

                      Edwin Henry Vivian, Swansea.                                                 joint owners.)

18 Oct 1867: SA18.

 

15 Jan 1868: Robert Ashman, Cresswell St., Tenby.  (Owner, fisherman & fishmonger.)

 

18 Sep 1876: Jacob Beer, 'Hibernia Inn', Hakin. (Mariner and merchant.)

 

29 Mar 1878: Henry Davies, Old Bridge, Haverfordwest. (Licensed Victualler.)

The same owner in MN List 1882.

 

Landed at Milford: [Landed at Tenby.  See newspaper report below.] 

Skippers:

John Brookin, age 36, of Brixham; July/December 1874.

William Manning, age 29, of Brixham; January/June 1876.

George Radmore, age 41 of South Saunton, Devon; July/December 1876. 

(The vessel was usually manned by just a master and his mate, sometimes also a boy.)

Notes: 

Rechabite is a member of the Independent Order of Rechabites, a Friendly Society founded in England in 1835.  (Wikipedia.)

18 Oct 1870: See news article below.

26 May 1873: Swansea registry closed.

19 Jun 1873: 3rd Milford vessel in 1873.  (As cargo vessel but apparently not fishing.)

Cert. Cancelled & Milford Registry Closed: Registration was closed on 28th April 1885, as vessel and its papers were lost.

[ Thanks to Alison Spence, Cornwall Record Office; David Morris, West Glamorgan Archive Service;

and Nikki Bosworth, Pembrokeshire Archives and Local Studies. ]

 Accidents and Incidents:

From The Western Mail of Wednesday 19th October 1870. 

TENBY.

COLLISION OFF THE PORT.— On Tuesday morning a serious collision occurred off Tenby, between the brigantine Caroline, of Watchet, Henry Press, master, and a fishing smack, the Rechabite, belong to Tenby. The brigantine, in company with several other vessels, was working back from Tenby to Caldy roadstead, a strong breeze from the south-west. At the time of the collision the Rechabite was trawling, with all her gear down, about midway between the Woolhouse Beacon and Monkston Point. The Caroline struck her with her anchor, which was hanging on the davits on the port bow, carrying away bow, bulwarks, and stanchions down to the water line. The effect of the collision was to nearly sink the smack, but the crew, consisting of two men and a boy, succeeded in jumping on board the brigantine, in order to save their lives, as it was thought she would go down. A Tenby dredge-boat, with three men, were dredging by, and, on a signal from the Caroline, went on board; by this time took the crew They then pulled back towards the smack, and succeeded in getting on board; by this time there was a considerable quantity of water in her hold, and she was fast settling down. They, however, at once manned the pumps, and cut away the trawling gear, and, with the assistance of one of the boat's crew, George Rowe, succeeded in putting her into Tenby harbour, where she sank. The Rechabite belongs to a poor man at Tenby, named Ashman, and has received very considerable damage.

 

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