DescriptionThe wreck was located by divers in 1968 and is reported to lie near the western edge of West Mouse. The remains consist of iron frames and hull plates with most of any coherent hull structure flattened to the seabed. A marine geophysical survey undertaken in August 2009 by Emu Environmental Ltd noted a large magnetometer anomaly some 40m to the southwest of this charted location.
Event and Historical Information:
The GILBERT THOMPSON was an iron-hulled full-rigged ship (rigged as a barque from 1879) which was built by William Laird and Sons, Birkenhead, in 1862. Technical and configuration specifications are given as 1061gt; 187ft 3in long x 34ft 1in breadth x 22ft 6in depth. At time of loss, the vessel was owned and managed by Edward Bates & Sons, Liverpool. The ship was returning from Calcutta with a cargo of jute, linseed oil and wheat, and was under tow of a tug, the SEA KING, for the last stage of the voyage. Between the Skerries and the West Mouse rock, the hook of the hawser parted. The strength of the tide which swept the vessel round, and in about 2 minutes, it went broadside on to the West Mouse. The vessel healed over to starboard and sank. The crew, 21 in number, managed to get onto the rock and remained there until they were taken off by the gig-boat manned by H Gary, coxswain of the lifeboat at Cemaes Bay, who transferred them safely by a line to the tug, which landed them at Liverpool that same night, One, a lad of about 19 years of age, who was in the Master's cabin having broken his leg on the voyage, was drowned, the master having made strenuous efforts to save him. The crew and master lost all their effects except what they stood in. Lloyds List on 8 March 1881 included a report from the master of the WIMMERA from New Orleans stating 'Seaman's chests were seen floating and a lifeboat near by'. The Liverpool Salvage Association attempted to recover some of the cargo the next day but were unsuccessful as only the yardarms of the ship were visible above the water. The Association tried again on 14 March, but by this time the ship had broken up. A marine geophysical survey undertaken in August 2009 by Emu Environmental Ltd noted a large magnetometer anomaly some 40m to the southwest of this charted location.
Sources include:
Board of Trade Wreck Return 1881 Appendix Parts I-IV pg 129 (399)
BSAC Wreck Register Vol III
Evans, D E, 2007, Troubled Waters, pg83-7
Larn and Larn Shipwreck Database 2002
Lloyds Register of British and Foreign Shipping, 1 July 1880 - 30 June 1881, number 304 in G
North Wales Chronicle, 12 March 1881
PMSS, 2011, The Skerries Tidal Stream Array Environmental Statement, Vol 2, pg190
UK Hydrographic Office Wrecks and Obstructions Database. ? Crown Copyright and database rights. Reproduced by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office and the UK Hydrographic Office (www.ukho.gov.uk).
Wynne-Jones, 2001, Shipwrecks of North Wales, 4ed, pg80
Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, May 2011.
