This record consists of a documentary reference to a shipping casualty which has been assigned to the maritime named location BARRY ROADS pending more information which may allow a more precise location for the loss to be assigned.

Event and Historical Information:
The STRANGER was a pilot cutter built by Levison at Gloucester in 1872. The cutter was placed on the Port of Cardiff Shipping Register on 30 September 1887 and at that time the technical and configuration specifications were given as 19gt/rt; 37.2ft length x 12.1ft breadth x 22.9ft girth; 1 deck, 1 mast, cutter rigged, eliptic stern, built, wood framework. John Henry Salt, licenced pilot, was the subscribing owner. Transcations on the vessel's the registry reveal that the cutter was subjkect to mortagages to John McConnochie and John Amice Le Boulanger, as were many other Cardiff pilot cutters. This mortagae was later transferred by the Cardiff Pilotage Board to John Henry Wilson, ship owner; Ralph Pomeroy, dock master; and Valentine Trayes, timber merchant. At time of loss on 27 January 1898, the pilot cutter was at anchor in Barry Roads. It was run down by the London registered steamship HARBURY. John Henry Salt and the crew of two took to their small boat, but it became entangled with the wreckage and sank throwing its occupants into the water. Only one member of the crew survived, the pilot John Henry Salt and the other crew member (Mr Brooks) were drowned. The cutter's regsitry was subsequently closed with the annotation 'Sunk in collison midway between the western breakwater light at Barry Dock and Nell's Pouint on 27 January 1898.' The Board of Trade Inquiry initially found the master of the HARBURY, Arthur Eams Bartlett, at fault and suspended his master's certificate for 6 months. This decision was later reversed by the High Court of Justice on 5 April 1898.

Sources include:
Board of Trade Wreck Return 1898 Appendix C Table 1 pg149 (601)
Cardiff Court of Petty Sessions, Board of Trade Inquiries 1898, Glamorgan Archives CL P/S Cbo BT 165
Larn and Larn shipwreck Database 2002
Port of Shipping Register 1885-1895, Glamorgan Archives, folio 22

WWW resources:
Board of Trade Inquiry nunber 5690, 15-21 February 1898, Town Hall, Cardiff (http://www.plimsoll.org/resources/SCCLibraries/WreckReports/17344.asp)
Board of Trade Inquiry number 5690a, 5 April 1898, High Court of Justice (http://www.plimsoll.org/resources/SCCLibraries/WreckReports/17344a.asp)

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, May 2009.