Site Record

This record comprises a documentary reference to a shipping casualty which has been assigned to the maritime named location BRISTOL CHANNEL pending more information which may allow a more precise location for the loss to be assigned.

Event and Historical Information:
The IRON DUKE was an iron steamship or steam tug built by T Wingate & Company at Whiteinch, Glasgow in 1857. Technical and configuration specifications are given as 117.83gt; 112ft 2 tenths length x 18ft 8.5 tenths breadth x 9ft 3.5 tenths (sources differ 108 ft length x 19ft breadth x 9ft depth); 1 deck, 1 mast rigged as a smack, round stern, clincher built of iron; length of engine room 31ft 6 tenths; 2 engines producing 100hp. The tug was registered new at Cardiff on 15 May 1857 (8 in 1857) at which time the owner was given as the Cardiff Steam Towing Company. At time of loss near the Breaksea Lighvessel on 24 May 1941, the vessel was owned by Alfred J Smith Ltd and registered at Bristol.

Sources include:
Larn and Larn Shipwreck Database 2002
Lloyd Register of British and Foreign Shipping 1 July 1919 - 30 June 1920, number 16481 in I.
Port of Cardiff Shipping Register 1855 - 1865, folio 20, Glamorgan Archives DRBS1/3
Port of Bristol Shipping Register Transactions Register 1880 onwards, Bristol Record Office 37908/2/3, folio 88

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, February 2011.