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 DEFIANCE was a wooden sloop built at Coalbrook in 1792. Technical and configuration specifications are given as 47tons burthen; 63.3ft length x 13.9ft breadth x 11.1ft depth; 1 deck, 1 mast; sloop rigged with a standing bowsprit, square sterned, clench built. The DEFIANCE was re-registered at Bristol on 3 February 1845 after the death of its owner Thomas Webber of Bristol, coal merchant. The vessel was sold by Thomas Webber's executors to William Kent of Bristol, master mariner. Six months later, half of William Kent's shares in the vessel were transferred to Daniel Andrew of Cardiff, agent. The sloop's Bristol registry was closed in 1854 after it was reported that the vessel had been lost in the Bristol Channel.

Sources include:
Port of Bristol Shipping Register 1839 - 1845, folio 243, Bristol Record Office 37908/1/6

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, November 2009.