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 SARAH TENNANT was a wooden schooner built at Greenock in 1840. Technical and configuration specifications are given as 164tons burthen; 68.3ft length x 17.6ft breadth x 11.3ft depth; 1 (and a break) decks, 2 masts, schooner rigged, standing bowsprit, square stern, no galleries and woman bust head, framework and planking in wood; official number 16095 . The schooner was placed on the port of Cardiff registry by George Smart of Cardiff, merchant (21 shares); Valentine Langmean Lewis of Llandovery, gentleman (43 shares) in 1854 (17 in 1854). It was purchased from John Tennant, merchant of Glasgow (13 shares), John Davidson and David Sloan merchants of Glasgow carrying on business under the name of William Sloan & Company (38 shares) and from John Tennant and William Stevenson carrying on business in London under the firms of Charles Tennant, Sons & Co (13 shares). Further transactions on the schooner's register reveal that by time of loss, it was owned by Daniel Smart of Cardiff, coal merchant, and Watkins Jenkins of Cardiff, ship broker. The ship's registry was closed with the annotation 'vessel lost in the Bristol Channel in February 1861'.

Sources include:
Port of Cardiff Shipping Register 1838-1855, no 17 in 1854, Glamorgan Record Office DRBS1/2
Port of Cardiff Shipping Register Transaction Registers 1855-1878, Glamorgan Archives, folio 12

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, May 2010.