DescriptionThis 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 CHILTON was a barque registered at Liverpool. On 20 November 1840 the barque sailed from St John's. At midnight on Sunday 13th December the barque was caught in a hurricane and the heavy sea casued some of the bolts to be drawn out of the deck and carried away, along with water casks, boats, spars, bulwarks, stauchions, the forepart of the roundhouse, sky-light, forescuttle, maintopsail, yard painter and maintopsail. All hands were employed pumping, the seas making a complete passage over the ship. At 11am the captain sent the crew to get refreshments and found five and a half feet of water in the well. At 11.30 the crew commenced pumping. At 3pm the ship's mate was casting the tye when he was washed overboard and drowned. Monday Tuesday and Wednesday were employed in pumping. On Thursday rough seas washed the boats out of their stocks and stove in the main hatch, which it was impossible to secure as ship was taking in so much water. Three men were washed overboard, one of whom drowned. At 9pm that day the foresail blew out of the bolt rope and at about 10.20 the ship became waterlogged and the crew took to the maintop. They hauled in about 12 gallons of water, some bread, the captain's chest and a piece of pork, and on Friday caught and killed a pig which had escaped getting overboard and was on deck. On Sunday morning the crew saw what appeared to be a St John's barque and steered the ship towards it, but it altered course passed within a couple of miles. On Tuesday the CHILTON was caught by heavy seas which drove it onto its beam ends, taking the roundhouse off the deck and washing 2 crewmembers overboard. All top boards were washed off the maintop and everything inside it was washed away. The caps on the mainmast were washed off, causing the crew to take refuge on the broadside, where they lashed themselves to the channel bolts. On Wednesday the crew managed to get the weather maintopmast backstay adrift and the ship came partly upright. The crew began to drink saltwater. On Saturday a vessel passed but did not see the CHILTON's distress signal. A crewmember went on deck where he was found dead on Sunday morning. On Monday Monday another crewmember lost the use of his limbs and became insensible, which was attributed to the drinking of sea water. About 8am brig the CITY OF YORK (Captain Hinds), on passage from St John's to Newport, rescued the crew making two trips in a gale force wind to get them aboard. The crew were subsequently taken aboard the ST LAWRENCE bound for Caernarfon, and that night another crewmember lost his life, also thought to be due to drinking seawater.
Sources include:
Bristol Mercury, 8 February 1840, issue 2605
Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, February 2012.
