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 JOHN TAYLOR was an iron-hulled steamship built by Pele Spence & Co, West Hartlepool, in 1866. Technical and configuration specifications are given as 206.88rt, 125.72rt; 139ft length x 18.5ft breadth x 10ft depht in hold; 1 deck and a break, 3 masts, rigging schooner, stern elliptical, built clencher, framework iron; length of engine room 20ft, 1 engine, compound direct acting, diameters of cylinders 22 in and 10in, stroke 11 in, 40hp, engine built by Pele Spence &Co, West Hartlepool, in 1866 and boiler built by H Nelson & Co, Liverpool, 1880; official number 52642. The vessel was placed on the Port of Chester Shipping Register (4 in 1866) by the Mostyn Coal and Iron Company, 10 Old Ferry Chambers, London. A mortgage was secured using the vessel's shares as collatoral with Edward Dixon of City of London and Thomas Griffiths Dixon of Nant Hall, Flint, esquire, 'to secure ammount due on account with interest at 5 percent' on 18 October 1878. The vessel was then sold to 3 July 1880 to John Taylor of 6 Queen Street Place, London, esquire, Thomas Part of Aldenham Lodge, Hertford, esquire, and John Lancaster of Bilton Grange, Warwickshire, esquire, joint owners. These transactions rather suggest the winding up of the Mostyn Coal and Iron Company, with the shares in the vessel being transferred to the remaining directors. The ship's Port of Chester Shipping Register entry (2 in 1880 after re-registering with change of boiler) is closed with the annotation 'Vessel foundered in the gales of 15-16 October 1886 on voyage from Swansea to Newry.'
Sources include:
Port of Chester Shipping Register 1874 -1913, Flintshire Record Office S/5, folio 54
Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, July 2012
