Lost at sea or not?

[ushes]

Well thats very interesting.  It is the same ship, no doubt because I already have the number C81658 in my records.  W. Watson the skipper mentioned is my G.G.G. Grandfather. Born in Lythe Yorks in 1822.  the ship was mentioned in the Houses of parliament.

MR. A. WILLIAMS : I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether any inquiry will be made as to the circumstances under which the West Hartlepool steamship Hesper, 1,069 tons, which sailed from Barry with a cargo of 2,277 tons of coal on the 30th January last, was lost on its voyage to Genoa, together with its crew of 21 hands?

*SIR M. HICKS BEACH : Yes, Sir; an inquiry has been ordered.

I'm off to the national archives on Saturday to chase this up.  I'll report back if anyone shows interest ?

Many Thanks
Regards
Steve

[seaweed]

I doubt you will find much in the National Archives at Kew.
What exactly do you intend to chase up?

[ushes]

There's a series of Board of Trade documents relating to shipping.  Masters and Mates certificates, there's also details on the ship itself.  Maybe some details of the results of the board of enquiry as to why it sank.  Anything I can really.

Regards
Steve

[wilcoxon]

 A board of trade inquiry was held at Cardiff . June 1890.
It had possibly been overloaded, as the bar of the disc was submerged  but the courts found no evidence and could not form an opinion as to cause of the loss of the vessel.

If you PM me with your email adress I can send you some more  details.

[seaweed]

Steve,
As far as I can tell there is No mention of the HESPER you want in any cataloged document.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/searchresults.asp?SearchInit=0&txtsearchterm=hesper&txtfirstdate=&txtlastdate=&txtrestriction=&hdnsorttype=Reference&image1.x=36&image1.y=12
To properly search the certificates of masters and mates you need a certificate number. Have you got this? if not you may find him in the series BT115.

Board of Trade Enquiries (Wreck reports) are kept at Southampton City Archive. There are some on line but not 1890.
http://www.plimsoll.org/WrecksAndAccidents/wreckreports/default.asp
No matter, Wilcoxen has kindly agreed to send you details. Captain Dawes was in command when this incident happened.
As stated in my previous post, I think you would be better served visiting London Metropolitan Archive. They are not open every Saturday but they are open 26/2/2011


   LMA open these Saturdays2011

January 8   May 14   September 24

January 22   June 11      October 8

February 12   June 25    October 22

February 26  July 9   

March 12    July 23 

March 26   August 13
 
April 9  September 10 

[ushes]

The interest in the ship is from the will of a distant relative, John Watson I have his certification as an only Mate and although the details are difficult to understand, he was working on HESPER in 1882. He drowned in the Gulf of Bothnia in 1885 and in his will was 1 share in the steamship HESPER.  Knowing that W. Watson was at some point skipper of HESPER I'm pretty sure that there's a connection between the two men but in my earlier research I can't tie down the link with W.Watson.  It isn't his brother, and it isn't his father.  His father was a master mariner but he was Robert and born in 1922.  However W.Watson may be an uncle.  Tomorrow I need to find W.Watson the skipper, (Captains Index is BT127 I think) find his date and place of birth etc and then try and make the family link.  While I'm in Kew I was going to try and find some mopre details on HESPER.
Wilcoxon has very kindly sent me the enquiry details of the sinking.  Very interesting.  I live in Hants so maybe a trip to Southampton is on the cards a little later, and also the London Metropolitan Archive.

Many thanks for the help
Regards
Steve