Atalanta Gallery

Edmund Ebdy started his business at George Street, Hartlepool in 1873 as a produce merchant, dealing primarily in flour. In 1881 he went into partnership with Richard Blacklin as steamship owners under the company name of Ebdy, Blacklin & Co. Ebdy was the commercial partner and Blacklin attended to the practical and other details of the company. They contracted Raylton, Dixon & Co. to build the steamship Aurora at a cost of £27.400. At the time their company had only £1,600 capital. They secured promises of 39 shares being taken in the steamer which still left £7,633 owing. They also contracted with William Gray & Co. to purchase the Atalanta for £19,200 when the all their money was already tied up in the Aurora.  They only managed to sell 14 shares in the Atalanta leaving them responsible for the remaining shares. When the Aurora was wrecked in 1885 it was found that Ebdy had under-insured her.

After Ebdy transferred his merchant’s business and other assets to his wife in 1886 both men filed a petition for bankruptcy. After many Bankruptcy Court appearances with Ebdy accused of rash and hazardous speculation the petition was granted in 1887.

R.J. Blacklin became commodore of the Rotterdam Lloyd Line and later the Atlantic Transport Line. By 1890 he was mangaer of the Hudson Shipping Co. In 1896 and 1903 he was manager of the Leonis Shipping Co. Ltd.

Family History:

Richard James Blacklin was born in 1841 at Athlone, Westmeath, Ireland to parents Richard James and Margaret Ann (nee Anderson) Blacklin. In 1851 he was a boarder with Thomas Dickinson, a teacher, at Heighington, County Durham. Richard married Mary Ann Agnes Downey at St Hilda’s Church, Hartlepool on 24^th March 1863. In 1865, living at 115 Scarborough Street, Hartlepool he passed his master’s certificate in steam, certificate no. 24.069. On the 1871 census the family was living at Slough, Buckinghamshire with Richard’s widowed mother. Mary Ann, his wife, died in 1872. Richard’s second marriage was at Manchester on 7^th August 1873 to Ellen Marion Downey. On the 1881 census the family were living at 51 Milton Street, Hartlepool and Richard was listed as a navy captain. From 1891 the family were living at Dinsdale House, Brougham Terrace Hartlepool. Ellen died at Darlington in 1905.

Richard died aged 74 on 23^rd August 1915 at Heighington leaving effects of £2,387. He was interred in the North Cemetery, Raby Road, West Hartlepool.  

Edmund John Battensby Ebdy was born in 1849 at St. Giles, Durham to parents Edmund (roper, dealer and grocer) and Anne Battensby (nee Clarke) Ebdy. His mother died in 1860 and his father was remarried to Mary Taylor in the same year. Edmund married Mary Pape in 1872 at Darlington. On the 1881 census Edmund was staying at Hall Quay, Great Yarmouth as a boarder. His wife was living at Brougham Terrace, Hartlepool.

In 1886 a petition was filed with Edmund named as co-respondent in a divorce having committed adultery with May, the wife of Jacob K. M. Hessler. The case was proven in April of 1887 with Edmund ordered to pay costs.

Edmund and his wife sailed on the ship Austral arriving in Australia in May 1887. He travelled back again on the Arcadia arriving in London in 1897 and must have then returned to Australia. Mary, his wife, sailed back to Britain in 1913 on the ship Osterley.

Edmund died in 1919 at New South Wales, Australia

This section will, in time, contain the stories of more than 450 merchant ships built or owned in the Hartlepools, and which were lost during the First World War. As an illustration of the truly global nature of shipbuilding, these ships were owned by companies from 22 different countries, including more than 30 sailing under the German flag at the outbreak of war.

Jacob Allison purchased his first ship, Atalanta, in 1888 and founded J.S. Allison & Company in 1889. In 1906 the company became the Seaton Shipping Company Co. Ltd.

In 1911 the management of the Seaton Shipping Co. Ltd. was  transferred to Sydney Hogg & Co.

Jacob Shepherd Allison was born c1863 at Stranton. He was married in the Tower Street Congregational Church on 22 October 1889 to Elizabeth Pyman Cory, eldest daughter of Ebenezer Cory & granddaughter of George Pyman. Having served on the Town Council for ten years he became Mayor in 1906.

Living on the Green at Seaton Carew Jacob had been having strychnine injections administered by a nurse for insomnia. He did not like the injections and had asked if the strychnine could be taken in liquid form and the nurse had told him it could under a doctor’s orders.

On the afternoon of Tuesday 10 April 1910 the clerk went into the office and Jacob asked him to phone the doctor as he thought he was poisoned. Just before he died Jacob told the doctor he had drunk from a bottle of strychnine that he had purchased to kill rats.

At the inquest held the following day a verdict of ‘Death by Misadventure’ was given as there was no motive for suicide. Jacob was just 47 years old.

William Gray established a woollen & linen drapery business in Hartlepool in 1843. Also having an interest in shipping he acquired shares in sailing vessels from 1844.

Some of the other shareholders included: Robert (draper) & John Gray (Blyth); Matthew Gray (North Blyth); James Robson (Newcastle-on-Tyne); Henry Taylor (Liverpool); James Monks (Durham); Alexander Robertson (solicitor, Peterhead.

Henry Taylor Purvis; John Callender (draper); Phillip Howard (master mariner); James McBeath (master mariner); James Smith (master mariner); Jane Hall; John Fothergill; Jens Christian Nielsen; William Coward; William Horner; Frederick & Joseph Edward Murrell; all of Hartlepool.

William also had shares in sailing vessels along with John Punshon Denton. Eventually the two formed a partnership in shipbuilding with their first ship, Dalhousie, laid down on 4 July 1863. In December 1871 John Denton died. A dispute arose over the company’s profits which was eventually resolved in 1874 with the firm becoming William Gray & Company. In August 1874 the company’s first ship, Sexta, was launched.

William Gray was born on 18 January 1823 at Blyth, Northumberland to parents Anne Jane (nee Bryham) & Matthew Gray. He married Dorothy Wilson Hall on 15 May 1849 at St. Mary, Lewisham, Kent. In the 1851 census the couple were living at 2 Marine Terrace, Hartlepool. By 1861 the census recorded William as being a linen & woollen draper & shipowner & by 1871 as a shipbuilder. The couple had five daughters and two sons. Their eldest son, Matthew, died suddenly of pneumonia in June 1896 aged just 41.

William died aged 76 on 12 September 1898 leaving effects of £1500422. His widow, Dorothy died aged 81 on 7 September 1906.

William Cresswell Gray was born in 1867 at Tunstall Manor to parents Dorothy (nee Hall) & William Gray. He married Kate Casebourne in 1891 and they had four daughters and one son.

William took over as chairman of the company after the death of his father. He was created a baronet in 1917 and was given the freedom of Hartlepool and West Hartlepool in 1920.

William died aged 57 on 1 November 1924 at Bedale, Yorkshire leaving effects of £417347.

William Gray (3^rd generation) was born on 18 August 1895 at Hartlepool to parents Kate (nee Casebourne) & William Cresswell Gray. He was educated at Loretto School in Scotland, and passed direct from the school in 1914 to the Green Howards, where he rose to the rank of captain. He was several times mentioned in despatches, but was subsequently wounded and taken prisoner in 1915. He returned safely in 1918 following the Armistice. He married Mary Leigh at London in 1929.

Following the death of his father William took over the company in 1925. The recession and interest on money borrowed for development had left the company in financial difficulties but this was overcome and shipbuilding continued. The company made a substantial contribution to the war effort during WW2. After the war the company held its own with shipbuilding and repair work. In 1956 William Talbot Gray, the third William Gray’s son, became a joint managing director. He was killed in a car accident in 1971 aged 40. The company went into voluntary liquidation in 1962 and closed completely in 1963. William retired to Orchard Cottage, The Drive, Egglestone, Barnard Castle.

William died aged 82 on 28 January 1978 at Barnard Castle leaving effects of £116121.

Ships owned by William Gray & Co. that were not built in Hartlepool are recorded below under 'a general history'.