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Claxton - a general history

Completed October 1883: Official No. 86389: Code Letters JBNW.

Owners: 1883 Charles Scotson Todd & Co, West Hartlepool; November 1883 Charles S Todd, Edwin & Frederick James Walker, James Ragg, Septimus Jonathan Glover, Richard Esh, Mary Wilson, Joseph Thorp, John Thomas Matthews, Thomas Pinkney, Hartlepool; 1884 Charles S Todd, Edwin & Frederick James Walker, James Ragg, Septimus Jonathan Glover, Richard Esh, Mary Wilson, Joseph Thorp, John Thomas Matthews, Thomas Pinkney, Richard Letherington, Henry Foxton & George Craggs, James Wesley Pickering, Joseph Constantine & Charles Croker Barton,  Hartlepool; 1885 Charles S Todd, Edwin & Frederick James Walker, James Ragg, Richard Esh, Mary Wilson, Joseph Thorp, Thomas Pinkney, Richard Letherington, James Wesley Pickering, Joseph Constantine, Charles Croker Barton, Henry Benham & William Gray,  Hartlepool.

Masters: 1884-85 Edward Robert Blake (b. 1860 Hartlepool).

On a voyage from North Shields for Copenhagen with a cargo of coal & a crew of 17 Claxtonwent ashore & was wrecked on the Mallow Sand near Molksund in the Cattegat (between Sweden & Jutland) on 12 December 1885. The 1st mate was injured & was hospitalised at South Shields. Six lives lost. The master was found in default & his certificate was suspended for four months.

Lives lost December 1885; Boyd, William Henry, able seaman, Whitby St, W Hartlepool; Ferguson, James, donkeyman, Wood St, W Hartlepool; Hood/Hird, Walter, mate, Temperance St, W Hartlepool

Illingworth, Benjamin, fireman, Northgate St, Hartlepool; Newton, Thomas, steward, Thornton-le-Dale, Yorks; Young, William, able seaman, Reed St, W Hartlepool.

Survivors December 1885; Blake, Edward Robert, master, Church St, W Hartlepool; Bain, George, chief officer; Clark, Joseph, fireman, Stranton Steelworks; Conner, William, able seaman, Frederick St, W Hartlepool; Ferguson, Robert R, chief engineer, Bell St, Hartlepool; Newton, F, able seaman, Thornton-le-dale, Yorks; Porrit, J, fireman, George St, W Hartlepool; Rimington, Richard, 1st mate; Robbins, George, able seaman, Tower St, W Hartlepool; Robinson, T, cook, London; Towney, William, 2nd mate, Grosvenor St, W Hartlepool; Webster, F, 2nd engineer, Waverley Hotel, Seaton Carew.

Thomas Hewitt, a West Hartlepool man, 2nd engineer, left the steamer before this voyage to spend Christmas at home. John Borden, brother-in-law to James Ferguson, one of those drowned, had also left the vessel previous to the present voyage.

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