Wooden paddle steamer, built 1826 Scott & Sons, Greenock
350 grt, 212 nrt, 138 x 24 ft
Engines built Scott, Sinclair, Greenock
First owner: Mersey & Clyde Steam Nav. Co., Liverpool
From 1832, owned City of Dublin Steam Packet Co., Dublin.
On passage Dublin to Liverpool, sprang a leak and was abandoned off
Holyhead on 12 January 1840. Captain Brown.
Position where abandoned: 53°55N, 4°20W [approximate].
73 passengers (out of about 120) and 21 crew rescued by ship
Huddersfield (Capt. John Arden Clegg;
346 tons; wooden, built Liverpool 1825).
From Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser, Friday 17 January 1840:
WILLIAM HUSKISSON, On Sunday morning last [12 January 1840], the steamer William Huskisson, belonging to the City of Dublin Company, foundered in the channel on her voyage from Dublin to this port, with passengers and a cargo of cattle, etc. Through the humanity and intrepidity of Captain Clegg, commander of the ship Huddersfield, the property of Messrs. Horsfall and Son, the greater portion of the crew and passengers were saved, though we regret to state that a few unfortunate individuals met with a watery grave.
The following
particulars of this painful and disastrous occurrence have been supplied to us
by Capt. Brown, the commander of the William Huskisson, who having lost his
log and all his papers, has given us the details as he can remember them:
On
Saturday evening, the 11th January, at six o'clock, the William Huskisson,
with about one hundred and twenty passengers on board, left the New Wall at
Dublin, with the wind S.S.W. blowing hard.
At half-past one o'clock on Sunday morning, the 12th, Holyhead bearing N.E.,
distance fifteen miles, the vessel sprung a leak. At two o'clock they got the
vessel before the wind, all the pumps were kept going, and the deck load,
principally cattle, were thrown overboard. The water, however, continued to
gain upon the vessel. It continued to blow hard throughout the morning. At
halfpast seven o'clock a.m., the vessel broached to; the water, having risen
so
high that the fires were extinguished, and the engines, consequently, stopped
working, which rendered her entirely unmanageable. On the engines stopping,
the water increased more rapidly, in consequence of the loss of assistance
from the pumps worked by the machinery. About twenty minutes before eight
o'clock, the ship Huddersfield, Clegg, master, hove in sight [she was outward
bound from
Liverpool to Africa]. The Calf of Man
was then bearing E.N.E., distant eighteen miles.
Captain Brown states, that
seeing no possibility of saving his vessel, his whole attention was turned to
the preservation of the lives of his passengers and crew, in which he received
the most energetic assistance from the master and crew of the Huddersfield,
which vessel took on board ninety-four persons, who were brought to Liverpool
on the evening of the 14th inst. Capt. Brown further says, the ship
Huddersfield having received considerable damage from her repeated attempts to
board and lay alongside the William Huskisson, while it was blowing very
hard, and the sea running high, was making much water. Such being the case, her
Captain feared to make another attempt to save the lives of about six persons
who remained on board the steamer, considering it best to insure the
preservation of those lives already under his care.
The following account, furnished by parties who had an opportunity of knowing
what took place on board the Huddersfield, and of being acquainted with the
difficulties encountered by the intrepid captain in his exertions for the
preservation of so many of his fellow-creatures, was published in a second
edition of the Liverpool Courier: Captain Clegg, observing the signals of
distress on board the steamer, immediately bore down to her assistance. On a
nearer approach, the ringing of the bell, and the heart-rending shout which
reached his ear, combined with the attitude of prayer of many on deck,
satisfied him that no time was to be lost in endeavouring to save a large mass
of human beings from immediate death. The sea was at this time running
fearfully high, and any attempt to lower the boats seemed worse than useless.
As the Huddersfield, however, neared the steamer, the boats of the latter were
lowered, but immediately swamped.
Captain Clegg saw, at once, that the only
chance of saving the people was by endeavouring to run his ship under the
stern of the steamer. In this bold and hazardous attempt, with his crew
mustered on the forecastle ready to give assistance, they providentially
succeeded in snatching twenty-three individuals off the wreck, and, although
doing so, the Huddersfield carried away her bowsprit, lost two anchors and
chains from the bow, and sustained other damage; the gratifying fact that they
had so far succeeded, seemed to give fresh spirit to the officers and ship's
company. The ship, with her gallant captain at the wheel, was immediately put
about, and a second attempt made, in which about twenty to thirty more of the
passengers and crew succeeded in getting on board - encouraged by this
success, the ship was a third time put about, and again brought under the
the stern of the steamer, when a further number succeeded in gaining the ship,
making a total of ninety-three, including fifteen women and some children.
The
gale, which had been on the increase, had now arrived at such a height, that
Captain Clegg deemed it prudent for the safety of his own vessel, in her then
crippled state, and those on board, not to remain longer by the wreck; as,
however, there appeared to be still ten or twelve persons on board the
steamer, he determined to make one more attempt; and accordingly again, for
the fourth time, ran his vessel under the stern of the steamer. This attempt,
as was anticipated, proved unsuccessful; and seeing that there was no
prospect of any abatement of the gale, and apprehensive of his mast going by
the board, after remaining by the wreck until ten a. m., they were reluctantly
obliged to quit her.
The captain and crew of the steamer had all succeeded in
getting on board of the Huddersfield, and Capt. Clegg, before quitting,
offered them the ship's boats, if they chose to make any attempt to save those
who still remained on the wreck; this, however, they very prudently declined,
as it was the opinion of Captain Clegg, and all on board that the attempt must
have ended with an additional loss of life.
The Huddersfield was
outward-bound, with a valuable cargo on board. Capt. Clegg, however, returned
with her to port, and landed his grateful passengers about six o'clock on
Tuesday evening. Captain Clegg speaks in the highest terms of his first and
second officers, Mr. Matthews and Mr. Drummond, and, indeed, of the whole
ship's company, who conducted themselves throughout the trying occasion with a
degree of boldness, promptitude, and gallantry truly characteristic of the
British seaman.
Several of the passengers perished in a fruitless attempt to
swim from the steamer to the Huddersfield, and a few in attempting to spring
from one vessel to the other; but when we consider the impossibility of using
the boats, the only surprise is how so many were saved. The utmost praise
is due to Captain Clegg, but we shall leave his conduct to be noticed by
those whom we are sure will not be found wanting in awarding him that reward
which is so justly his due.
Aftermath There was widespread praise for Captain Clegg and he was presented with medals from Dublin and from Liverpool. The underwriters of his vessel volunteered to pay fully for the damage to his vessel caused by the rescue.
A print of the rescue was sold soon afterwards; showing the Huddersfield at the stern
of the PS William Huskisson [lithograph by G. Hawkins, Jnr]:
Painting of PS William Huskisson in service by Samuel Walters [Victoria Gallery, Univ.
Liverpool] with Eddystone Lighthouse:
The wreck: on 16th January, the Newburn (Captain Adams), inbound
from Belfast Lough to Liverpool, reported seeing a great number of dead pigs
and cattle, floating about 14 miles SW of the Calf of Man.
On 20th January, the Wanderer from Limerick to Liverpool reported:
off the Calf of Man, saw the topmasts and top-gallant mast of
a vessel, schooner rigged, the sails flying loose, apparently attached to the
hull. At the time, this was thought to be possibly the wreck of
the William Huskisson.
[from Gore's Liverpool General Advertiser - Thursday 23 January 1840]:
Part of the wreck of the William Huskisson (steamer) has been washed
ashore near Portpatrick.
Even more curious:
Newspaper reports: Dundee Evening Telegraph; Friday 23 May 1919.
STEAMER EMBEDDED FOR GENERATIONS. Discovery of Remarkable Interest.
An
episode, probably unique, reported from Liverpool. For some time past the
Mersey Docks and Harbour Board has been conducting dredging operations in the
neighbourhood of Burbo Bay [Bank], one of the huge accumulations of sand which
impede navigation of the Mersey entrannce, and these have resulted in a
find of interest. It is the remains of a steamer which have evidently been
embedded for generations. Her date is long anterior to that of iron
shipbuilding. Of sound English oak were her timbers and framing, to which
circumstance, doubtless, is due the fact that they still retain cohesion and
shape and have so wonderfully resisted the forces of decay as to supply an
abundant quantity of material for souvenir manufacture. Her beams, in point
of fact, are described as being as hard as iron. The machinery has practically
perished, but engine bed-plates and funnel remain, and relics of pottery and
other articles are plentiful. The vessel, cleared of super-incumbent sand, is
not only visible but accessible at low water, and has been visited and examined
by many interested people. The point of speculation is as to her identity, the
prevailing opinion being that she is the William Huskisson, a paddle steamer
belonging to the City of Dublin Company, and trading between Liverpool and the
Irish capital, which on the 12th January, 1840, was wrecked on her
passage to the Mersey. She had 120 passengers on board, of whom 95 were
rescued by the ship Huddersfield and the remainder perished; Captain Clegg, of
the Huddersfield, subsequently receiving handsome presentations from the
citizens of Liverpool in recognition of his good work.
MDHB in their wreck-lists have an entry "William Huskisson" with location 53°27.67N, 3°4.96W [after conversion to WGS84 datum]; this is 1.8m at 305° from Perch Rock; about 1.2m from New Brighton shore at LW. This is charted now [2018] as drying 0.8m at CD. The remains are described as of extent 100x25ft, with 6 inch timbers, copper-fastened, deck water tank and windlass casting. The record is dated 1956 when the highest part of the iron work dried 7ft and frames dried 4ft, and described as "wood; sail or barge".
Note that the PS Superb was lost in 1835 at a location described as on a sandbank about 1 mile from the shore at New Brighton, so is a strong candidate to be the origin of the wreckage described above. The engine and boilers of the Superb were salvaged which also checks with the remains found in 1919.
Further evidence comes from 1839: The Brighton from Bombay was driven ashore by the hurricane in January 1839 on the North east of the North Bank (also described as near the Middle Patch Buoy of the New Channel). It was reported at that time (January 1839) that "The spot is not far from that on which is still visible a portion of the cranks, boilers, and other ironwork of the Superb steam-vessel, wrecked some years ago". The Brighton seems to have been wrecked about 3 miles from Perch Rock.
Summary: it seems very unlikely that the PS William Huskisson, after being abandoned in a sinking position in mid-Irish Sea, would end up on the Burbo Bank unless it was part of a salvage attempt. I have found no record of any salvage or tow of the vessel. Moreover, though a wooden-hulled vessel, the weight of the engines and coal aboard would make the abandoned vessel sink once the hull was damaged. For instance, the similar vessel, PS Leeds, floated for 12 (but less than 24) hours after being abandoned in a sinking state. Moreover the PS Superb is a strong candidate for the "early wooden steamship" wreck described in 1919.
PS: The name "William Huskisson" is that of a politician, born 1770, who became MP for Liverpool in 1823, was president of the Board of Trade and who supported activities that favoured Liverpool. He is best known for being the first person to be killed in a railway accident: in 1830 during the official opening of the Liverpool-Manchester passenger service, the first in the world.