Ribble Wrecks

Ann E Hooper lost 1862

Wooden full-rigged ship (clipper) built Bath, Maine 1855, 1500 tons burden.
Owned Hooper, Baltimore, registered Baltimore.
Also named Anne or Annie in place of Ann in some reports.
Voyage Baltimore to Liverpool with wheat, flour, tobacco, lard and tallow.
Driven ashore on Horse Bank at entrance to Ribble. Broke up.
Captain Hooper; 18 (including pilot) saved by lifeboats, 4 lost.

From Cheshire Chronicle, Saturday 25 October 1862
  IMPORTANT LIFEBOAT SERVICES. Lytham, Monday Night. At early dawn this morning [20 October 1862] notice was received that a ship was on the most dangerous part of the Horse Bank. It was blowing a very strong gale at the time from the west, with a very heavy sea. As soon as practicable, the [Lytham] lifeboat of the National Lifeboat Institution was launched and towed to wind-ward by the Loch Lomond steamer. After having been cast off by the steamer, the lifeboat had to go through a tremendously heavy sea of broken water which filled her three times, but which was rapidly self-ejected. With great perseverance on the part of the crew, she at last reached the ship, and with much difficulty took off thirteen of the crew, and a Liverpool pilot who was on board. The vessel proved to the ship Annie[sic] E. Hooper, of Baltimore, U.S., bound to Liverpool, with a cargo of wheat, flour, and tobacco. She was of 1,500 tons burthen. After taking off the fourteen men, the rope, by which the life-boat held to the ship, parted, and the Southport lifeboat, which also belongs to the National Lifeboat Institution, coming up at the time [after rowing strenuously for four and a half hours], took off the captain and the remaining three men. The vessel will probably become a total wreck. Nobler lifeboat sacrifices have seldom been performed, as the eighteen poor, shipwrecked men testified with grateful hearts. Both lifeboats behaved admirably. The cost of the Southport lifeboat was generously presented to the Lifeboat Society by James Knowles. Esq., of Eagley Bank.

Another report states that: The Ann E Hooper had picked up a pilot off Formby Lightship on Sunday [19th Oct] and engaged a steam-tug to tow her into Liverpool. The severity of the weather caused the steam-tug to leave the vessel, which had then no alternative but to put back to sea. She was knocking about in the Channel all night. Two of the crew were washed overboard and lost. Two others attempted to make their escape in a small boat, but the boat capsized and the men were drowned.

Also that two other vessels were to be seen derelict on the banks at the entrance to the Ribble.

Liverpool Pilots donated £14 to the Lytham Lifeboat in thanks for the rescue of one of their pilots.

From records of the family of the Hooper shipping line of Baltimore:
  James Hooper's favourite ship was the Ann E. Hooper, a richly furnished clipper ship he named after his wife. On the bow rested a marble statue of Ann Elizabeth Hooper, in her hands a bouquet of sixteen roses representing her children. Her cabins were finished in sandalwood and mahogany panels with mirrors on all sides reaching from ceiling to deck. The ship was the subject of both unfavorable and heroic publicity.
  The Ann E. Hooper had a relatively brief career. She was built in Bath, Maine in 1855. She lost the statue of Ann on one of her voyages. She gained fame by rescuing the crew of the stricken Ouzel Galley of Dublin, in 1859, near the Bahamas. A painting [from Mariners Museum, VA, USA] was commissioned as thanks for this:

  In October 1862 bound from Baltimore to Liverpool, she approached land in command of the pilot who assured her Master that the vessel would be bought to port safely despite severe weather. A hurricane from west - northwest developed and the ship released a towline from a tug and drifted ashore on a shoal known as Horsebank. A lifeboat removed twelve of her crew. Two crewmen were lost launching a boat and two were washed overboard. Of a crew of twenty [presumably not counting 1 pilot and 1 passenger], four were lost. The ship broke up but 1500 barrels of flour, tallow and lard were salvaged. Insurance of $150,000 was paid for her loss.

From Liverpool Mercury, Friday 16 Jun 1854:
  SINKING OF A VESSEL OFF BLACKPOOL.- On Friday morning [9 June 1854], as the flat Railway King, of Liverpool, was returning from Bardsea [on shore south of Ulverston] [to Liverpool] laden with limestone, she sprung a leak when off Blackpool, and though two pumps were set to work, the water gained so much upon them that the crew, consisting of three men, had barely time to awake the captain's wife, and hurry into the boat, leaving behind all they possessed; except the garments in which they were clothed. They only had time to get one oar, and that a broken one, which enabled them to get to shore, having to resort to the use of a shawl for a sail. The captain lost a £10 note and a lever watch. The vessel went down in three minutes after the crew left her, which was about two o'clock in the morning. The distressed party landed at Blackpool about half-past four - Preston Guardian.

From Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, Wednesday 04 October 1854
  LYTHAM - Oct. 3: The smack Isabella, Corkes, of Ramsey, 45 tons register, from Bridgewater for Preston (with Bath bricks), struck upon the Horse Bank at daybreak this morning, and sunk. The crew, five in number, clung to the rigging, and were rescued the Lytham life-boat. [wind NW 8, Bath bricks were for scrubbing, made from the river silt at Bridgewater]