Full-rigged ship, Enterprize, wooden, built 1790 Liverpool, 229tons burden.
Copper-sheathed, 3 masts, square stern, 2 decks, height between decks 5ft 2in,
98 x 24.3 ft, figurehead "woman".
Owned Thomas Leyland of Walton Hall and others (including
Thomas Molyneux then Richard Bullin)
Returning from Cuba ran aground near Mew Island and sank.
25th January 1803: Captain Thomas Egerton and 8 crew lost; 9 crew saved.
The Liverpool owned ship Enterprize had made eight "triangular" voyages, taking manufactured goods to West Africa, slaves to the West Indies and then produce (such as sugar) from the West Indies to Liverpool. This was a very lucrative operation. The Enterprize must have been armed, for on 15 April 1794, off the west of Spain, she recaptured the Spanish vessel Virgini, from the French.
Her final voyage, under Captain Thomas Egerton, left Liverpool on 21 May 1802 with 28 crew, arrived at New Calabar around November 1802, landed 225 slaves at Havana, Cuba, on 12th December 1802. Since 4 men had died en route (in November and December) and there were 10 desertions, she hired 4 crew in Cuba for the return journey. In a gale at 7pm, she struck the west side of Mew Island (outlying island of the Copeland Islands at the southern side of the mouth of Belfast Lough).
She was carrying a large quantity of dollars (Spanish dollars, worth 8 reals, so known as "pieces of eight") as well as sugar, ivory,.. Her crew Muster Roll shows that 9 men were drowned, including the Captain, with 9 getting ashore. Newspapers quote 11 lost - one report states that two died of exposure after getting ashore on the remote island.
As well as the, rather sparse, contemporary newspaper reports [see below],
several authors have investigated this wreck, mainly because of its importance as
a very early example of salvage by helmet divers.
Ship Enterprize, Story of the wreck
(The diver who fell asleep at his job), Sir Robert H Davis 1939 [Director of Siebe Gorman]
The Infernal Diver, (Lives of John and Charles Deane, Their Invention of
the Diving Helmet...), John Bevan 1996
The Artefact Biography of a Slave Shipwreck - The Enterprise.
MLitt Thesis 2011, Newcastle University, Michael Smith.
Wreck From: Lloyd's List 4 Feb 1803 [2 entries]
The Enterprize, Egerton, from Havannah to Liverpool, is lost near Donaghadee. The Captain and 10 men drownedA large Ship, said to belong to Liverpool, was on shore 24 Ult[24 January 1803] on Copeland Island, at the mouth of Belfast Lough and expected to be lost; Eleven of the crew drowned.
Undaunted by this loss, the same owners sent another ship named Enterprise (built 1797, a prize from the French) of 405 tons with Captain Caesar Lawson on the same triangular trade on 20 July 1803. Details of this voyage are included in the book: The Liverpool Privateers and the Liverpool Slave Trade by Gomer Williams.
Salvage From: Belfast News Letter, Tuesday April 8 1834
In the month of Feb 1803 [sic], the ship Enterprize, belonging to Leyland and Co. Liverpool, struck on the Mew Island, near Donaghadee, and went to pieces - she was richly laden, and had a great many dollars on board. A Mr. Haughton was sent from Liverpool to lift whatever could be obtained, and a considerable quantity of dollars, in bags, was taken up, by tongs made for the purpose; but still a quantity remained in the clefts of the rocks. Not many years ago, there were attempts made [using a diving bell], but with little success, to recover the remainder. However on Tuesday last[1 April 1834], a small English cutter went upon the spot where a few dollars had formerly been found, and a man, properly equipped with Deanes' Patent Diving Apparatus, went down, and found a bottle of some sort of liquid; the contents appeared transparent, and were supposed to be wine, brandy or rum. The cork is grown over with seaweed, like that called dulse, and on the neck of the bottle, small limpets are growing. This curiosity may at present be seen at Mr Jardine's, sign of Lord Nelson, Mariners Hotel, Donaghadee.
Details of newspaper reports of the salvage attemps using diving bells in 1829
Late in 1833, John Deane and William Edwards had set out, by sea,
from Whitstable to dive on HMS Colossus (Scilly Isles), successfully
raising some cannons, and then continued to the wreck of the Enterprize
on Mew Island. This latter wreck had no owner, so was available to any
salvor. They arrived in October 1833, and were able to visit the site
and recover a small quantity of dollars before the weather became too
wintry.
This initial success encouraged them to set off again in 1834 with a larger
group of divers (including Charles Deane) and 3 support vessels.
From: Caledonian Mercury, Thursday 3 July 1834
Diving for Dollars:A remarkable instance of ingenuity and enterprise has recently come to our knowledge. A person who has invented a very portable, yet very efficient apparatus for diving below water, lately came to Portpatrick and Donanghadee, and, descending into the harbours of these two places, walked through them many feet under water, with as much care as if he had been walking on the sand when the tide was out. He could ascend and descend at pleasure, and with rapidity, a display of which afforded much amusement to the onlookers. When chased by a boat, as he exhibited in the water, and when the boat was almost upon him, he dived like a sea bird, and eluded his pursuers, rising again out of reach.
He did not limit his invention to the amusement of the community, but being informed of a ship, in which tradition said there was 200,000 pounds worth of dollars, having gone down, between the Copeland Islands and the mainland of County Down, a little to the north of Donaghadee, the adventurer [John Deane, according to Bevan] has descended, and has, at several times succeeded in bringing up a vast number of dollars. Report estimates his success at 24,000 dollars, some say pounds; but he lately brought over his treasure and transmitted it by coach to London, and a very heavy load it was to the mail. The people on the coast, envying him his rich harvest, have come off in boats and impeded his labour by throwing stones and other missiles, to his vexation, annoyance and interruption. He employs several men, who descend in turn - can stay five hours at a time with the utmost ease, as a proof of which we have heard it said, that one of the divers who was tipsy the day before, on going down yielded to a propensity to sleep, and a companion had to descend to raise him from his slumbers.
Of the construction of the apparatus, we have not heard anything accurate, it is made of water-proof cloth, having glass opposite the eyes, and the air is forced down to the person by an air-pump and hose; the air-pump is very small and easily carried. Sinks[pieces] of lead of different weights, according to the depth, are employed to drag the apparatus down.
The dollars are much tarnished, and above 20 of them were found matted to the lock of a pistol, a union which it is conjectured may have been effected by some electrical process going on between the metal of the lock, the silver and sea water. A patent has been taken out on the apparatus, for which it is said the man asks 150 guineas. - Glasgow Herald.
John Bevan reports that they, as in 1829, met with obstruction
from the local boatmen, who threw rocks at them while they were diving.
Eventually, the Deanes decided to withdraw and returned to London in a
stage coach they had hired, with a heavy load of silver coins (worth
millions of pounds in 2020 prices).
The Deane brothers, and other Whitstable divers
they employed, were able to gain considerable wealth from this salvage - and a
row of houses in Whitstable is locally called "dollar row" with one called Copeland
House after this source of their wealth.
Diving Bell Salvage Robert Davis' account, in 1939, presents some details of the earlier, diving bell, salvage attempts [see also details of newspaper reports]:
Early in 1829, Dasher (one of the mail steam packets which ran between Donaghadee and Portpatrick) was at Holyhead undergoing a refit. Her master, one evening in company, told the story of the wreck of the Enterprise.One of the listeners appeared to be very much interested, with the result that in the following July, a little craft called the Clown, belonging to Holyhead, appeared on the scene of the wreck. She was equipped with the very latest appliance for salving treasure, in the shape of a diving-bell with an air pump etc., and very soon it was rumoured round Donaghadee that she had already succeeded in lifting a number of bags of dollars. No one knows exactly what was salved, but they continued working until early in October, and by that time it was reported that specie[coins] to the amount of 50,000 had been recovered. By this time the Donaghadee men were heartily sick of seeing the Welshmen reap such a rich harvest practically at their doors. Feeling at last ran so high that they went out in their boats and chased the treasure hunters away. They had watched the Welshmen working their diving bell and had seen how it was constructed so they made one for themselves.
The bell they constructed was actually made of wood, weighted with iron to make it sink. When it was completed, at first they could find no one to make the attempt at going down in it, but finally a carpenter named John Cornell volunteered, and on his second attempt, he recovered 180 dollars. Some little time after this when making alterations to the bell in the harbour, the frame work on which it was suspended carried away and a number of men were precipitated into the water, and one named James Baillie was drowned, and the others were rescued with difficulty. Although no mention is made of the amount of treasure recovered, apparently they must have had a measure of success, because in April, 1830, no fewer than four craft were working with diving bells on the craft. These were the Kitty, John, and Industry, all belonging to Donaghadee, the fourth belonged to Portpatrick.
He also quotes the location of the wreck as: at entrance to blind sound between Mew Island and Little Copeland[Lighthouse] Island.
Scuba diving on the wreck: in late 1990s by members of Lisburn SAC. It was confirmed as lying near Mew Island in approximately 5m depth. No accurate location has been made available. However, the location given by Davis would put the wreck as near 54° 41.87N, 5° 31.29W.