Forester class gun-boat built Doxford, Sunderland 1874
3-masted barquentine rig, wooden on steel/iron frames, 440 tons displacement,
125 x 23.5 x 8 ft. 2cyl Comp engine, 60hp, 2 boilers, screw
Sold September 1889 to G. Rodrigues of Liverpool
Under tow from Plymouth to Liverpool by tug Liverpool.
Tow parted and sank on 7 October 1889 in wind SSW force 11.
Crew of 4 recovered by tug.
Ashore on rocks close to Aberffraw.
The old gun-boat HMS Express was sold in 1889 and was being towed from Plymouth to Liverpool by the steam-tug Liverpool on behalf of the Liverpool Salvage Association.
HMS Express (in service with Royal Navy):
There was confusion in newspaper reports (i) with City of Dublin Irish Sea
ferry SS Express and (ii) in the name of the gun-boat (Enterprise rather than
Express).
HMS Express, a gunboat, is listed as sold in September 1889, and there is no such record of an
HMS Enterprise.
Further confusion is that the wreck, close inshore, just S of Porth Cwyfan, was thought to be that of HMS Enterprise - basically because of newspaper reports (and I W Jones in Shipwrecks of North Wales) that she went aground near Aberffraw and had two boilers. This wreckage is now known to be the SS Bothilde Russ, lost in 1903.
From Western Daily Mercury, Thursday 03 October 1889
The obsolete gunboat Express, which has
been sold by the Admiralty to a private firm to break up, was towed yesterday by the tug
Liverpool, to Liverpool.
From Western Mail 9 October 1889:
... Another vessel, an old gunboat, the Enterprise[sic], was being towed from Plymouth
to Liverpool by the powerful steam tug Liverpool. She was in charge of a
salvage crew belonging to the Salvage Association. They had proceeded as far
as Carnarvon Bay in safety, when they met the full strength of the westerly
storm. While struggling across the bay, the crew observed a large schooner
running before the gale, and, immediately afterwards, it disappeared. No
assistance was possible, and the vessel must have been lost with all hands,
The wind increased in velocity off Anglesey and, at length, the tug had to abandon the
gunboat, the crew being bodily dragged away with ropes, and the well-worn old
vessel found a last resting place on the snags and rocks of the iron bound
coast at Aberffraw.
From North Wales Express 11 October 1889:
The old gunboat Express which had been purchased lately by a Liverpool
gentleman, was in tow from Plymouth to Liverpool, when the ropes parted, but
the crew were got on board the tug. The Express ran ashore at Aberffraw and
became a total wreck.
Llandudno Register and Herald, Thursday 12 December 1889:
TO THE LATE
GALE. William Jones, of Aberffraw, sued Captain Roderick[sic, possibly
Rodrigues], of H.M.S. Express, now belonging to the Liverpool Salvage Company,
for the recovery of £2, the value of a ring, alleged to have been
recovered, in consideration of a reward, from the gunboat Express, during the
recent gale off the Welsh coast. The plaintiff stated that when the gunboat
went ashore under Aberffraw, the defendant offered reward for the recovery of
a ring valued at £10, independently of his own clothes. In
cross-examination, the plaintiff admitted finding the ring in the possession
of a servant at Bwlan [farm inland of Aberffraw], and that he (the plaintiff)
was accused of stealing certain articles from the wreck. He also admitted that,
upon the advice of the local policeman, he gave up possession of the ring
handing it to the constable. Having heard the evidence of the plaintiff,
corroborated by two witnesses, his Honour gave judgment for the defendant,
with costs.
The gunboat Express went aground near Aberffraw - so where is the wreckage now?
From Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald, 15 August 1890:
AN OLD GUNBOAT has been beached at the Valley [Foundry at east end
of Stanley Embankment], and is to be broken up for old iron.