John and William 1916
Wooden sailing vessel (flat) b Rhyl 1870 owned Connah's Quay.
70 tons, cargo manganese ore.
1 January 1916 aground then foundered.
On the night of the 1-2 January 1916, a sudden WNW gale struck the Dee
Estuary. The flat John and William of Chester and the steam flat Honour Storey
of Chester (belonging to the Mostyn Ironworks) were anchored, tied alongside each other,
in Wild Road - both were driven onto Salisbury Bank. The much larger SS
Incemore of Liverpool (3060 tons, b 1898 Teesside) was also driven onto the
same bank close-by. The crews of the flats sought refuge on the larger vessel
- which fired distress signals. The Point of Ayr Lifeboat was launched at
10:25pm and took off the crews of the two flats (7 men) plus the 14 crew of the
larger SS. They landed all 21 safely at Mostyn Docks. This was to be the last
service of the Point of Ayr lifeboat station, before it was fully closed in 1923.
As the wind and tide changed, the steam flat Honour Storey was
driven off the Salisbury Bank onto the beach at West Kirby. She was expected to be
refloated. The SS Incemore (which had been involved with a collision with the
passenger liner Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1914) survived - although she was damaged
by a torpedo from an Austrian submarine in the Mediterranean on 15th July 1917
and then sunk by another torpedo on 20th August 1917. The flat John and William is
recorded as sunk in the Board of Trade Wreck Returns, although this is not recorded
in local newspapers or in Lloyd's List.