The JOHN HORROCKS (Captain Wright) was a wooden sailing vessel, a barque of 344tons, built 1849 at Lancaster, registered at Liverpool and owned by Booker & Co. She was on a passage from Liverpool to Demerara with a cargo of lime. She went ashore in squally WNW wind near the Point of Ayr at the entrance to the Dee Estuary on 13 December 1854.
The records of the Point of Ayr lifeboat: The Point of Ayr Lifeboat was
called out at 7:35am on 13th December 1854 to the barque John Horrocks of
Liverpool which had run aground on the West Hoyle Bank in very heavy seas and
a severe gale. The Lifeboat reached the stranded vessel at 8:35am and brought
ashore 4 men who wanted to catch the train to Liverpool as quickly as
possible. The Lifeboat returned to the barque, and, together with the Hoylake
Lifeboat, stood by her for some time. One report states that her cargo of lime
started to overheat when water entered her hold. Once the tide had risen
sufficiently the 2 Lifeboats went alongside and the Point of Ayr Lifeboat
rescued another 9 men, the Hoylake Lifeboat rescuing the remaining 8 men,
together with all their belongings, and the 17 men were transferred to a steam
tug which took them to Liverpool. Conditions were too bad for the Point of Ayr
Lifeboat to return to her station at Gronant, so she put into Talacre Harbour
and the crew walked back to Gronant, arriving home at 9:00pm, the Lifeboat
eventually being brought back to the station by road on the 14th.
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