On Tuesday morning [12th October 1858], the schooner Red Rover, laden with limestone, was totally wrecked on the East Hoyle Bank with winds of NW force 8. Regretably, two children, who were in bed in the cabin at the time of the catastrophe, were drowned. The crew clung to the wreck for a considerable time, until the arrival of the Hoylake lifeboat, which succeeded in saving the lives of the captain and crew.
In December 1856, it was reported that the schooner Red Rover broke from her moorings in consequence of the high wind, and drifted into the pier at Piel [near Barrow], near which she was at anchor, doing much damage both to herself and that erection which is constructed of timber.
There was a Red Rover registered at Whitehaven - which the shipping register records as surviving until she was sunk on 7 July 1893 by a collision off the Maidens [rocky islands off Northern Ireland]. This is a different vessel to the Barrow/Ulverston one that sank off Hoylake and whose regular master before her loss was reported as Captain Gash and which mainly traded between Barrow/Ulverston and Ellesmere Port/Birkenhead.
Wooden sloop Ann and Elizabeth of Beaumaris, ON 16425, 25 tons, owned Evans, Bangor. Register states stranded on 13-1-1870 and no MNL entry from 1872 on. Reported stranded on East Hoyle Bank. Master C Evans.
Wooden smack Albion of Beaumaris, built Aberystwith 1831, 32 tons, ON 15136, owned Griffith Jones, Bangor. Also reported stranded but still included in MNL up to 1883 - so presumably refloated.
Liverpool Courier and Commercial Advertiser - Friday 14 January 1870: Albion, and Ann Elizabeth, smacks, of Bangor, are both aground on the East Hoyle Bank, derelict, and fill with the tide.
Beaumaris, 14th Jan. ANN ELIZABETH (smack), of Beaumaris, from Bangor to Liverpool; deposition of C. Evans, master. Liverpool, 15th Jan. [Wednesday 19 January 1870 Newspaper: Lloyd's List]
Reports from the North Wales Chronicle of 20 and 27 September 1873:
WRECK OF A PWLLHELI SCHOONER. Following close upon the maritime disasters of the
last few weeks, comes the news of the total wreck of the Alice, a schooner
belonging to Pwllheli, which was lost with all hands at the mouth of the
Mersey early on Tuesday morning [16 September 1873]. The telegraph attendant on Hilbre Island, Mr
Griffiths, noticed a vessel in distress near the mouth of the river, and at
once fired the signal gun. The report was heard by Mr Hughes, Hoylake
Lighthouse, and he, with praiseworthy promptitude, gave the signal for
gathering together the crew and launching the lifeboat. This was at about 5
45 a.m., and shortly afterwards the lifeboat crew, under Mr Joshua Burn[sic],
assembled on the beach. The signal which had called them had also aroused many
of the inhabitants of Hoylake, who came running to the shore in a condition
of anxious suspense to the cause for calling out the boat. Away out on a
bank at East Hoyle, the information sought was afforded. There lay a schooner,
with every wave washing over her, and a heavy gale of wind blowing from
N.N.W. The crew of four were in the rigging. Three of the men were on the
foremast and one upon the mainmast. The life-boat was dragged out to the water
upon its carriage by the united efforts of the crew and spectators, but it
required the horses to launch it, and some delay was occasioned at the early
hour named in obtaining them.
Eventually, however, the boat was got into the
water, and her crew pulled gallantly towards the schooner, the crew of which were
still seen holding on to the rigging. Unfortunately, before the men were
reached, the fore-mast toppled over, carrying with it the mainmast, and
precipitating the schooner's living freight into the sea. The sad event was
witnessed amid intense excitement from the shore, but served only to stimulate
the life-boat men to still harder exertions. When they arrived at the wreck
it was only to find that the upper portion had parted from the lower, and
floated off, and that none of the crew were to be seen. The lifeboat stood by
what remained of the schooner until 8 15 a.m when, failing to effect any good,
and being in danger of having her bows or sides stove in by pieces of floating
wreckage, she drew off, and arrived at Hoylake at 9 25. At this time there was
no vessel or steamer in sight by which assistance might be rendered to the
ill-fated crew, if they had been drifted out to sea, and the only conclusion
arrived at under the distressing circumstances was that the poor fellows
had been drowned.
Later on a water cask, branded with the name of J. Ellis,
Bangor, was picked up, and several articles were washed ashore off Dove Point,
including some oars bearing the name Alice. An empty boat was also found,
which showed that the schooner was the Alice, of Pwllheli, William Williams[sic],
captain. Other portions of the wreckage were left by the tide upon the beach
at the landmarks near Hoylake. The sea was running very high at the time the
schooner was first discovered, and there is no doubt she very quickly broke up
after striking.
THE LOSS OF THE ALICE. - An inquiry into the circumstances
touching the death of William Jones, mariner, aged 43, of Caervarvon, was
held before Mr Henry Churton, coroner for the county of Chester, at the Railway
Inn, Great Meols, Cheshire, on Tuesday afternoon. The jury having viewed
the body, the following evidence was called:
- John Pryce, shoemaker, 8,
Boot-court, Carnarvon, said he identified the body of the deceased, which he
had seen about eleven o'clock that morning. The deceased was one of the hands
on board the schooner Alice of which Owen Edwards was captain and
owner.
- John Silicock, fisherman, living at Hoylake, said he found the body
about half-past three o'clock on Sunday afternoon on the East Hoyle Bank,
below Hoylake. He afterwards conveyed the body to the deadhouse, and there, at
the request of the police-constable, he searched the deceased's pockets, but
found nothing on him but a piece of string. The head and face were very much
injured, and the body appeared to have been knocked about a good deal. The
nose was broken, and altogether the body was much shattered.
- Joshua Bird, fisherman, residing at Hoylake, said he was master of the lifeboat stationed
there belonging to the Mersey Dock. and Harbour Board. He had been master of
the boat about seven years. She was manned by 13 men, including himself. On
Tuesday. the 16th inst at about half-past seven o'clock in the
morning he was going down to the shore, towards the lower lighthouse. Before
he reached there, John Hughes, superintendent of the lifeboat, who was stationed
at the lighthouse, fired the signal gun for the crew to prepare for
launching the lifeboat As soon as he (witness) heard the gun fire he ran down
to the boat to get her tackle ready. The crew mustered in a few minutes, who
got the boat out, but were unable to launch her until the arrival of three
horses, for which they had to send about a quarter of a mile. The horses
belonged to a Mr Croxon, who always supplied them, and brought them up in
about ten minutes. On reaching the schooner, which appeared to be in
distress, on the East Hoyle Bank, about three miles from the light-house they
found that the schooner had gone on the bank during the night. It was a very
stormy morning, the wind blowing very hard. When they were about a mile off the
wreck, they saw the captain standing up on deck, and the crew in the rigging.
They were about an hour and a half getting to the wreck, which they found only
to consist of the hull and deck, the other portions of the schooner having
been swept away. When they reached the wreck, no hands could be found, and
after pulling around the vessel for some time, they returned with the
lifeboat to the shore.
In answer to a juror, the witness said he did not think
if they had started an hour before they could have reached the wreck sooner,
owing to the strong flood tide that was running. He was of opinion that they
could not moor the lifeboat in the middle of the lake. The lifeboat was
launched by running down a slip, but when it reached the water's edge, horses
had to be used. The boat had occupied its present position for ten years, and
he thought there was no station in that neighbourhood which would be more
advantageous or convenient for launching than the present. When the tide was
out the boat would be about 300 yards from the water, and when the tide was
in about 200 yards
- By the foreman: He was almost certain that the boat was
launched ten minutes after the firing of the gun.
The jury returned a
verdict of accidental death, at the same time calling the attention of the
Mersey Docks and Harbour Board to the present inconvenient position of the
lifeboat at Hoylake.
The deceased has left a widow and six children, the
eldest of whom is thirteen years old. The jury made a small subscription for
the widow.
Lloyd's List records: At 4:15 pm on the 3rd February 1910, the ketch Alexandra was stranded on the East Hoyle Bank in NW winds of force 8. The Hoylake lifeboat look off all 4 men aboard. After jettisoning about 30 tons of coal, she was refloated at 9:30am on the 7th February and taken to an anchorage at Mostyn Deep with little sign of damage.
Hoylake lifeboat records state that the Alexandra was 85 tons net and she
ran aground opposite Beach Road [west side of Hoylake] in heavy fog on 31
January 1910, and that the lifeboat crew, among others, helped to discharge
her cargo of 30 tons of coal over the next 3 days, before the wind increased
and her crew were then rescued by the lifeboat.
The Edward plied regularly between Dundee and Liverpool. In the 1827-35 period her master was Captain Tosh (who was her owner), then from 1835-8 Captain Stark. She had sailed from Dundee on 1 December 1838 for Liverpool with master Captain Crammond. She then left Liverpool with many other vessels when the weather seemed favourable - and encountered hurricane force winds. She was described as a smack - also as a sloop.
From Fifeshire Journal - Thursday 24 January 1839
The following is an extract from a letter received from Mr
Craig, merchant, Liverpool, to Mr John Ewan, merchant, in this town,
relative to the loss of the Edward. "Liverpool, January 8, 1838. Four
o'clock, An express has just arrived from Hoylake, with a dreadful
account of wreck along the coast; and it is distressing to add, that
among the rest is the Edward, Crammond, for Dundee, wrecked on East
Hoyle. The crew were saved by the life-boat." (Signed) Hugh Craig.
From Gore's Liverpool General Advertiser - Thursday 14 February 1839
The HULL of the Smack EDWARD, of Dundee; 54 tons per
register; as she now lies on East Hoyle Bank. The purchaser will be
entitled to the right of salvage for any part the cargo on board,
consisting of copper, iron, etc. For further particulars, apply to Hugh
Craig, or ROSCOW, ARNOLD and LEETE. Brokers.