John and William 1916
Wooden sailing vessel (flat) b Rhyl 1870 owned Connah's Quay.
70 tons, cargo manganese ore. Owned Thomas Bithell.
1 January 1916 aground then foundered, near Mostyn.
However, reported as arriving at Liverpool from Mostyn in September 1916.
MNL states register closed 1916 - so most probably condemned and broken up.
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, helping to unload SS Incemore - 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 Lloyd's List.
[from Prestatyn Weekly - Saturday 08 January 1916]:
EXCITING TIMES. Point-of-Ayr Lifeboat (H G Powell) was called out last Saturday, to the assistance of a
vessel in distress in the Wild Roads, Mostyn. On arriving at the supposed wreck, it was found that
there were three vessels in distress, viz: the S.S. Incemore which had been blown on to the
Salisbury Bank, and was left high and dry at low water. The other two were the flat John and
William of Chester, and the S.S. Honor Storey, belonging to the Darwen and Mostyn Ironworks. The
John and William is a total wreck, but the Honor Storey was found by some fishermen on the main shore
abreast of Heswall. The crews of the last two vessels had taken refuge aboard the Incemore,
consisting of six men and a boy. To make matters more serious, there were 14 workmen aboard the
Incemore, who had been discharging the cargo into the flat and the Honor Storey. As soon as the flood
tide was making, the shipwrecked crews and the workmen, 21 in all, were taken to Mostyn by the
lifeboat.
[from Liverpool Journal of Commerce - Tuesday 12 September 1916]:
Docked recently: Brunswick. John & William, 69, Bithel, R&D Jones, Mostyn.