Appendix 4 - The Wreck of the Wellington

Summary

Report from Select Committee on Shipwrecks of Timber Ships; with the Minutes of Evidence, Appendix and Index.

House of Commons Select Committee on Shipwrecks of Timber Ships, HC 333, 1839, p. 61.

The same month, an account was published in the Magazine, from John Kellar, master, respecting the sufferings of the crew of the “Wellington,” from St. Andrew’s, New Brunswick, bound to Cork, and laden with deals [timber pine boards]; she sailed from S. Andrew's in December 1833; sprung a leak in a gale of wind, was capsized and righted, when part of her crew were starving in the main-top, having only a drowned cat for food for many days; They were at length taken off the wreck, arrived in London, were clothed at the Mariner's Church, Wellclose-square, and sent home to Ireland.

The South Eastern Gazette, 18 February 1834, p. 3

MELANCHOLY SHIPWRECK

Statement of the loss of the brig Wellington, of Cork, John Keller, master, on her passage from St Andrew’s, New Brunswick, to Cork, laden with deals.

We sailed from St. Andrew’s, on Monday the 22d December, and on the 25th took our departure from Cape Sable: from that time until the 5th January we encountered a series of gales from N.W.W. and S.W., with heavy showers of hail and snow; on the afternoon of the 5th, a sea struck the stern, which knocked the dead lights in, and filled the cabin with water; we succeeded in stopping them with spare planks, bedding, &etc. From that day the wind increased, and on Wednesday, the 8th, it blew a complete hurricane, so much that it was impossible to steer the vessel with two of the best men at the wheel, and I thought it advisable to heave the ship to; therefore, at two p.m. furled the foresail, and brought her to under a close-reefed main top sail. The vessel lay to wonderfully well until seven o’clock the next morning, shipping little or no water.