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Azuline - a general history

Azuline 1851-1873

Built by Lorenzo Parker, Bath, Maine, USA: previously Lizzie Harward: Official No. 29466: Code Letters QFSJ: two decks; three masts; wood schooner; 1004g; 165.5 x 35.0 x 23.1; scroll figurehead.

Owners: 1851 Lorenzo Parker, Bath, Maine; 1861 William Gray, Hartlepool; 1865 James Brodie (North Shields) Thomas Stokoe, Thomas Kemp Betts  & Thomas Harper, Newcastle-on-Tyne; 1866 James Brodie (North Shields) Thomas Stokoe, Richard Beall McAdam  & Thomas Harper, Newcastle-on-Tyne; October 1869 George William Rogers (North Shields) Thomas Stokoe, Richard Beall McAdam  & Thomas Harper, Newcastle-on-Tyne; May 1872 George William Rogers (North Shields) Thomas Harper, Richard Beall McAdam  & Thomas Harper, Newcastle-on-Tyne.

Masters: 1865 (C.N. 29466); 1873 A Bell.

On a voyage from Pensacola for Sunderland with a cargo of pitch pine logs & a crew of 19 Azuline was abandoned before she broke up & foundered during a NW Force 11 gale in the North Atlantic in 40.34N/49.38W on 30 January 1873. The master & 8 of the crew were swept overboard & drowned. The distressed vessel was spotted by the Logosof Glasgow but because of the heavy sea its boat could not get near enough for a rescue. William Dunn, steward, tried to swim to the the boat but drowned in the attempt. The remaining ten of the crew clung to the rigging. Ten lives lost.

FG Sanders of the Greenock brig Glaucus launched the longboat to rescue the survivors. Before the boat could be fully manned it shot off owing to the heavy sea. The three men in it succeeded in saving four men from Azuline. The Glaucus lay by the wreck until morning & then launched the longboat again manned by twoof the former crew & three others. Owing to the heavy sea the longboat could not get alongside the wreck but succeeded in saving the 6 remaining survivors by means of a lifebuoy attached to a line. The survivors were treated very kindly aboard the Glaucusbefore being landed at St John’s, Newfoundland.

By public vote FG Sanders was awarded a binocular glass worth £6 6s. The men who manned the boat, Charles Winsdale, Charles Jackson, John Rose/Ross, Frederick Olsen & John Petersen were each awarded 3s each; £1 10s each & a subsistence of £9 6s.

Lives lost January 1873; Bell, A, master, Newcastle-on-Tyne; Dunn, William, steward, 35, North Shields; Gold, George S, ordinary seaman, 18, London; McGarth, James, seaman, 25, South Shields; Minicher, John, ordinary seaman, 18, London; Reed, John, carpenter, 30, North Shileds; Four men shipped at Pensacola.

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