Eliza Emma - a general history

Official No. 5072; Code Letters JGDC.

Owners: Thomas B Gates & Co, Shoreham; 1880-1903 William Watson (Sunderland) Shoreham.

Masters: 1846-50 Cheasman; 1850-51 W Parsons; 1851-54 William Young; 1855-58 Richard Bangard; 1859 Henry Radcliffe; 1863 Hurd; 1865 Hands; 1867-75 Denyer; 1877-79 Austin; 1880-81 Bartley; 1881-85 John Smith; 1885-1903 John Adamson.

Miscellaneous: June 1857 John Gates & William Denyer, apprentices, were charged by the master for refusing to trim the ballast. After spending a few days in lock-up they agreed to do the work; 14 February 1881 with a crew of six the Eliza Emma went ashore at Beacon Rocks, Hartlepool during thick fog which masked the lights. The Hartlepool lifeboat, John Clay Barlow, took off the crew. The lifeboat crew was later rewarded for their efforts to this & other vessels. The Eliza Emma was refloated. On 14 January 1885 she arrived at Gravesend with her bowsprit, jibbom, foreyard & other headgear carried away after a collision with an unidentified steamer below Holehaven Creek, Canvey Island, Essex; March 1885 John Smith, master, was found drowned in the dock at Ramsgate. It was assumed that he had fallen into the water while trying to board his vessel.

Voyages: 1846 Hartlepool coaster; 1851 Shoreham for Gibraltar; 15 November 1854 from London for Sunderland in ballast & with a crew of eight she drove on shore at Sunderland in heavy weather. She was floated off 22 November with considerable damage; 26 October 1902 arrived Newhaven; 3 March 1903 from Sunderland for Whitstable put into Grimsby leaky.

The British register for the Eliza Emma closed in 1903, a total of 58 years in service.

Crew 1871:

Young, William, seaman, b. c1837, Commercial Terrace, Shoreham

Younger, William, 16, Hendon

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