Wolviston (1876) - a general history

Official No. 72653: Code Letters SRGL.

Owners: 1876 Christopher Maling Webster & William Joseph Young (Victoria Terrace) West Hartlepool

Masters: 1876-78 W Skinner: 1879 Robert Walter Hustler.

She left Middlesbrough on 2 August 1879 bound for Leghorn with a cargo of 2000 tons of steel rails & a crew of 22 & was wrecked in very heavy weather on Cabezos Shoal, Tarifa, Spain on 10 August 1879.

South Durham & Cleveland Mercury 6 September 1879.

‘Six of the crew of the steamer Wolviston, belonging to the West Hartlepool Steam Navigation Co, arrived at Liverpool on Wednesday in the steamer Potomac, & reported the total loss of that vessel on the 10^th ult, on the Cabezos Shoal some 15 miles from Gibralter. It appeared that the Wolviston, with a cargo of railway iron, left Middlesbrough for Leghorn, & on the above date was off the Cabezos, there being a strong current running, with a fresh breeze. The vessel struck the rocks about six o’clock in the morning, going stem on. A large fracture was made in her hull & in five minutes after the fore, hold was full of water. As soon as possible the mate waent to Teriffa Point to obtain assistance & on the following day the steam-tug De Leon Belge came upon the scene, when a portion of the cargo was jettisoned with the object of floating the steamer. A lighter was also obtained but all efforts to save the vessel were futile & on the fourth day after the stranding she broke in two. The crew then left her & were taken to Gibralter by the steam-tug. The men on arrival at Liverpool were taken charge of by the Ship-wrecked Mariner’s Society & forwarded to their homes. The Wolviston was a vessel of 1357 tons gross register having been built at Hartlepool in 1876.’

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