British Queen - a general history

Completed May 1865; Official No. 49808; Code Letters WFML.

Owners: Christopher Maling Webster, West Hartlepool: 1877 West Hartlepool Steam Navigation Co (Christopher Maling Webster) West Hartlepool.

Masters: 1866 Spence; 1875 Bulman; 1881 Richard Beal; 1887-91 T Cooper; 1891 W Heywood; 1892-93 T Cooper; 1894 JJ Snowdon.

On a voyage from Gothenburg for West Hartlepool with a crew of 18 & two deck passengers a fire broke out in the lamp room. The crew tried to contain the flames but were overcome by the dense smoke & the heat & had to abandon British Queen in the North Sea off Hirtshals on 24 November 1894. The steamer Viking had seen the smoke & flames & came to the rescueof the crew & passengers that were in the ship’s boats & landed them at Shields.

Crew June 1881: Allan, James, able seaman, 30, Kilmarnock; Beal, James, able seaman, 21, Hartlepool; Beal, Richard, master, 50, Teignmouth, Devon; Birch, John, stoker, 45, Hamburg, Germany; Brooks, William, engineer, 48, Ossett, Yorkshire; Brown, Herman, stoker, 47, Hamburg, Germany; Brownlee, Alexander, engineer, 38, Hartlepool; Carswell, David, 2nd engineer, 33, Glasgow; Close, William, stoker, 29, Hartlepool; Fischer, Marie, stewardess, 32, Hamburg, Germany; Haigh, Thomas, cook/steward, 33, Newport, Yorkshire; Hall. Thomas, stoker, 37, Sunderland; Heywood, William, mate aged 40, Exmouth, Devon; Killin, John, stoker, 47, Athlone, Ireland; Mortimer, Ned, card nailer, 39, Cleckheaton, Yorkshire; Passman, Thomas, stoker, 22, Middlesbrough; Passman, William Henry, engineers’ steward, 13, Middlesbrough; Pritchard, Richard, able seaman, 44, Greenwich; Schlasskil, Henry, carpenter, 44, Hamburg, Germany; Smallwood, Robert, able seaman, 34, Robin Hood’s Bay, Yorkshire; Smith, John, 2nd mate, 49, Grimsby; Storey, John, able seaman, 29, Whitby, Yorkshire; Storey, Joseph, able seaman, 23, Whitby, Yorkshire.

Passengers June 1881: Brooks, Mary, 56, wife of William Brooks; Mickelewatch, John William, 1, Batley, Yorkshire, grandson of William & Mary Brooks; Sey, Mary, 30, Wakefield, Yorkshire, niece of William & Mary Brooks; Boocock, Clarissa, 13, Wakefield, Yorkshire; Boocock, Lewis, 7, Batley, Yorkshire; Boocock, Mary Ann, 36, Wakefield, Yorkshire; Boocock, Wilfred, 1, Batley, Yorkshire;

Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, Monday, December 27^th, 1886:
WEST HARTLEPOOL STEAMER IN COLLISION. A telegram was received in West Hartlepool yesterday stating that the screw-steamer British Queen, commanded by Captain Cooper, and belonging to the West Hartlepool Steam Navigation Company, had put into Cuxhaven in consequence of damage sustained by being in collision on her way from Hamburg to West Hartlepool. She had 30 emigrants on board.

Crew November 1894: Bertelsen, BH, 1st mate, George Street, West Hartlepool; Coates, 2nd engineer; Hall, WH, 2nd mate; Smith, Joseph, able seaman; Snowdon, JJ, master.

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