Ocean - a general history

Official No. 8582: Code Letters KCSD.

Owners: 1851-60 Cooper & Co, Wisbeach; 1861-76 WA Stevens, Wisbeach; by 1878 Thomas Patrick & Co, Wisbeach; 1883 Dixon Taylor Sharper (West Hartlepool) Wisbeach; by 1885 Dixon Taylor Sharper, West Hartlepool.

Masters: 1852 Cooper; 1853-60 Sterling/Starling; 1861-89 R Curson; 1892-93 E Smith; 1893 G Sandy.

Voyages: from Hartlepool for Nieuwe Dieppe on 21 October 1864 in the North Sea she lost her maintopmast & gear & was making water. She had a smacks’ crew on board to help with the pumps & a steam tug to assist.

Bound from Hartlepool for London with a cargo of firebricks & a crew of four on Friday 14 October 1881 there was one of the strongest gales in living memory to batter the British coast. In the early evening distress signals were seen near the Maplin Light, Essex which were answered by the lifeboat, Albert Edward, at about 8pm.Captain St Vincent Napean RN, the Lifeboat Inspector for the district was staying in Clacton at the time, & joined the crew in the lifeboat. Ocean was stranded on the sands & leaking badly with the crew exhausted having been manning the pumps for some time. The lifeboat crew went aboard & took over the pumps keeping the water down. The Nore Light had signalled Gravesend that there had been a distress signal & a tug was sent out arriving at 2.30am. The vessel was then taken in tow to Poplar with the lifeboat crew still manning the pumps. On Sunday morning the lifeboat was taken in tow by the Dundee steamer Glen Loch & reached Clacton Pier at 4pm. unbelievably one of the saved crew of Ocean then stole a greatcoat belonging to one of the lifeboat crew. He was seen by a police sergeant & was arrested & sentenced to a month’s imprisonment.

Bound from Swansea for Plymouth with a cargo of coal & a crew of eight she lost her fore top-gallant mast in a SE squall about two miles NE by E of Harland Point, Bristol Channel on 28 March 1893. One life lost.

Bound from Portsmouth for West Hartlepool in ballast & with a crew of seven Ocean was wrecked near Thornham Flats, Hunstanton during force 10 NNE winds on 18 November 1893. Crew saved.

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