Clare Past Forum

I happened across an online Lloyd's Register of Shipping for ships with voyages between 1 Jul 1837 and 30 June 1838, provided with a search engine to easily use search terms such as those in the list below the link:
http://books.google.com/books?id=xGksAQ ... &q&f=false

Wft...Waterford
Crl...Cork
Bel...Belfast
Nwy...Newry (between Dublin and Belfast)
Mntral...Montreal
Que...Quebec
Sld...Sunderland (early port used by Francis Spaight, the shipowner and his ship the Francis Spaight)
Amer...America (63 trips)
N. Amer...North America (57 trips)
N. York...New York (66 trips)
Philad...Philadelphia (21 trips)
and many more ports

The screenshot below is from that register of 1837-38, showing the listing of the Francis Spaight for a voyage out of Sunderland.

As this is a Google book, there are other such online registers showing on the same page, the registers for 1855 and 1857, available with a further click on the book cover images. Additionally there is also this one as a Google book, with a search engine that will bring up results showing Clare and Limerick ship owners:
The Mercantile Navy List And Maritime Directory For 1867
http://books.google.com/books?id=jOoNAA ... re&f=false

Whenever Francis Spaight's ships are mentioned, there needs to be a notice that there were two such ships in existence in 1835, one being used on voyages and one freshly built. It was the older one that became shipwrecked in Dec 1835 that was the scene of brutal sacrifice of its crew, a well-known incident chronicled even by novelist Jack London:
http://www.jacklondons.net/writings/sho ... art16.html
discusses the Francis Spaight sailing from Sunderland (major English port on the NE coast), with there being two of the same name: one involved in the Dec 1835 disaster and the other built in 1835,sailing to points east like Adelaide and Bombay, lost at sea 1846.

and see:
Cannibalism and the common law: a Victorian yachting tragedy
By Alfred William Brian Simpson
pp 128-139
voyage of 1835 and career of Timothy Gorman, with mention of two other brothers in the shipping industry, all b. Kilrush
http://books.google.com/books?id=vIZ7bF ... ht&f=false

Here is an account of one of Spaight's earliest ship incidents:
"Montreal Gazette, May 26, 1817
Wreck and Plunder of the Inverness
Particulars of the wreck and plunder of the Inverness, Captain Leith, in the river Shannon, loaded at Limerick with a cargo of provisions, on account of Mr. E.D. Hanmer’s contract with the Victualling Board, and bound to London.

From Captain Miller, of the Police, to Mr. Spaight, merchant, Limerick. – Kilrush, Feb. 24.
Dear Spaight–As I am now in possession of most of the particulars of the wreck of the Inverness, I shall detail them to you as follows:–
She went on shore on Wednesday night, the 19th inst. Taking Rinevaha for Carrigahold, and would have got off by the next spring tide, had the peasantry not boarded and rendered her not sea-worthy, by scuttling her, and tearing away all her rigging, they then robbed the crew of all their cloths, tore their sails which they made bags of, to carry away the plunder, and then broached the tierces of pork and distributed the contents to people on shore, who waited to convey chops up the country....[more can be found in the May 26 Montreal Gazette]."
http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/Arriv ... s1817.html

The Clare Library site has a listing of Spaight's later ships and captains:
1842 Wednesday 30th March (Limerick Chronicle)
Advertisement, Emigration to America. Important notice to Emigrants,
Francis Spaight has purchased this season a splendid new oak ship called the Jane Black
The largest vessel ever in the port of Limerick, passengers will therefore have on board this large vessel all they can desire for their comfort and accommodation.
The following is a list of Mr Spaight's ships that will sail from this port for Quebec with passengers:
The first is expected to leave on or about the 1st of April next and the others will follow in succession allowing a few days between the sailings of each.
Jane Black, 1300 tons, Capt. Timothy Gorman.
Borneo, 1000 tons, Capt. P O'Donnell.
Governor, 800 tons, Capt. D Gorman.
Thetis, 700 tons, Capt. Daniel Ross.
Bryan Abbs, 600 tons, Capt. J Hugill.
Dated February 16th.
[Commas added to retain columns]
link for later Spaight ships, out of Limk
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... 5_1849.htm

Here is an account of a later voyages involving Australia:
October, 1844
"MINING OPERATIONS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA. The following are extracts from a letter, dated 'Adelaide, 27th of April': 'I am happy to state, that I believe the mining operations will prove very advantageous to this colony; at present there are two copper mines and three lead mines at work. Captain BAGOT is working a copper mine on his purchased land on the Light, which I understand yields well, and is very rich. About 10 tons of this ore went to England in the 'Francis Spaight'; they expect another lot of 100 tons, will be ready for the next wool ships... ' "
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.anc ... c/oct.html


posted by Sharon Carberry

Here is a chronology of the above events which I compiled several years ago:

On December 3, 1835, a ship called, and owned by, Francis Spaight, en route from St. John's, Newfoundland, was wrecked and set adrift. Three members of the crew, Patrick O'Brien, John Gorman and George Burns, were killed for food by their fellow survivors.

On June 22, 1836, the London Times reported this story.

Almost immediately, Francis Spaight, the Limerick shipowner, named another, newly-built, vessel after himself, but soon sold this vessel.

In 1838, Edgar Allan Poe published his novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, in which a fictitious character called Richard Parker became a victim of cannibalism after the wreck of the whaling ship Grampus. Was Poe inspired by the recent story of the Francis Spaight?

On January 7, 1846, the second Francis Spaight, now owned by Joseph Shepherd, ran aground in Table Bay, near Capetown, and was wrecked with the loss of fifteen of the crew, including a real-life apprentice called Richard Parker, and eight rescuers.

On July 5, 1884, a real-life yacht called the Mignonette was wrecked en route from Britain to Australia. Four crew were cast adrift in a small boat. One of these, named Richard Parker, was later killed and eaten by the other three.

On July 16, 1908, Jack London retold the tale of the 1836 Francis Spaight sinking in a short story, later published in a collection called `When God Laughs & Other Stories'.

In September 2001, Yann Martel published a novel called `Life of Pi' in which one of the characters who find themselves lost at sea on a lifeboat is a three-year-old adult Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

An old collection of related links - no guarantees that they are still valid:

1. A real ship (wrecked 1835 with cannibalism), called the Francis Spaight after its owner:
http://web2.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/ ... sw_aep=tcd

2. A second real ship (built 1835, wrecked 1846 with no cannibalism) called the Francis Spaight after the first of its owners:
http://www.users.on.net/rdblair/josephshepherd.htm
and
http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/descr ... ketch.html
and list of victims at
http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Gazette/Acc ... t.html#top

3. A fictitious ship called the Francis Spaight (a true tale retold by Jack London in 1908):
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Writ ... aight.html

4. A real yacht called the Mignonette (wrecked 1884 with cannibalism) with a human crew member called Richard Parker:
http://web2.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/ ... sw_aep=tcd

5. Strange coincidences concerning cannibalism involving the Francis Spaight and Richard Parker:
http://www.canongate.net/News/BehindLifeOfPi
and
http://www.spiritualists.org/coincidences/cannibal.html

6. Testimony of Francis Spaight to the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Colonization from Ireland:
http://www.swan.ac.uk/history/teaching/ ... paight.htm

7. Newspaper cutting on Francis Spaight as landlord:
http://newsarch.rootsweb.com/th/read/GE ... 1008700705

I forgot to include this small nugget of information: one of the books listed in my posting has an explanatory note that the ship involved in the Dec 1835 shipwreck was salvaged and rebuilt, but launched under a different name and owned by a consortium of people that did not include the original owner Francis Spaight. It was never involved in another infamous incident although it apparently went aground or met some such fate, ending its use sooner than planned.

S.C.