''Earlshall (73405)'' was an iron hulled

Barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...

registered in St. John's, Dominion of Newfoundland. It ran aground and wrecked on January 24, 1915 with no loss of life in Leeward Cove, 1.5 miles south of Motion Head, Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove, Newfoundland.

History

The ''Earlshall'' was constructed by William Bruce Thompson at Dundee and launched on October 5, 1876. It entered service with Robertson Brothers, Dundee. In 1910 the vessel was purchased by Job Bros. & Co. Ltd., St. John's, Newfoundland & Labrador and entered service in the foreign fish cargo fleet which transported salted cod from Newfoundland to various ports along the east coast of North and South America.

Loss

The ''Earlshall'' along with the vessels ''Clutha'', ''Attila'' and ''Waterwitch'' were en route to St. John's Newfoundland from various ports in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. On January 23, 1915 the vessels passed Cape Race all within one hour of each other. They met sea ice but kept to the south and skirted the main flow. By that evening the vessels had passed Ferryland Head and were practically together. At 3am the following day a snow storm moved in, by that time the vessels were within speaking distance of each other with the ''Attila'' being closest to the ''Earlshall''. The wind grew stronger and the snowfall increased in intensity making it impossible to see the light house at Cape Spear. The ''Earlshall'' moved away from the ''Attila''. The ''Atilla'' and the other vessels continued on and safely reached port at St. John's later that day. At about 4am, aboard the ''Earlshall'', there was a tremendous crash as the vessel ran aground just south of Motion Head, Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove. Captain Coward was asleep at the time and the mate was on watch. The seas were heavy and the vessel was pounded against the rocks and leaking badly. The boats were launched with one being damaged and nearly sinking. The crew all managed to escape the stricken vessel and then rowed 8 miles south before making landfall. They walked 2 miles over land before finding shelter at a home in Goulds. Contemporary reports state the ''Earlshall'' ran aground at practically the same location as the SS ''Regulus'' which would be in Leeward Cove, 1.5 miles south of Motion Head. The captains of the other vessels were very upset that a tug had not been sent to meet them when it was known they had passed Cape Race the previous day.

References

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External links

* http://www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?a1PageSize=50&ship_listPage=6&a1Order=Sorter_types&a1Dir=DESC&a1Page=560&ref=55890&vessel=EARLSHALL * https://wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?210207 * https://books.google.ca/books?id=dEGGmnsshywC&pg=PP128&dq=lloyd's+register+of+shipping+earlshall+1876&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiix8-pjcnaAhVM4GMKHaGzDRAQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=lloyd's%20register%20of%20shipping%20earlshall%201876&f=false Steamships of Canada Shipwrecks of Canada Maritime disasters History of Newfoundland and Labrador 1876 ships Shipwrecks of the Newfoundland and Labrador coast