The Barque Loch Dee
and
Palnackie, Kirkcudbrightshire
1883
by John Thompson
The Barque Loch Dee
No-one who has wandered among the gravestones of Buittle churchyard can be unaware that the sea claimed so many of the men of the parish. But even in a community accustomed to the sea and its price in lives, the disappearance of the Loch Dee in 1883 with her captain John Black and crew of seventeen, was a dreadful blow to the Wilson and Black families of Palnackie.
Throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, men from the villages along the Water of Urr carried cargoes all around the British Isles. They sailed in small sloops and schooners, which they built on the banks of the Urr and owned themselves. Few of these ships were larger than 100 tons, but were fine schooling for sailors who graduated to deep sea vessels like the Loch Dee.
The 700 ton Loch Dee was an iron-hulled three-masted barque, the second of the eleven "Loch" line of sailing ships owned by James Spoart. Spoart was from Kircudbright, but ran his business from Liverpool. These smart little vessels were built by several British lines for speedy passages between England and the colonies. They had a barque rig (foremast and mainmast square rigged and mizzenmast fore and aft) rather than a full ship rig as barque rigs could be handled by a smaller crew. Their speed, capacity and low costs enabled barques to compete with steamships for bulk cargoes from the 1860s right up until the First World War.
Built in Port Glasgow in 1870, the Loch Dee was 187 foot long and 30 foot in breadth, not much smaller than the tea clipper Cutty Sark at Greenwich. Most years, the Loch Dee made one round trip to New Zealand, leaving London in September and setting sail for home in the following February.
The photograph of the Loch Dee reproduced shows her with no sails and moored with other vessels, but it does show her "nice lines".
The photograph was taken at Port Chalmers, Otago, on the South Island of New Zealand.
(date not known)
Captain John Black and Family
On Wednesday 10th September 1873, presumably shortly before his ship sailed, 23-year old mariner John Black married Elizabeth Wilson by license, at Aldgate parish church in London. The couple were both from Palnackie. Among those present were John's sister Jessie Moffat and at least two of Elizabeth's sisters: Agnes Stitt, nee Wilson from Palnackie and Frances Hamilton Wilson who had travelled up from Essex with her soldier husband John Thompson.
Copy of Wedding Certificate.
If the couple had a wedding photograph, unfortunately it does not seem to have not survived. We have to make do with a photograph of John at 17 with his little sister Mary taken in 1867, and one of Elizabeth in old age.
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John Black, aged 17, and his sister Mary Louden Black, aged 7 |
Elizabeth Black, nee Wilson, widow of the Loch Dee's captain. |
As we can see from the partial family tree below, marriages between the Wilsons and Blacks of Palnackie were not a novelty. John's grandmother Helen Wilson was the sister of Elizabeth's father, Captain John Dixon Wilson. Elizabeth's oldest brother George Wilson had married John Black's aunt and her second eldest sister Mary Tait Wilson had married John Black's uncle.
The Last Voyage
In September 1882, nine years after his marriage, John Black, by now Captain of the Loch Dee, was picking a new crew for a trip to the South Island of New Zealand. It was probably John's first voyage as captain, and only he, the first mate, second mate and one AB had sailed on the Loch Dee before.
The crew list shows that John Black recruited two cousins, Thomas Black, as ship's carpenter, Duncan Thompson as one of the five apprentices on board. One of the Able Seaman, James McMaster, was also from Palnackie.
McMaster was a favourite shipmate, as he had saved John Black from drowning during a previous voyage, around the north of Scotland. John had been washed overboard in heavy seas and was being carried away, when young McMaster grabbed him by the hair and held on until help arrived to pull him back on board.
The Loch Dee left London on 11th September 1882 and reached Lyttleton, the Port of Christchurch, New Zealand, safely. After discharging, she was loaded with bulk grain and set sail for London on March 3rd 1883, at about the same time as six other ships bound for England.
A few days after departure terrific storms occurred in the South Seas between New Zealand and Cape Horn. One of the other ships later reported seeing a ship similar to the Loch Dee during the storms and said that she was listing badly. The other six ships reached home during the summer, but not the Loch Dee.
On October 9th, the ship's owner, James Sproat, went to the Board of Trade's representative in Liverpool and officially posted the ship "missing, presumed lost with all hands". Sproat and James Rea (presumably his clerk) also filled in the List C form, which was normally completed by a ship's master at the end of any foreign-going voyage. Unfortunately, the original List C in the Public Record Office is too large and faint to be reproduced here. Extracts from the List C are shown opposite. Hand-written parts of the form are shown in italics.
The Aftermath
If there was a Board of Trade enquiry into the loss of the ship, it has not yet come to light. It is probable that there was none; the ship had been surveyed in London before the voyage and there were no survivors or witnesses to give evidence. Losses of sailing ships were common in the late 1880s.
As the Loch Dee was carrying a bulk cargo of grain in a hold which extended the width of the ship, the cargo probably shifted to one side during a storm, causing an uncontrollable list which capsized her. One story which circulated among the old salts in Palnackie was that Captain Black had intended to erect timber baffles at intervals across the hold to break up the cargo, before loading at Lyttleton. However, he probably decided that there was not enough time to construct the internal timberwork, if they were to avoid the onset of the southern winter during the homeward journey. March was quite late for a sailing vessel to leave New Zealand for England.
In November 1883, a month after Sproat reported the Loch Dee missing, the Assistant Minister at Buittle published a poem dedicated to the grieving families. It was entitled "Thoughts in Affliction". To modern ears, it may sound mawkish, but if the number of copies still treasured by descendants is any indication, it was probably well received at the time. The Stewartry had a reputation for poetry from the days of Robert Burns until well into the present century.
THOUGHTS IN AFFLICTION
Dedicated to Mrs BLACK, junr.; Captain and Mrs Black, senr,; Captain DICKSON BLACK and Mrs BLACK; and Mrs JOHN M'MASTER
With the Author's prayers and best wishes for their consolation and spiritual well-being.
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| Nov., 1883 |
G.C. |
A granddaughter of Elizabeth Black was told by her mother that the widow never accepted that John Black was dead. For the rest of her life, she always laid a place at table for him and left the door unlocked, in case he returned when she was out of the house or asleep.
Frances Thompson's first grandchild was named Duncan after his uncle, the lost apprentice. It is perhaps as well that Frances did not live until 1917, when the family received the news from Flanders that another teenage Duncan Thompson was "missing presumed dead".
Notes on Sources
Besides the normal genealogical sources (parish registers, census returns, directories, etc.) information for this account came from:
Family bible of John Thompson and his wife Frances Hamilton Wilson (1843-1899)
General Register of Shipping and Seamen at the Public Record Office, Kew
Lubbock's "Last of the Windjammers" Volume 1
Correspondence in 1962 and 1972 between John H Thompson (1909-1977) and:
* Elizabeth Grierson of Dumfries (Granddaughter of Captain John Black)
* Thomas Wilson Black Brydson of Balnaclellan (nephew of Thomas Black, carpenter )
* John Niven of Palnackie (Great-nephew of James McMaster)
* J. Coombes of Great Yarmouth (Retired sailor and shiplover)
Correspondence (1987 to 1994) between John Thompson (the compiler of this account) and:
* Viki McDonnel of Greenock (Great-granddaughter of John Black)
* Nan Macdonald of Castle Douglas (great-niece of John Black)
* John H Dixon Wilson of Stranraer
* Lexa Jones of Bristol
* Lois Flyte of Chagrin Falls, Ohio
Special thanks to Viki McDonnel, who supplied the family photographs and the wedding certificate, and to many other individuals who gave advice and help.
John Thompson
18 Riverside Close,
Upton upon Severn,
Worcestershire
Tel: 01684-592035
Email: [email protected]
September 1999