Maritime record MWX1942 - Catherine 1795

`...28 horses on board. The master, Lieut. Jennet and Lieut. Staines, Cornet Burns, Surgeon Odd, two women, 28 troops and all the crew lost. Only Mrs. Burns and a boy are saved. (1)(4)

`The CATHARINA (transport) of Monitors is lost on Portland Beach. Only 1 woman and a boy saved. (2)
Source (4) spells the vessels name as CATHERINE. Commanding Officer: Lieut. Stephen Jennet, RN (4) [NB: It is unclear from the punctuation whether Lieut. Jennet is identified with the master or is a passenger]

`The worst instance, within historic knowledge, both of wreck and wrecking on the Dorset coast occurred in 1795. Rear-Admiral Christian with a squadron of men-of-war and upwards of 200 transports with 16,000 troops on board left St. Helens for the West Indies on 16 November; on the 17th they were caught west of Portland in a terrible gale, and on the 18th six transports went to pieces on the Chesil beach where 234 dead bodies were immediately thrown up, a number increased to 1,600 by the 26th. The worst part of the story was the behaviour of the people ashore, mostly Portlanders, who are always praying for wrecks on their coast and whose whole attention was devoted to plunder instead of the rescue of the drowning. They were soon reinforced by a considerable mob from different parts solely intent on plunder, until soldiers brought on the scene dispersed them with volleys of musketry... (Taken from Ann. Register, Account of an Eyewitness; Smith (Charlotte), Narrative of the Loss, andamp;c. Lond. 1796.)

(Found under the heading of `Details of a few shipwrecks on this website) `...nearly opposite to the Village of Fleet and Chickerell, the PIEDMONT, VENUS, and CATHARINE Transports were driven on the Bank; and very soon after the THOMAS, a Merchant Ship bound for Lisbon, shared the same fate. `Of the circumstances that attended the loss of the CATHARINE, a more particular account shall be given...by quoting the words of the survivor, who relates it nearly thus : `The evening of the Seventeenth was boisterous and threatening; the Master said he was afraid we should have some bad weather...Nobody, however, seemed to think there was any danger, though the fog was so thick that the Master could see nothing by which to direct his course; he thought, however, that he had sea-room enough...It was about ten o'clock in the morning of the Eighteenth when the Mate looked down into the cabin, and cried...Save yourselves, if wrapping it round me, I went up, not quite on the deck, but to the top of the stairs, from whence I saw the sea break mountains high against the shore, while the passengers and soldiers seemed thunderstruck by the sense of immediate and inevitable danger; and the seamen, too conscious of the hopelessness of any exertion, stood in speechless agony, certain that in a few minutes they must meet the destruction which menaced them. While I thus stood surveying, in that kind of dread that no words can convey an idea of, the scene around me, Mr. Burns (Cornet WM Stukeley Burns of the 26th Light Dragoons), who was near me, and had come up in his shirt, called to Mr. Jennet (Lieutenant Stephen Jennet of the 6th West-India Regiment) and Mr. Stains (Lieutenant Stains of the 2nd West-India Regiment) for his cloak - nobody, however, could attend to anything, in such a moment, but their own preservation. Mr. Jennet, Mr. Stains, and Mr. Odd, the Surgeon, now passed me their countenances sufficiently expressed their sense of the situation we were all in - Mr. Burns spoke cheerfully to me; he bade me take courage - and Mr. Jennet observed there was a good shore near, and all would do well. The gentlemen then went to the side of the ship with the intention, as I believe, of seeing if it was possible to get on shore. The Master of the ship alone remained near the companion, when suddenly a tremendous wave broke over the ship, and struck me with such violence, that I was for a moment stunned and, before I could recover myself, the ship struck with a force so great as to throw me from the stairs into the cabin, the Master of the vessel being thrown down near me. At the same moment the cabin, with a dreadful crash, broke in upon us and beams and planks threatened to bury us in ruins. The Master, however, soon recovered himself; he left me to go again upon deck, and I saw him no more...what a scene did I behold! The masts were all lying across the shattered remains of the deck, and no living creature appeared on it - all were gone! I knew not then that they were gone for ever!...then the violent striking, and breaking up of the wreck roused me again to recollection found myself near the cabin window, but the water was rising round me. It increased rapidly, and the horrors of drowning were present to me - yet I remember seeing the furniture of the cabin floating about...The water, as the ship drifted higher on the stones, rather levelled as the waves went back, but, on their return, continued to cover me and I once or twice lost my, breath, and, for a moment my recollection. When I had power to think, the principle of self-preservation still urged me to exertion. The cabin now broke more and more; through a large breach I saw the shore very near me...I quitted the wreck, and felt myself on the ground...By this time some of the people on the bank saw me, and two men came to my assistance. They lifted me up; I once more recovered some faint recollection as they bore me along, one of them said the sea would overtake its; that he must let me go, and take care of his own life (This man it is believed, saw, at that moment, a quantity of goods driven on shore which he wished to share and therefore would have left the poor sufferer to her fate.)...I saw the boat which I was to be put into, to cross the Fleet water. I had then only strength to say For Gods sake do not take me to sea again. ...I was roused by the remedies applied to restore me in the farm- house, whither I was carried, and heard round me a number of women, who asked me a great many questions, which I was unable to answer. I remember hearing one say I was a French woman - another that I was a Negro and I was so bruised, and in such a disfigured condition, that the conjectures of these people were not surprising...Nothing could exceed the humanity of Mr. Abbot, the inhabitant of Fleet Farm House, nor the compassionate attention of his sister, Miss Abbot, who not only afforded me immediate assistance, but continued for some days after I got to Weymouth to attend me with such kindness and humanity as I shall always remember with the sincerest gratitude...When in contrast to the humanity exercised by Mr and Miss Abbot, the eager desire of plunder, so general on the Western coast, is recollected...The unfortunate sufferer who gives this account was attended with great humanity by Mr. Bryer, while a wound in her foot, and the dangerous bruises she had received, prevented her quitting the shelter she first found, under the roof of Mr Abbot, at Fleet. As soon as she was in a condition to be removed to Weymouth, Mr. Bryer received her into his own house, where Mrs. Bryer assisted in administering to her recovery, by such humane offices of consolation, as her deplorable situation admitted...No other person was saved from the CATHARINE Transport but a Ship-boy, about fifteen, who seems to have been washed off, by one of the heavy seas that swept her deck; for he said, that he found himself, he knew not how, on shore, and saw from thence the vessel go to pieces. The persons that perished of the crew and passengers in this vessel, were: Twenty-two soldiers of the 26th Light Dragoons. Two soldiers wives - and Twelve seamen. There were also the horses belonging to the soldiers on board. The officers were, Lieutenant Stains, of Keppels West-India Regiment. Mr. Odd, of the Hospital Staff. Lieutenant Jennet. Cornet Burns. Gloucestershire. He had been many years a Lieutenant of Marines, but had engaged in Colonel Whitelocks Regiment on the promise of a company, which his long services entitled hint to; he possessed all those engaging and manly qualities which belong to the Gentleman, the Soldier, and the Friend; and it may with truth be laid, that he was esteemed by all who knew him, and by none more than the officers of the South Gloucester Regiment, with whom he was particularly intimate, and who bewailed the sad necessity of following their lamented friend (thus untimely cut off at the age of thirty-one) to the grave. They found his mangled body on the dreary beach two days after the shipwreck, and buried it with military honours. Cornet Burns was the son of an American Loyalist of considerable property, who was deprived of every thing for his adherence to the British Government. This young man, who had no dependence but upon the recompense promised by Government to those who had so suffered, after many years of difficulty and distress, obtained a Cornetcy in the 26th Dragoons, in going to serve with which, in the West Indies, he was thus lost in his twenty-fourth year...Cornet Burns had intended embarking in the Fowler Transport, and had actually sent his horse on board, when, finding the CATHARINE more commodious, he gave the latter the preference. The Fowler put back in safety to Spithead (6)

Lives Lost: 40 (6).
Lives Saved: 2 (1)(2)(4)(6).

The building date for this vessel is an estimate based on an average age at wrecking of twenty years. This average is derived from those vessels wrecked on the Dorset coast whose age at wrecking is known.

<1> Larn, Richard, 1992, United Kingdom shipwreck index, Extracted 23 November 1992 (Index). SWX5030.

<2> 1745 onwards, Lloyds list, 24-NOV-1795, No.2770 (Serial). SWX8434.

<3> 1975, Dorset magazine : the county magazine vol. 48, p15 (Article in serial). SWX4573.

<4> Larn, R, and Larn, B, 1995, Shipwreck index of the British Isles, volume 1 : Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset Section 6, Dorset (AJ) Vol 1 (Monograph). SWX4541.

<5> Sherbourne Mercury, p4, 30-NOV-1795 (Serial). SWX4820.

<6> World Wide Web page andlt;http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval.htmlandgt; [Accessed 21-Mar-2003] (Digital archive). SWX5724.

<7> Le Pard, G, 1995-2003, Dorset Coast Forum Maritime Archaeological Database, 460 (Digital archive). SWX8707.

<8> Smith, 1796, A Narrative of the loss of the Catherine, Venus and Piedmont transports etc. (Article in monograph). SDO1.

<9> Boult, E, 2003, Christian's Fleet, A Dorset Shipping Tragedy. (Monograph). SWX8136.

<10> Cumming, E, 2014, The Portland Shipwreck and Maritime Incident Directory (Monograph). SDO14012.

<11> Page, W (Ed), 1908, The Victoria History of the County of Dorset 3, 223 (Monograph). SWX3.

<12> < http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval.html >, Accessed 21-Mar-2003 (Digital archive). SDO20518.

<13> Cumming, E, The Dorset shipwreck and maritime incident directory, 19 (Monograph). SDO16406.

<14> National Record of the Historic Environment, 900573 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

May 3 2024 11:52AM