Maritime record MWX2090 - Hawthorn

Ran aground in fog as it entered Wareham River, 13 of the 15 people on board drowned. (1)

The following is taken from two leaflets giving an account of the loss. She left Poole Quay between five and six o'clock on Thursday evening deeply laden with 12 passengers on board - 10 women and 2 men. The wind was right ahead and strengthening with thick fog and rain. Just when entering Wareham river at a place known as First and Last, she ran aground and remained athwart the Channel, with the wind on her larboard side. The sails, being up, caused her to dip. The danger being noticed, all aboard crowded towards the mast and rigging, the men going aloft. A few moments later she sank. One man escaped, and a woman through his exertions, after grabbing a floating oar and swimming for the nearest shore on the Purbeck side. Eventually he got help by going to Wareham, 2.5 miles away. The woman was looked after by a Captain Bartlett. (2)

Vessel was the Wareham and Poole passage boat. Drowned: William Gillingham of Wareham (52), Owner William Oxford (37) William Turner (52), crew Charles White Jr (33), crew Elizabeth Pinder (27) Betty Brown (39) Amelia Randall (19) Edith Randall (24) Elizabeth Mintern (38) Elizabeth Forster (17) Mary New of Church Knowle (33) Mary Barnes (32) Sophia Dorey of East Stoke (19) Saved: Edward Everett of Wareham, Mrs White of Church Knowle 2 October, HAWTHORN, passage boat. The HAWTHORN was a passage boat that plied between Poole harbour and Wareham, and was generally known as the market boat. On Thursday 2 October, the HAWTHORN, laden with corn, and perhaps overladen, left Poole quay between 5 and 6pm. The vessel was carrying twelve passengers, as well as Mr Gillingham the owner, and two boatmen. Between 6 and 7pm the weather began to freshen with thick fog and small rain that made it extremely dark, and about midway on their passage, when just in stays, the skid took the ground which, with the pressure of the sails, laid her down so that she took in a quantity of water. The place where she grounded being steep, she slopped off into deep water and instantly went down. There were only two survivors: a Mr Everett and a poor woman called White. Although he was wearing a heavy coat, he managed to take hold of an oar and then helped the woman to hold one end of it while he held the other, and after floating for two miles they came into shallow water. Mr Everett then walked into Wareham and, having related the incident to Captain Bartlett, they arrived back in a post chaise and Captain Bartlett took the woman into his own house for the night. On Sunday 5 October 7 of the bodies that had been recovered were interred in the churchyard at Wareham. (3)

Owner: Mr Gillingham, Wareham Crew: 3 Crew Lost: 3 Passengers: 12 Passengers Lost: 12 Date of Loss Qualifier: A Additional sources cited in Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Eras: Sh Merc 06 10 1806; TT 10 10 1806

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> 1976, Dorset magazine : the county magazine vol. 50, p18 (Article in serial). SWX4560.

<2> Notes and queries for Somerset and Dorset 7, p272 (Article in serial). SWX6542.

<3> Grocott, T, 1997, Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Eras, p218 (Monograph). SWX4795.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1046572 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Apr 22 2023 6:22AM