1854 ship: Isaac Wright
Michael Palmer
> Can anyone provide information on the ship, the Isaac Wright?
> My Wuerttemberg ancestors (Benedict and Seraphina Bentele)
> sailed on the Isaac Wright 25 Sep 1854, from Liverpool to
> New York.
>
> Or could someone direct me to published sources?
According to contemporary New York newspapers, the packet ship ISAAC
WRIGHT, [Edward] Abeel, master, arrived at New York on Sunday, 24
September 1854, 30 days from Liverpool, with merchandise and 535
passengers, to C. H. Marshall & Co. "Has had four deaths and three
births. Took a pilot from boat DAVID MITCHELL, in lat 40 44, lon 68 30."
The ISAAC WRIGHT was a 3-masted, square-rigged ship, built by the famous
New York shipwright William H. Webb (hull #30), and launched in June 1847.
1,129 tons; 175 ft x 37 ft 9 in x 22 ft 3 in (length x beam x depth of
hold); 2 decks.
The ISAAC WRIGHT was the fifth ship, and the last with two decks, built by
Webb for C[harles] H. Marshall & Co's Black Ball Line of sailing packets
between New York and Liverpool, and was named for one of the founders of
the line in 1817. The ISAAC WRIGHT spent her entire 11-year career in the
Black Ball Line, her westbound voyages averaging 31 days, her shortest
voyage being 21 days, her longest 44 days. On the morning of Thursday, 23
December 1858, the ISAAC WRIGHT lay at anchor in the Mersey River, between
Egremont and New Brighton, downstream for Liverpool, in anticipation of
sailing to New York later that day. She carried between 200 and 300
passengers and a cargo of fine goods and 800 tons of iron. At 2 AM a fire
was discovered in her forward hold. All the passengers were removed
safely (they were later forwarded to New York on board the Black Ball
Line ship GREAT WESTERN) and the vessel was towed up to the Sloyne, out of
the way of river traffic, and sunk by cannon fire in an attempt to save
the cargo and the hull. However, both were considered a total loss
[Robert Greenhalgh Albion, _Square-riggers on Schedule; The New York
Sailing Packets to England, France, and the Cotton Ports_ (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1938), pp. 163, 200, 226, 276, 313; Edwin L.
Dunbaugh and William duBarry Thomas, _William H. Webb: Shipbuilder_ (Glen
Cove, New York: Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, 1989), pp.
168-169].
I attach a scan, in .JPG format, of an oil painting, by an unnamed artist
(possibly Samuel Walters, whose painting of the vessel is "in a private
collection in the United States"), of the ISAAC WRIGHT, from _A
Descriptive Catalogue of the Marine Collection to be found at India House_
(2nd ed.; Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, c1973),
plate between pp. 62 and 63. The original painting is held by
India House
1 Hanover Square
New York, NY 10004-2601
from whom you should be able to obtain a full-color reproduction.
Michael Palmer
Attachments:
D:\Scans\Sail\Isaac-Wright.jpg
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Michael Palmer
Claremont, California
mpa...@netcom.com