TWIN SISTER lost off Aberystwyth 26 October 1859

Description

A schooner called the TWIN SISTER or TWIN SISTERS was lost near Aberystwyth during Royal Charter Gale, 25-26 October 1859. According to the Board of Trade's report into shipping losses for the year, the vessel was registered at Liverpool. But could they have got it wrong? It certainly seems to be the case.

The Liverpool registered vessel was the only one listed in the Mercantile Navy List and Lloyds Register in 1858-59. The TWIN SISTER believed to have been lost was built at Rhuddllau, Flintshire, in 1856 (official number 17779). It was owned by Eldon Pringle of Southport, shipowner; Stephen Wright Kelso of Liverpool, shipbroker; and the master John Roberts of Rhyl, master mariner. However, the schooner's port of Liverpool Shipping Register entry (306 in 1845) has a handwritten query note 'Lost?' at the top of the page and a note at the bottom stating that it had been transferred to Hull. So the Liverpool-registered TWIN SISTER was not the one lost during the gale.

For some reason, the registration of Wexford-built TWIN SISTER at Lancaster in 1857 had failed to be recorded by the central Registrar in London. And it is this TWIN SISTER that was wrecked during the Royal Charter Gale in October 1859.

The Port of Lancaster Shipping Register entry provides a technical description:

Official number 20483. Gross tonnage 91 39/100. 1 deck, 2 masts; length from the forepart of the stem under the bowsprit to the aft side of the head of the sternpost 78ft; main breadth to the outside of the plank 21.6ft; depth in hold from the tonnage deck to ceiling at midships 9.1ft. Schooner rigged, round stern, carvel built, female bust head, framework wood.

If you pass your mouse over this image, you'll see that master's name was William Porter and that it was owned by a consortium of people drawn from Barrow, Fleetwood, Ulveston, Lancaster, Broughton in Furness and Hawkshead. The consortium was led by James Fisher of Barrow, shipping agent.

The clinching piece of evidence is that one the schooner's boats marked 'TWIN SISTER OF BARROW Wm Porter', was washed up on the coast 7 miles south of Aberystwyth.This led to speculation that it may have come to grief on Sarn Gynfelin off Aberystwyth. The schooner had been carrying coal from Newport to Liverpool and was last seen off Bardsey on the night of the storm.

Sources include:
Port of Lancaster Shipping Register 1855 - 1867, Lancashire Archives SS 5/5, Folio 39
Troughton, W, 2006, Ceredigion Shipwrecks, pg94

The south Wales ports exported vast amounts of coal mined from the valleys. At which port is it reported that the first million pound cheque was written for 2,500 tonnes of coal to be transported to France in 1909?

The length measurements of the two TWIN SISTERS are 78ft and 80ft. What is the equivalent measurement in metres? And what is the difference between the two measurements in centimetres?

Cardigan Bay has five sarnau or reefs that run out from the coastline. What is special about their geology? What do they tell us about changing sea levels since the end of the last ice age?