SS Accrington
 

Here's a photo of Accrington....the original painting is with the New Zealand National Gallery....A little bit different from the usual, but's there's a good story there to...

...there have been at least 2 ships named Accrington; the above, an iron hulled square rigger of the latter part of the 19c which worked the UK/OZ/NZ routes, and HMS Accrington which was a WW2 convoy protection vessel and which was credited with saving over 150 lives over 36 Convoys. More will be said later, when I can find a bit more time...

..like the story of the captain & senior officers getting poisoned by the crew. Fatally.

SS Accrington
 

I look forward to the rest of the story with bated breath!

I always thought you was the S.S. Accrington Tealeaf as in Super Stud

I put that behind me years ago...

"horror voyage on the ship "Accrington"

Investigations reveal that the "Accrington" once went on a vogage that went horribly wrong, when it was ferrying troops to India in 1859.
When it arrived there, 65 of the crew were dead, including the Captain and his first mate. A crew member, described as "a gentleman of colour", was later brought to trial in Southampton, but, although he apparently admitted giving poison to the captain and first mate, the magistrates ruled there was no case to answer to because of the officers' extreme cruelty on the voyage.

The accused man is believed to have killed the pair after 63 people had died on the passage to India, through the brutal regime imposed by the ship's master. The very cruel ways in which the captain and his chief mate had been towards both crew and passengers, had made them extremely unpopular. They used brute force and even the women on board did not escape violence at their hands. One morning, the steward, put a quantity of tartar emetic into some coffee.

"Both the captain and the mate died from the effects of the poison but the ship's surgeon, narrowly escaped with his life.

I never knew anything about this Tealeaf. See! You learn something every day.

June
__________________

Thanks to Atarah for the above!

Very Interesting that one Atarah.One lives and learn

SS Accrington
 

Hi, just found out that the Accrington was built in Nantes in 1855 and originally christened "Francois Arago" - but its name was changed when it was converted into an all-sail cutter - but ... think about it ......that must be where ARAGO STREET here in Accrington gets its name from eh?

Atarah

Hells Bells! I did'nt even know there was an Arago Street in Accy........where about's is it? You'll have to forgive me...I left Church in 1974 & although I'm back every 2/3 weeks I don't get about as much as I used to & as such my memory and knowledge of streets gets a little dim at times.

I know the ship was originally christened "Francois Arago" (who was he, we wonder?) and that it was iron hulled & steam powered.........so they took the engine out & made it all sail. This is unusual in itself - a retrograde step - or possibly it was a French Engine & alot of crap (My prediction, by the way, is that the QMII will turn out to be a troubled ship)

The more interesting thing is who bought it, refitted it, and changed it's name to Accrington? The detail available on the net relating to the incidents of 63 dieing on the voyage (when at the time a similar voyage to India around the Cape would have possibly resulted in a few deaths, excepting shipwreck or cholera breaking out) states "owner unknown"........yet it appears to have been used a a troopship. The other interesting thing is that Casman - the steward who poisioned Homer & Cooper, the Captain & 1st mate respectively, was described at the trial as "a gentlemen of colour", which in those days = guilty. Yet he walked free.

There is a mystery here.....there certainly appears to have been some form of cover up. No one I know in Accy has heard of the SS Accy & what happened - & I only heard at the NMM 16 years ago...so maybe there is a story to be told.

No. 691:
FRANCOIS ARAGO AND WATT


by John H. Lienhard
Click here for audio of Episode 691.

Today, a French scientist tries to redirect his country. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.

It's 1834. A famed scholar rises to address the French Academy of Sciences. He's François Arago. Arago was born on the eve of the French Revolution. He trained at the Ecole Polytechnique -- Napoleon's great think tank. When he was only 23, the Ecole made him a professor of mathematics.

First Arago worked in astronomy -- then in optics and electricity. He helped prove that light moves in waves. He measured the speed of sound in ice. He worked on the polarization of light. His electrical work anticipated Faraday.

But Arago looked beyond science toward its use. His work on electricity found use in telegraph systems. He took part in the study of steam boiler explosions.

In his mid-40s, he went a step further. He took up politics. His verve and charisma won liberal causes, like abolishing slavery in French colonies and improving conditions for sailors.

Now Arago rises to take on another radical cause. The theoretical French have let their industry fall far behind the practical English. The French look at England the way we've started looking at Japan.

Arago's lecture is one the French Academy isn't ready for. It's about England's James Watt. He starts by acknowledging two French thinkers who had the idea of a steam engine. But, he says, it took the English to put flesh and blood on the idea.

The English built the actual engines. The only science that helped them was the science of their own shrewd observations.

And, he adds, those engines have improved the life of the poor. With that he's gone too far. French intellectuals preferred to see English machines as evil. Arago faces an angry outcry.

Soon after, he wrote a second paper to defend himself. He titled it, "On Machinery Considered in Relation to the Prosperity of the Working Classes." It says things most of us take for granted: Machines don't steal jobs, they create them. Machines make goods affordable to the poor. And so on.

By now, of course, the new engines really had become monsters. Four years after Arago's talk, Charles Dickens published Oliver Twist. Dickens woke the English public to the horrors of industrial slums. A new wave of social reform began.

But Arago celebrates the humanitarian impulse that drove people like James Watt in the first place. Watt really had created machines in the interests of the common people -- of whom he was one. And which of us would exchange our common lives today for the lives we lived before Watt -- or before Arago.

I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston, where we're interested in the way inventive minds work.

Arago Street
 

Hi Tealeaf, its off 137 Burnley Road, Accrington. I have often wondered how it got its name, now I know!

Blooming heck Tealeaf that was a gobfull

o wot an interesting post this keep up the good work atarah & of course tealeaf im enjoying it very much thanks /

Well said mez. I was glued to the screen reading this. more more more!!!!!!!!

Really interesting, and well researched.

What about HMS Accrington? When was she commissioned, what type of ship, and what happened to her?

Hi Darby

The "other" Accrington was a ship built in 1910 for one of the railway companies - yes, they had ships as well as trains (Just as the evil one Branson has trains has well as planes). It was built, along with it'e sister ships the Blackburn & the Bury as part of an integrated transport system to carry cargo by train and then by ship. In the Accy's case (and also her sister ships) she did the Hull/Hamburg run.

I don't know what she did in the Great War, but in 1939 she was acquistioned as a convoy rescue vessel. I'm not certain whether or not she flew the Ensign or the Duster. Her role was to pick up survivors from torpeoded/bombed ships on convoy. She did about 36 Convoys & managed to save about 150 lives, and was eventually broken up about 1950.

So I called her "HMS" earlier - this may not be correct.

Maybe we'll have a seperate posting for this Accy.....there does appear to have been at least one spectacular action she was in, so I think this could justify a seperate thread.

I've also done some digging and come up with this:

1. U-BOAT REPORT ABOUT AN ATTACK ON A CONVOY
(Sorry about the German, but MIK can translate)
3.2.1943
Nordatlantik
Auf dem Marsch von U-Booten der Gruppe »Landsknecht« (vgl. 22.-28.1.) zu einer neuen Aufstellung sichtet U 456 (Kptlt. Teichert) am 1.2. den Konvoi HX.224 (58 Schiffe, Escort Group C4 [LCdr. Piers] Zerstörer HMCS Restigouche, HMS Churchill, Korvetten HMCS Amherst, Collingwood, Brandon, Sherbrooke und HMS Celandine, Rettungsschiff Accrington). Trotz schweren Sturmes hält U 456 3 Tage vorbildlich Fühlung und versenkt 2 Schiffe mit 16.633 BRT. Von den in der Nähe stehenden U 265, U 614, U 257 und U 632 (Kptlt. Karpf) versenkt nur letzteres 1 Nachzügler-Tanker mit 8190 BRT, dessen Überlebende wertvolle Hinweise für den folgenden Konvoi SC.118 geben können.— U 265 (Oblt.z.S. Aufhammer) wird am 3.2. von der Sicherung fliegenden Fortress 'N' der RAF-Sqn. 220 versenkt.

2. ABOUT FLEET AIR ARM CREW BEING RESUED

SS ACRINGTON
Sutherland, FM PO, Tilley, KH Sub Lt, and Jones, JH PO, 813 sqdn, HMS Campania, 8.6.1944, hit rounddown landing, into sea, picked up unhurt by SS Accrington

3. ABOUT THE SINKING OF A PANAMANIAN SHIP IN A WW2 CONVOY

At 1620 orders to abandon ship were given by the Master. Two lifeboats and a gig were launched along with all the rafts except one. All the survivors were picked up by HMS AFFLECK (K 462) and HMS BENTLEY (K 465) at 1130 on April 27th. All the survivors were in two boats at this time. After rejoining the convoy they were all transferred to the rescue ship SS ACCRINGTON arriving Gourock, Scotland on May 1st. They were repatriated to the U.S. on the ILE DE FRANCE arriving New York on May 18th.

So although it appears the ship was partly manned by RN personnel, it was never commissioned into the RN and remained the Steam Ship (SS) ACCRINGTON.

Delving in to the deep history of Accrington.Interesting

...But just to return to our earlier "Accrington" The painting you see at the very top of the thread is by an artist called Antonio Jacobsen, who was originally Danish but subesquently moved to the States. His specialism was maritime art, and in his time he knocked out over 4,000 paintings, which where all signed and nearly all dated....as regards the later, there is one notable exception......guess! Another part of this mysterious jigsaw puzzle.....

Some info on the artist:

Artist: Jacobsen, Antonio Nicolo Gasparo (American, 1850-1921) - Oilpaintings and a few Gouaches
Place: Worked and lived in Manhattan and West Hoboken, USA.
Motifs: Ship Portraits, mainly of ocean-going Steamers, but also of Sailing Vessels and Yachts; a few Seascapes as well
Prices: Offers for large oilpaintings by Antonio Jacobsen (22 x 36 in.and larger) are starting at US $ 3,500 (in the USA) or BP 2,000 (in Great Britain) or Euro 3.000 (Continental Europe). Smaller paintings are starting at US $ 1,500 in the USA and on the International Markets. Prices depend on subject, size, date, quality and condition. Please send us an e-mail to receive an exact offer for your painting (free of charge for persons considering to sell their painting).
Notes: Born in Denmark, he was trained at the academy in Kobenhavn and emigrated to the US in 1873. His central profile view ship portraits of merchant sailing vessels, steamers and yachts were very much in demand (and he was really doing a good marketing!), therefore his output was immense, ca. 4,000 paintings are known. Information about the artist and his oeuvre can also be found in our book "Ship Portrait Artists

Oil Painting of SS Accrington -Portratit of the English full-rigged Ship at Sea. 56 x 91 cm [22 x 36 inches] Signed

What amuses me is the artists forenames: Antonio Nicolo Gasparo. Doesn't sound particularly Danish, does it? I learnt that his father was a violin maker, so perhaps he named his son after other famous violin makers???

Tealeaf....The site where I dug up this info, states clearly that the picture is SIGNED??, maybe we'll have to go to the NZ National Gallery site and find out if it is!

SS Accrington
 

Hey, well done Tealeaf, you've certainly got everyone "going" on this subject, (and well done to Darby too for his research) and ...if anyone goes to N Zealand to see if the painting is signed, I would like to come as well!
Atarah :)

I'll carry your bags, missus

Hi Darby,

My language above is a bit confusing....the Accy painting is signed, yes.....but it is not dated! Thats what I meant to say!

im going to n/zealand & australia were is the painting?

Well, the image can be found on the National Libary of New Zealand website (not Gallery, as I saud earlier).....but, just reading through it all again I've just realised there is nothing in there which confirms the NLNZ has the actual painting in it's pocession.

There's another interesting point here....the main reference libary is called the Turnbull collection......and the captain of the Accy in 1861 (after the poisioning incident) who smashed the sailing record with the Accy in racing to Dunedin NZ in 93 days was also called...Turnbull. Odd, innit.

Arrival of Accrington
The Press Monday September 7th 1863

The clipper ship Accrington arrived off the Peninsula on Friday evening, but was not signalled at Lyttelton till Saturday morning. She arrived off Camp Bay at noon, where she lay at anchor awaiting the arrival of the Immigration Commissioners, who left the Jetty at one o'clock, and after staying on board for an hour and a half, declared the ship free from disease. The wind now had changed to the N.W. , which prevented her coming up to her anchorage. By the courtesy of the Commissioners our reporter was admitted on board, where every information was afforded him by the officers of the ship. She is fitted with a large distilling apparatus for supplying fresh water at the rate of 500 gallons per day. The galley is also worth inspecting, as it is on a most extensive scale. Bread was served out three times a week to the immigrants. There were 12 deaths and five births on board; the mortality was confined to children under three years of age. The voyage was accomplished in 75 days from Plymouth to the Snares, having left on the 18th June. She crossed the line on the 13th July, in longitude 23 degrees 42 minutes W; passed the meridian of the Cape on the 3rd August, and met with fine weather until 16th, when a series of gales and squally weather ensued until she made the Snares on the 2nd September; the new Zealand coast being the first land seen after leaving Plymouth. The barometer was once as low as 28.70, and the greatest south latitude was 48 degrees. The Accrington is a fine specimen of naval architecture, constructed of iron, and having a flush deck of 280 feet long, and is a remarkably clean and well ventilated ship, and well worth the trouble of inspecting. six men charged with robbery were brought on shore by the police on Saturday afternoon.

Our Sponsors


This is from a New Zealand Website - T!

6 men charged with robbery.....someone nicked the jambuttys!

N/PAP: Canturbury Provincial Gazette Mon 28 Sept, 1863. Vol 10, No 16, pg 165 (Held at Cant Public Lib, Chch).

Commissioners Report. Accrington.

The Commissioners were much pleased with the arrangements for hospital accommodation and berthing the passengers of the ship Accrington, with the exception of the storeroom hatchway opening into the female hospital, and the fact that seventeen
single men were berthed on a lower deck without other light and ventilation than afforded through the hatchway.

The cleanliness of the several compartments was satisfactory.

The distilling apparatus (Normanby's), and the baking arrangements were satisfactory.

The medicine chest from Apothecaries' Hall was well furnished, and the scale of medical comforts much more liberal than in most shops previously inspected, though less so than in the Government Commissioner's ship.

The Commissioners regret to find that many irregularities occured during the voyage, the seamen frequenting the compartment of the married people, in one instance forcibly entering that of the single females. The medical officer not having the
experience, and not being armed with the authority of a surgeon superintendent under the Government Commissioner's, was unable to prevent these occurences, and the Master's authority was openly defied by the sailors.

The 'Constables appointed to keep order do not appear to have exerted themselves to assist the officers at the time of the intrusion into the single women's saloon.

Signed: William Donald, RM, Chairman.

John T Rouse

HS McKellar.

Lyttleton Times, 9 Sept 1863.

The fine clipper ship Accrington arrived at the quarantine anchorage on Saturday afternoon. The commissioners, on going on board, soon found that she was entitled to a clean bill, but, owing to a robbery on board, they gave strict orders not to
admit anyone on board from shore without an order. Twelve deaths and five births occurred during the passage. She left Plymouth on June 18, having accomplished the passage from land to land in a little over 75 days. Nothing worthy of note
occured during the voyage except a continuance of gales and squally weather a little time after she left the meridian of the Cape. The Accrington is a remarkably fine vessel, having a flush deck of 280ft in length, and from a slight inspection
she appears all that could be desired to bring out immigrants from home. That great desideratum at sea - plenty of fresh water - was supplied almost ad libitum from the distilling apparatus on board during the greater part of the voyage - equal
to 500 gallons per diem.

.....Looks like by this voyage things had quietened down a bit. This time, there were only 12 deaths, all children under the age of 3. Statistically, this is somewhat unusual in so far as allowing for the high rates of child mortality at the time, we nevertheless should anticipate some adult mortality over the course of the voyage. Could there have been a child murderer on board?

If there was, no one probably noticed. There were, quote .."to many irregularities on the voyage", such as the "Master's authority being openly defied by the crew".....No surprise, this one, when you think about what happened on the Calcutta Cruise.

But the real shock/horror of this piece surely arose "....in one instance (The Sailors) forcibly entered the compartments of the female sailors..." Whatever did they do that for, we wonder, and why don't we have more details?

SS Accrington
 

This is from the 1860 London Illustrated News 7th January

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/a...accrington.jpg

65 deaths occurred????

From poisoning? or from ??? We'll never know!!

Re: SS Accrington
 

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/a...9_1ss.accy.jpg

I got so peeved off with not getting the SS Accy piccy from ebay that I thought I'd barrow it anyway...do you think they'll notice? For those of you who have not seen this thread before, this is a piccy of the second ship to be called "Accrington"








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Re: SS Accrington
 

It looks quite large for a rescue ship, and it cuts a dash doing about 18 knots. Thanks for the view Tealeaf....

Re: SS Accrington
 

i didnt know they had female sailors in those days, mm quite liberated wernt they.

Re: SS Accrington
 

If only the Accrington of today looked as stunning as either of the ships. Really interesting stuff everyone - keep it coming.

Mez - I don't think the woman were actually sailors at the time - they seem to have been taken along for recreation purposes!

Re: SS Accrington
 

I must go back to sea again if that's the case :smileysx:

Re: SS Accrington
 

To resurrect a fascinating thread, I have come across the following while searching for something else and thought it might add a bit more to the story.

From the list of Absent Voters (1919) and Record of War Service (1914-1918)
I have found the following names of men of Grimsby who served on the SS Accrington.

Fairburn, Alfred John. 27 Yarborough St, Grimsby.
Goodwin, Frank Arnold. 1 Augustine Street, Grimsby.
Henson, George Henry. 41 Railway Street, Grimsby.

Re: SS Accrington
 

Re: SS Accrington
 

fascinating and brilliant thread,just come across it.you deserve a jaffa cake tealeaf,an nobody gets them!

Re: SS Accrington
 

Well, after all this time I finally picked up a report on the trial after the Captain & 1st Mates murder.....here's the link. There is also a secondary link to a passengers letter, well worth reading. Sounds very much like a hell hole to me. Just like Accy town centre every saturday night.

http://www.old-merseytimes.co.uk/ACCRINGTON.html

Re: SS Accrington
 

Sorry Tealeaf

SS Accrington was a MN ship not Royal Navy ie HMS All rescue ships were manned by merchant navy crews .My father in law served on all it's voyages during WW11. One of the threads mentioned 18 knots .Not a chance If you want more info let me know
Regards Pete

Re: SS Accrington
 

fascinating thread , thanks to the above poster for reviving it , sure it will be of interest to many newer Accy-web users like myself who missed it first time around

Re: SS Accrington
 

How can I get an enlargement of this thumbnail? I am researching the Accrington story

Re: SS Accrington
 

It's an image, just click on it, or THIS IS THE LINK to it

Re: SS Accrington
 

Just found this thread.............very informative, must admit I always wondered where they got the name Aragos st, now I know :D

Re: SS Accrington
 

Just browsing through & found this thread, thoroughly enjoyed it. The SS Accrington also picked up 3 Aircrew whose aircraft had been downed after leaving HMS Campania on the Atlantic/Arctic convoys, in 1944.

Re: SS Accrington
 

SS ACRINGTON
Sutherland, FM PO, Tilley, KH Sub Lt, and Jones, JH PO, 813 sqdn, HMS Campania, 8.6.1944, hit rounddown landing, into sea, picked up unhurt by SS Accrington.

My father was Jones, JH, PO, 813 sqdn, rear gunner radio operator in a Stringbag from HMS Campania. I know very little about his service as he rarely mentioned it. I still have his "Goldfish" award for surviving a dip in the drink mentioned above.

Re: SS Accrington
 

I don't know whether this thread is still alive but people interested in the SS Accrington, built in around 1855, might find it interested that a young Icelandic seaman, Sveinbjörn Egilson, signed as an AB on the Accrington in Liverpool in 1885. The Accrington sailed to Calcutta in ballast and Egilson describes the voyage in detail in a book he later wrote in Icelandic on his voyages, mainly on British sailing ships. Egilson's accounts on his voyages are quite remarkable and well written since he was well educated. Egilson was a son of an Icelandic merchant and his grandfather was the Headmaster of the Bessastadir Grammar School. Egilson had graduated from that school and had completed the first year of two in the Clergical School of Reykjavík, Iceland when he sailed to Liverpool to join the Accrington and then other British clippers. Unfortunately, his book has not been translated into English. These accounts would presumably be considered an important part of British merchant marine history.

Re: SS Accrington
 

For those interested in the SS Accrington, I found these recently:

GCR Steamers Luxury Cabin c1914
GCR Steamers Dining Saloon c1914