Sepia albumen print

Acc.no: PEZPH : 2016.50.193

Identification

Item: "The Chrysolite" three masted schooner

Description: The three masted schooner "The Chrysolite" in full sail. Built at Whitehaven as a barquentine (Official number: 58190) in 1869, the Chrysolite was acquired by Joseph Denley, Penzance Coal Merchant and Scrap Dealer in 1887, when she was converted to a three-masted schooner and registered at Penzance on June 17 1887. In Joe Denley's employ, she spent most of her time running between Penzance and the Bristol Channel. He disposed of her to Whitstable owners in January 1914, and a further record gives her as having been registered at Manchester in 1917, in the ownership of the Anglo-French Coasting Co Ltd. On August 3rd 1918, the British wooden schooner left Swansea for Treguier, Brittany, with a cargo of coal and went missing. She was widely thought to have been mined or sunk by a U boat, but in July 1919, her owners brought an unsuccessful action against the owners of the SS Gerent, for negligence. They claimed that the 'Chrysolite' had been run down and sunk by that steamer, which they tried to prove by a Penzance sailmaker identifying a piece of torn sail-cloth found on the bows of the steamer. During the subsequent trial, the court found that even if the steamer had run down the schooner, there was no evidence that her captain, officers and crew had been negligent in their navigation of the vessel. The court found for the defendants and the cause of the loss of the schooner appears to have been left open. The 3 masted schooner was built of wood. 128 net tons.

Condition: Good

Description

Material: Photographic paper

Production

Method: Printed

Category: Photography

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