The James A. Wright was a 3-mast’d timber hulled sailing ship built at Bath, Maine in the USA and launched in 1868. Her dimensions were 185.0’ x 37.0’x 24.0’, her tonnage was 1273 register, and was valued at circa £7000.
She was built for her first owner, Frank O. Moses of Bath, Maine and remained in his ownership until her loss. It is also highly likely that Frank’s shipbuilding company were the builders of this vessel, his yard was located near the Bowery in Bath.
The James A. Wright arrived at Liverpool at the end of September 1877 having completed her transatlantic crossing from Pascagoula with a general cargo. She departed Liverpool on the 8 November 1877, in ballast, bound for Tybee Island at the mouth of the Savannah River on the east coast of the USA.
The Western Approaches experienced very unsettled weather throughout the first week of their voyage, culminating in a violent south-westerly storm on the 15 and 16 November which affected large areas of Scotland including the Western Isles. Two foreign vessels in Stornoway Harbour were badly damaged and the Royal Mail steamer from Dunvegan was driven ashore at Lochmaddy after what were described as hurricane force winds at the height of the storm.
The James A. Wright was caught in the storm, and on the 17 November she eventually came ashore at Baleshare Island on the west coast of North Uist. Fortunately her crew of eighteen, under the command of her master – S.H. Morrison, all managed to get ashore safely. Contemporary sources suggest that the vessel was ‘bilged’ which suggests she struck rocks or a reef before going ashore on the silver sands at Baleshare. The stormy weather continued into the following week and the position for the wreck looked bleak.
She eventually went to auction on the 5 December in Liverpool, and the sale was concluded by mid December. We could not establish how successful any salvage works were, although local reports suggest that parts of the vessel were adapted and incorporated into dwellings in the locality.
The remains of the James A. Wright lie in the inter tidal zone on Baleshare beach, North Uist in position 57° 31.190’N, 07° 22.666’W. The remains consist of the main keel, lower parts of main ribs and some planking of the hull, refer pictures for more detail. The remains lie SW/NE and are only fully exposed on exceptionally low spring tides. At loss the hull was noted as being sheathed (to waterline) with yellow metal (brass), its likely this would have been removed around the time of her loss. The sands around the wreck are in constant flux, and move and shift to expose or fully cover the wreck, perhaps this has helped to preserve the remains from the often ferocious Atlantic storms.
We would like to thank David Newman for providing the above images of the wreck site, these were made by David in 2022.