The Mary B. Mitchell was a steel hulled, 3 masted schooner built by Paul Rodgers & Company of Carrickfergus and launched in 1892. Her dimensions were 129.7’ x 24.4’ x 10.8’, her tonnage was 227 tons gross and net 133 tons. Her official number was 97575, at loss she was registered in Dublin.
Extract Lloyd’s Register 1939.
Mary B. Mitchell.
Her first owner was a William Preston of Lleiniog Castle, Beaumaris, where she was also first registered. She remained in his ownership until 1900 when she was purchased by Emilius Young of Bangor who retained ownership until 1912 when she was purchased by Baron Penrhyn. During this period she was mainly utilised to carry cargos of slate for the quarry at Penrhyn, and post 1916 as a Q-ship in the latter part of WW1. In 1917 she was fitted with auxiliary engines and twin screws to improve her performance as a Q-ship. By 1920, ownership had changed again to Job Tyrrell of Arklow and she remained in ownership of the Tyrrell family until her loss. Throughout her life she was mainly used for coastal cargo work, although she was hired for the production of a number of films, and the aforementioned role as a Q-ship.
The Mary B. was cast in the role of the Marie Celeste in this 1937 Hammer production.
On the 15 December 1943, the Mary B. Mitchell was on voyage from her home port of Dublin to Silloth on the Cumbrian coast with a cargo of 300 tons of burnt ore. As they approached the Solway Firth they were caught in a south easterly gale which blew out most of her sails. They were driven towards Kirkcubright Bay, fortunately they were spotted around 17:00 by the keepers in Ross Lighthouse who noted the vessel was drifting but not displaying any distress signals. The local air sea rescue base at Gibshill was contacted to see if they could send out a boat, unable to comply they sent an officer to the shore who signalled the Mary B. Mitchell and confirmed they needed assistance. The motor lifeboat Morison Watson was launched when tide allowed at 20:30 and reached the Mary B. Mitchell which had gone ashore just north of Torrs Point on the east side of Kirkcudbright Bay. The lifeboat managed to get alongside the stricken vessel and safely rescued her 8 crew, they were landed at the main quay in Kirkcudbright around 22:00.
Kirkcudbright Life Boat crew with the Morison Watson – The Lifeboat Magazine 1937.
The following day the lifeboat took some of the crew back out to the wreck. As they approached the wreck site there was no sign of the Mary B. Mitchell and on scouring the horizon they found her on the west shore of Kirkcudbright Bay, just south of Frenchman’s Rock. She was hard aground on a rocky shore, her hull was holed and tidal, and was declared a constructive total loss following further bad weather in January 1944.
The wreck was visited by representatives of the Dalmuir based ship breaking company W. H. Arnott Young in April 1945 with a view to dismantling the wreck. Its not clear if they undertook any work following this initial survey. Pictures from their visit are shown below, and we thank W. Sloan Smith for allowing us to reproduce pictures from his photographic collection which records the work of the ship breaking company – W.H. Arnott Young & Company Ltd., of Dalmuir and Troon.
We would like to thank Kirkcudbright Historical Society and David R. Collin for allowing us to reproduce the pictures below from their archives. A few of the pictures have sub-titles with information, click on picture to select, or search with left or right tags.
