1887

Lancashire Witch was designed by St. C. Byrne and built in 1878 by R. Steel & Co of Greenock for Sir Thomas Hesketh. He set off round the world in what seems to have been a copy of the vovage of the Sunbeam, a sister ship of Lancashire Witch again designed by St Clare Byrne. The story of this voyage of the Sunbeam was published by Anna Brassey in her popular book "A Voyage in the Sunbeam, our Home on the Ocean for Eleven Months" published in 1878. A scanned copy can be read on the Internet Archive. She saw the Lancashire Witch on its shakedown cruise in Gibraltar and remarked how similar the two yachts were. The Lancashire Witch had many adventures before she became the Waterwitch and we should write this up sometime. A journalist - Francis Francis the younger - did write a book about the first voyage of the Lancashire Witch called "War, Waves and Wanderings. A cruise in the "Lancashire Witch."" but this was part fiction and part fact so not a good historic document. Again available on the Internet Archive. On his trip in the Lancashire Witch Hesketh stopped off to fight in the Zulu wars and when he got to San Francisco met and married possibly the richest heiress in America. Later owner was Frank Linsly James who with his brothers explored uncharted areas of Africa. He was killed by an elephant and his body returned to England on board the Lancashire Witch (1890).

In addition to her being a ship that could face the worst seas, she could scrub up well. She was registered with the Royal Yacht Squadren and could be seen alongside the very best yachts at anchor during Cowes week. From The Stokes Family Records for 1889: "My wife and I and Sarah and Helen left on our coach with Mr. and Mrs. Arthur James, and drove to Portsea, where we went on board Mr. James's yacht, Lancashire Witch, and sailed in her to Cowes. The German emperor arrived, and a procession of government vessels and yachts went to meet him. The Lancashire Witch was given a good position on the port bow of the imperial yacht, and we could see the emperor and his staff as we went to Cowes. A number of officers were chatting and laughing when the emperor suddenly appeared, upon which they assumed rigid attitudes, which seemed somewhat strained in a seaway." Frank Linsly James's nephew was New Yorker Arthur Curtiss James and it is likely that he sailed on the Lancashire Witch when young. He eventually owned the Aloha and cruised the worlds seas.

Ted What an amazing story, it certainly bears further investigation and all those associated with the vessel seem to have had interesting lives. Thank you - we've added this information to our records.

Summary of HMS Waterwitch's work when with the Australian station is set out in Sir Archibald Day's book: The Admiralty Hydrographic Service 1795-1919 (1967). I also have a report from Lloyds on the registered owners that I could send on to the Museum if you so wish? Is there an email address I can forward the details to? Captain Matthews was master when Lancashire Witch was owned by Frank James and his brother William. His obit. in the local IoW paper is hopefully available at this link: www.friendsofnorthwoodcemetery.org.uk/FoNC/Obituary/8581.pdf He went on to be master of Sir Thomas Lipton's yacht Erin and became involved with the America's Cup races.

I now recall putting summaries of the Lloyds report and the career summary of HMS Waterwitch on Wikimedia so the links are below and it is in public domain. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHMS_Waterwitch_1894_191... commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHMS_Waterwitch_Lloyds_Y... Her engine was replaced during the refit 1893/94 with I believe 460hp version.

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Cigarette Cards, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

Harry Wright originally was the star of the first pro team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869.

Looks like a portable steam engine with a spark arrester on the smokestack.