# norwegian sailing ship `IRENE`



## uncle al (Dec 1, 2007)

i am trying to locate information/drawings of the following vessel
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name irene(?)
built 1853
builder ??
tonnage 800(?)
dimensions ??
owner ??
fate foundered 26-12-1860 after striking portland (dorset) breakwater 
enroute ????to bristol
any help would be appreciated(Read)(Flowers)


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## stein (Nov 4, 2006)

The Malmstein register at the Norwegian Maritime Museum I consider quite complete, but they have no Irene with those dates:

IRENE Bark / Tre 1842, Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada 
IRENE Brigg / Tre 1851, Oksefjorden, Tvedestrand, Norge Strandet, vrak 1876 på Sk... 
IRENE Bark / Tre Storm. Strandet 1892 ved ... 
IRENE Bark / Tre 1855, Brevik, Norge Forlist 1888 
IRENE Fullrigger / Tre 1857, Hurum, Norge Strandet, vrak 1879 Frank... 
IRENE Bark / Tre 1868, Fevik, Fjære, Grimstad, Norge Avrigget 1908


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## uncle al (Dec 1, 2007)

thanks stein P.M sent


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## davidships (Nov 3, 2007)

There is the possibility that this was a Swedish ship (and noting that Sweden ruled Norway at that time). Lloyd's List reported the fateful voyage in 1860 briefly:

c15/12 arrived off Dover from Sundswall (now Sundsvall, on Gulf of Bothnia) for Bristol (Capt Fredriksen)
20/12 arrived Cowes
26/12 sailed for Bristol
27/12 The IRENE (Swedish ship), Fredrickson, from Sundswall to Bristol with timber, on the breakwater at Portland. All crew saved, Cowes pilot drowned. Ship gone to pieces.

The crew apparently numbered 16.

There were no earlier reports of voyages in 1860 of an IRENE under a Capt Fredriksen or similar.

However the local newspaper at Poole, the _Weymouth, Portland & Dorchester Telegram_ reported:

"During a gale on Wednesday evening the barque IRENE, having taken on a pilot at Cowes and finding it stormy, ran for the shelter of Portland Roads. A combination of heavy snow, the gale and huge seas concealed the light at the end of the breakwater. The vessel struck one of the piles and went to pieces. The pilot jumped out when they hit the pier and drowned but the crew, hanging on to timber until the chance came to gain the breakwater, were saved. Several piles of the breakwater were knocked down by the impact. "The vessel was so completely shivered that the greater portion was split up into fragments no longer round than Lucifer matches." With the exception of a small part of her bottom, it is difficult to tell what part of the vessel was what. The coast between Ferry Bridge and Portland is strewn with wreck. Five men were sent to court for taking away a hawser from the IRENE but the case was dismissed."

Larn's _Shipwreck Index_ also reports that there is a photograph in Weymouth Library, ref L.910.4.IR.1
http://www.dorsetforyou.com/4807?navid=386790


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## uncle al (Dec 1, 2007)

am really having a LOT of trouble getting any info on this vessel---any one got any ideas??(Whaaa)(Whaaa)(Pint)


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## uncle al (Dec 1, 2007)

all sorted --thanks(Thumb)


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## europanz (Oct 8, 2014)

I have a photo of a Barque called Irene . If you send me your address I will send you the photo and the link. It`s a ship being towed into Greymouth , New-Zealand. It has a Norwegian flag on it."The Barque Irene being towed into the Grey River at Greymouth,one of the leading coal ports of the Dominion.1908."


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## stein (Nov 4, 2006)

europanz said:


> I have a photo of a Barque called Irene . If you send me your address I will send you the photo and the link. It`s a ship being towed into Greymouth , New-Zealand. It has a Norwegian flag on it."The Barque Irene being towed into the Grey River at Greymouth,one of the leading coal ports of the Dominion.1908."


If it is a wooden ship then it could be the Grimstad barque owned by Jørgen Jørgensen, built by his brother Halvor in 1868 and hulked in 1908. She could not be the one that foundered in 1860, and that now has been declared Swedish.


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## Clipirene (Feb 19, 2014)

IRENE Built by Thomas Carson - Quaco - New Brunswick in 1851 - 823 tons - Official number 47 . registred in Liverpool
I know 3 voyages to Australia :
Robinson Master: Liverpool 10/7/1852 -Sydney (with 397 emigrants )- Callao and return 
Robinson Master: London 24/9/1853 - Port Adelaïde - Callao
Jones Master: Liverpool 24/10/1857 - Sydney (With 354 emigrants ) - Callao
Probably she has been sold in Norway and abandoned in 1886 .???


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## stein (Nov 4, 2006)

Clipirene said:


> IRENE Built by Thomas Carson - Quaco - New Brunswick in 1851 - 823 tons - Official number 47 . registred in Liverpool
> I know 3 voyages to Australia :
> Robinson Master: Liverpool 10/7/1852 -Sydney (with 397 emigrants )- Callao and return
> Robinson Master: London 24/9/1853 - Port Adelaïde - Callao
> ...


Probably this one: CATHARINA (or CATHERINE) ex British IRENE 1852 St. John, New Brunswick - but I cannot find anything more at the moment.


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