People Ships Industry
The Hugh Matthie was a ship built by Kelsick Wood & Sons at Maryport, launched on the 18th March 1843. She was registered at Liverpool and was first commanded by Capt.Joseph Sparks.
The Hugh Matthie was wrecked upon the reefs at Port Louis, Mauritius, during a hurricane on the 4th January,1844. The vessel remained on the reef until a further storm on the 21st February seems to have put an end to her. It was subsequently reported (see Source 4) that the hull of the vessel had been sold for 1,500 dollars.
Name: Hugh Matthie Year Built: 1843 Gross Tons: 538 Length (feet): 116.3 Breadth (feet): 25.9 Depth (feet): 19.4 Masts: 3 Figurehead: Man Stern: Square
Source Mighty Seas
Between 1853 and 1875, Joseph kept a record of all his voyages, first as a Mate and then as Master. These were purchased by the National Maritime Museum in 1980 and are now available for research there. As well as containing the standard information one would expect, (bearings, weather details, journal entries, etc), the logs also contain nearly one hundred drawings and sketches in ink, pencil and watercolour of various ships, coastline profiles, and sea-birds.
Capt Osborn was at sea for over thirty-five years. He traded out of Liverpool to Cape Town , Calcutta , Amoy , Singapore , Hong Kong , Foochow , Demerara, Bombay , Madras , Sydney , and many other ports around the world. For eight months he was on Government Service, carrying supplies from Bombay to Abyssinia for the war that Britain had declared, in 1855, on the “King-of-Kings” Theodore.
Extracted from the excellent Solway Past and Present: Allonby Characters – 2