The “Cumberland Pacquet” – the local newspaper of the time carried this article.

“On Saturday last, September 4th 1818 was launched from the building yard of Messrs. Peat & Co. at Maryport a remarkably fine coppered brig called the “Hannah” burthen for per register 223 tons, built for Captain John Newby and intended for the West Indian trade.”

Captain Newby kept exact details of all the expenses of his ship on every voyage she made and rendered an account to his co-owners every year when a share out of the profits of the enterprise was made. We find that the cost and fitting out of the “Hannah” for her first voyage was £4,470. 18s. 3p the cost being divided into one sixteenth shares of £300.

The “Hannah’s” first voyage in the Autumn of 1819 was to Jamaica, returning to London in June 1820. A month later she set off for Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada returning with a cargo of timber for Liverpool in October. When Captain Newby met his fellow owners at Maryport on November 15th 1820 he was able to report a profit on the first two voyages of £1818. 7s. 5p. The result evidently delighted them for they recorded

“We beg to acknowledge our best thanks to Captain Newby for his great exertion and integrity in giving us such an extraordinary good settlement“.

Thereafter the “Hannah” made 26 more voyages – all under Captain Newby’s command – until in January 1834 she was stranded on Wilmington Bar, North Carolina and wrecked.

During the 14 years that she sailed the usual pattern was a voyage to the West Indies in the Autumn and Winter months followed by a shorter voyage to one of the Canadian timber ports in the Summer. The cargos from the West Indies were sugar, rum,  coffee and molasses and all the voyages save one to Quebec in 1829, made a profit, although the wonderful result of the first voyage was never repeated. Those who invested £300 of their money in a sixteenth share of the “Hannah” in November 1819 had 14 years later just about doubled their money. Their share of the profits amounted to £606. 10s. 0p.

Those who agreed to advance money for the “Hannah” on September 23rd 1819 about three weeks after she had been launched were as follows:- John Ritson, James Pitcairn, David Fletcher & Co., Thomas Tolson for “Fanny” and “Mary” Tolson, Isaac Drewery, Joseph Clementson, William Affleck, Robert Russell and Captain Newby. The names of the ship’s crew are not given but the wages they were paid are noted.

The ship’s Master received £8. 10s. 0p a month, the mate £4. 4s. 0p. a month, the 2nd mate £3, the carpenter £4. 4s. 0p. a month, and the seamen seven in number were paid £2. 10s. a month and two boys each received £7 a year.

Among the expenses incurred in port were dock dues and pilotage, payments to a ship keeper while in port, and fees were paid to an individual called a “Jerking Officer” who seems to have been a port official of some kind, and payments for discharging the ship by lump, a system of cargo handling which has often been a factor in dock disputes in our own day. From Annie Robinson