Very productive this week, we found an interesting family grave, which included a memorial to the Redman’s.

The family were lost at sea, they were 15 miles off West Holyhead bound for New York. They were onboard the Governor Fenner. A quick search of the Internet, leads me to the following information (sources quoted)

The GOVERNER FENNER was a wooden sailing vessel built in 1831 (?) and registered at New York, United States of America. The vessel is likely to have been named after either Arthur or James Fenner, father and son, both of whom served as the Governor of Rhodes Island. A GOVERNOR FENNER is recorded as one of the vessels engaged in the emigrant trade through the Port of New York in July 1829. At time of loss, the vessel was owned by the Andrews Brothers. The ship left Liverpool on Friday 19 February 1841, with 107 passengers (mostly emigrants) on board and carrying a cargo of iron. At 2 am the following day, when 15 miles west of Holyhead in calm conditions and thick fog, the GOVERNER FENNER ran into the paddle steamer NOTTINGHAM. The collision was so violent that the bow of the GOVERNOR FENNER was stove completely in, causing her to fill and sink very rapidly. The 1st officer of the GOVERNOR FENNER, Mr Carter was on watch at the time and had called the Captain as soon as the paddle steamer appeared ahead of them, but collision could not be avoided and both men barely escaped with their lives, clambering onto the deck of the steamer as their own vessel went down beneath them. The two men were the only survivors. The paddle steamer NOTTINGHAM had been struck on the starboard side, leaving her paddle box, wheel and shaft completely shattered, her starboard steam engine wrecked and her funnel knocked clean overboard. Beside passengers she carried over 100 cattle and sheep, many of which were killed in the collision, the remainder being thrown overboard to clear the decks. The paddle steamer, although barely afloat, managed to enter Holyhead harbour.

Sources include:
Gater, D, 1992, Historic Shipwrecks of Wales, pg39
Larn and Larn Shipwreck Database 2002
Petty Bentley, E, 1999, Passenger Arrivals at the Port of New York 1820-1829.
Wynne-Jones, I, 2001, Shipwrecks of North Wales, 4 ed, pg61

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, June 2008.

The American ship Governor Fenner, Captain Andrews, which sailed hence on Friday, at noon, for New York, came in contact, on the following morning, at two o’clock, off Holyhead, with the Nottingham, steamer, from Dublin to this port. The ship struck the steamer amidships. So great was the force of the collision, that the ship’s bows were stove in, and, in a few minutes from the time of the vessels coming in contact, she sank, the captain and the mate being the only persons, out of 124 souls on board, who saved their lives. The Nottingham was dreadfully shattered, but, having been struck in her strongest part, the collision was not fatal to her.

The passengen were all below in their berths when the collision between the ship and the steamer took place. The shock caused by it would, of course, rouse even those who might have been asleep. No doubt they would make a rush towards the deck : the interval, however, which elapsed between the shock and the sinking was so short, scarcely five minutes, that very few, if any could have succeeded in reaching it; so that, in all probability, most of them perished in their berths. The mate, we understand, had been married a few days only before the ship’s sailing on her voyage: the captain had given her a berth with her husband in the cabin. When the fate of the ship became inevitable, he attempted to run aft to rescue his wife. Time failed him?the instinct of self-preservation became strong? he sprang up the shrouds, and reached the steamer, as we have already stated, by jumping from the foreyard-arm.

The Nottingham, which now lies on the east side of the Clarence Dock, was yesterday visited by thousands of curious spectators. Her starboard side is a complete wreck ; even the houses on the deck adjoining are shivered to fragments. The Head of animals, cows and sheep, covered the deck, and presented a shocking sight, most of them having been disembowelled by the concussion which caused their death.?

From the Edinburgh Observer,
Tuesday, 23d February, 1841.

d 20/02/1841 Edward (aged 35) and Martha (aged 37) Redman, and their children, Joseph (aged 8) and Esther Ann (infant). Martha was previously married to John Harrop. They are remembered on the Harrop family plot.