Grassendale

An iron full-rigged ship built in 1882 by R. Williamson & Son as their first iron ship at their new yard in Workington at £ 12 15s per ton or a total of £ 22.400. Dimensions 81,28×11,93×7,20 meters [266'5"×39'1"×23'6"] and 1842 GRT, 1800 NRT and 1720 tons under deck.

1882 January: Launched at the shipyard of R. Williamson & Son, Workington, for Sailing Ship Grassendale Co. Ltd. (R.W. Leyland & Co.), Liverpool. Assigned the official British Reg. No. _____ and signal ____.
1884 May 17: Left New York for Shanghai with a cargo of 72.500 cases of petroleum under command of Captain Richardson who in addition to a crew of 29 also had his wife and children onboard.
1884 August 30: Last spoken to off Rio de Janeiro.
1884 October: Cases of petroleum with the same hallmark as those of Grassendale's cargo were found floating near the Straits of Sunda.

References:

Square-rigged ships, general references.
Walker, David: Champion of Sail. R.W. Leyland and his Shipping Line.
Conway Maritime Press, London, 1986. 4to, 191 pp, ill.

Updated 1997-05-16 by Lars Bruzelius

Sjöhistoriska Samfundet | The Maritime History Virtual Archives.