1841 Boat Disaster, Masbrough

ROTHERHAM1
1841 Boat Disaster, Masbrough

Above picture and some information from a press cutting at the local archives section, Rotherham library.
A ship launch of the most horrific kind seems to have taken place at Rotherham in Yorkshire on Monday the 5th July 1841.
A small vessel, freighted with a hundred and fifty happy individuals, was launched from a boat yard, but being built perhaps on perculiar princples, it no sooner reached the water, than it rolled over, pitching its human cargo into the river.
The loss of life is described as frightful, no fewer than fifty bodies being found within a few minutes of the accident.

There can still be seen today, evidence of this awful accident, at Masbrough chapel graveyard, better known to locals as Allens Carpets.

The following inscriptions are as I found them in the graveyard.

(1) John Harwood son of George and Mary Harwood of this parish who was drowned with 49 others at the launching of a boat race 5.7.1841 aged 13 years 9 months.
Also Fanny Gertrude daughter of the above aged 2 years 9 months.

(2) George son of Will and Ann Earnshaw who awfully perished with 49 others at the launching of a vessel in Masbrough on 5.7.1841 aged 7 years 8 months.
Also above named Ann Earnshaw died 4.6.1842 aged 40.

If you visit All Saints Church, you can see a memorial with the following words and verse that includes a full listing of the people that perished in the accident.

In memory of the 50 young persons who's names are inscribed on this tablet who awfully perished at the launching of a vessel at Masbrough July 5th 1841

By the generous sympathy of their fellow townsmen and others, a fund was raised to relieve the families berieved by this bad calamity and to erect this monumental record in humble and reverent recognition of the divine will as an emotional warning to the living and a memorial condolence to those whose hearts and hopes were thereby suddenly bow'd to the dust.

They sank not in the storm toss'd wave
Crested by oceans surge where billows murmuring o'er their grave
Would sound a ceaseless dirge imprisoned by the inverted bars beneath the waveless stream
They drank deaths bitter cup lifes spark was quench'd dispell'd it's dream
Their tombs are clos'd the muffled peal has rung their funeral knell
What eye can see beyond the veil where now their spirits dwell
Mourners in faith flee to the cross thence living waters flow
A healing balm for every loss sure refuge from your woe

ARGOT, James (15)
BLACKBURN, St Stephen William (11)
BOWLER, William (10)
BRADBURY, Thomas (15)
BRADSHAW, William (11)
BROWN, George (15)
BUCKLEY, Alfred (6)
BUCKLEY, Joseph (33)
CREATORIX, John (21)
CROWTHER, Henry (8)
CUNDELL, David (13)
CURTIS, George (16)
DALE, Thomas (7)
DOBB, Samuel (10)
DOBSON, Andrew (9)
EARNSHAW, George (7)
EARNSHAW, Joseph (10)
FOX, John (16)
FREEMAN, Samuel (16)
FREEMAN, William (8)
FURNISS, Joseph (12)
GILLOT, John (17)
GOODALL, Henry (8)
GREENFIELD, Alfred (5)
GREENFIELD, William (10)
HALL, William (9)
HANBY, Charles (12)
HAYWOOD, John Holroyd (13)
HEATHCOTE, Samuel (11)
JAQUES, John (11)
LANCASTER, Robert (13)
MATTHEWMAN, Charles (11)
KENT, John (10)
NIXON, George (7)
PARROTT, John (19)
PATTISON, John (10)
RAMSDEN, George (14)
ROBINSON, Charles (11)
SHAW, Richard (17)
SHILLITTO, John (11)
SHILLITTO, Richard (9)
SMITH, Charles (8)
SMITH, Henry (5)
SMITH, John (10)
STRAW, Thomas (10)
WOOD, William (11)
WOODGER, Thomas (13)
WOODGER, William (11)
WOOLHOUSE, Samuel (18)
YATES, James Pagdin (11)

Surnames and ages of those who perished