Loss of Ship EXPERIMENT - April 1832

Date: 1832 [unknown]
Location: English Channel

The ship "EXPERIMENT" set out from Hull about 6 April 1832 bound for Quebec. However, a severe gale arose, and blew the ship onto rocks near Calais. The ship was lost, but all passengers and crew were saved.

This profile presents the various newspaper reports about the incident in chronological order.

Hull Advertiser and Exchange Gazette 24 February 1832

FOR QUEBEC, With Goods and Passengers, THE GOOD SHIP EXPERIMENT, GEORGE BRUCE, Master, 350 Tons Burthen, She has superior Accommodations for Passengers, having Seven Feet between Decks, and will sail with the first Ships, on or about the 6th of April. For Terms and other Particulars, apply to the Master on Board the Ship, near the Junction Dock Bridge, Whitefriargate; or at the Office of D. & J. PEACOCK, Dock-Side, Hull; or, Skeldergate, York. Hull, February 16, 1832.

Hull Packet 17 April 1832

The Experiment, Bruce, hence to Quebec, got on shore near Calais, on the 12th instant; crew and passengers saved.

Hull Advertiser and Exchange Gazette 20 April 1832

Calais, April 12 - The Experiment, Bruce, from Hull to Quebec, is on shore three leagues to the Eastward of this port. She lies in a very dangerous situation, is leaky, and it is feared will not be got off.

Evening Mail 23 April 1832 - Supplement to the London Gazette of Friday, the 20th of April

A case of very peculiar distress and hardship has just been disclosed in the city, and the facts are so simple and striking, that the recital of them is alone sufficient to produce the proper impression on the humane mind. Forty-five individuals, ment, women, and children, some of them in the most helpless state of infancy, on the voyage from Hull to Quebec, on board of a vessel called the Experiment, have been wrecked on the French coast near Calais. They are all of the poorest class of emigrants, several having been sent out at the expense of the parish to which they belong. The British consul at Calais provided the whole of them with a passage to London, at the expense of the British Government, addressing a letter to the Lord Mayor, in which he recommended these unhappy creatures to his protection and assistance. They are wholly supported at present at the expense of the Lord Mayor, until means can be derived either to send them home or to enable them to prosecute the voyage to Quebec. The latter course would not be attended, it seems, with much greater expense than the other, as they are entitled to receive back a portion of the money paid for their passage to Messrs. Peacock, of Hull, to whom application has been made in their behalf. Some charitable exertion to rescue them from absolute starvation has become, in the mean time, indispensable. The poor creatures have literally lost everything they possessed, and a case of greater destitution cannot by possibility be imagined. Mr. Hobler, of the Mansion-house, will receive any subscriptions that may be sent for the sufferers.

York Herald 28 April 1832

LOSS OF THE EXPERIMENT, OF HULL, With several passengers from York. DESTITUTE EMIGRANTS - The Experiment, Captain George Bruce, sailed a short time ago from the port of Hull for Quebec, having on board, besides her cargo, 45 emigrants, principally of the poorer classes. Many of these individuals had exhausted their whole stock of worldly means in providing necessaries for the voyage and others were sent out at the cost of their respective parishes. The vessel had only proceeded as far as the coast of France on her voyage, when, being overtaken by a violent gale, she stuck on a rock, and it was with the utmost difficulty the passengers and crew escaped with their lives. The unfortunate emigrants, having lost their all, and being thrown utterly destitute on a foreign shore, were furnished with temporary relief by the British Consul at Calais, who sent them over in a steamer to London, with a letter to the Lord Mayer, representing the hardship of their circumstances, and recommending the owners of the Experiment should be applied to in order to ascertain if they would either send them out in another vessel, or refund a portion of the passage money which had been paid to them. The 45 emigrants were landed at the Tower Wharf on Thursday week, without one farthing to procure them either food or shelter, and upon the Lord Mayor being informed of their situation his Lordship, with the most prompt humanity, gave them £5 out of his private purse, and stated that he would write instantly to the Home Secretary to know what was the best course to pursue for the alleviation of their misfortunes. His Lordship received a letter on Friday from Lord Melbourne, which, after mentioning in general terms the receipt of his Lordship's letter, concluded by observing that he considered the emigrants came under the description of casual poor, and as such should be relieved in the customary way. On Saturday, his Lordship communicated the result of his application to the emigrants, who had dispersed themselves in the various public-houses in the neighbourhood of the Tower, and regretted that the means had not been placed at his disposal of doing something effectual for their relief. It was represented to his Lordship that most of them were at that moment in a starving condition, having subsisted themselves upon his Lordship's previous bounty. His Lordship said he deeply commiserated their unfortunate condition, but it would be utterly impossible for him, considering the numerous claims of charity on his private purse, to continue to maintain so many individuals; and it would be equally hard on that parish, where they were at present residing, to expect them to be at the expense of passing them to Hull, or to do more, in fact, then give them some trifling temporary relief. His Lordship then took out a £5 note from his own pocket, and directed that it should be applied to the necessities of the applicants, at the same time remarking that he trusted the benevolent portion of the public would assist them with trifling donations, which he would undertake to receive for them. The poor emigrants were loud in their grateful acknowledgements of the charitable bounty of the Lord Mayor. - We are sorry to add, that the Experiment belongs to Messrs. D. and J. Peacock, of Skeldergate, in this city, and that several of the passengers were from York an its neighbourhood. Amongst others, we have heard that there were two or three individuals out of Northstreet, and a young man name Samuel Walker of Gillygate, joiner, and his wife; Richard Goodrick, labourer of Fulford, and his wife; and John Wride, late of Barnby Moor, poulterer and carrier, and six of his children.

Hull Packet 1 May 1832 published an identical copy of the previous article, except that the end section naming the owners and passengers was omitted.