GEORGE SUTTON
Place and date built: Tonnage/ Vessel type:
Cork 1866
199t; Brigantine
Home port:
Cork
Owner: Activity: Master:
George Sutton, D Whelan
Coastal trade
1866 – 82 Denis Whelan b.1820 (Dungarvan/Waterford) 1882 – 3 Robert Whelan b.1860(Cork) 1866-76 John Hefferen b.1829 (Dungarvan) 1876 – 7 Nathaniel Sutton b.1855 (Cork) 1877 – 8 Philip Gough b.1857 (Cork) 1878 – 9/83 John Foley b.1834/36 (Dungarvan)
Mate:
1880 John Veale b.1835 (Dungarvan) 1880 – 1 Robert Whelan b.1860 (Cork)
Seaman:
1869-83 Timothy Deasy b.1838/40 (Passage West) 1873 – 4 Philip Gough b.1857 (Cork) 1875-83 John Driscoll b.1840 (Kinsale) 1879 – 80 Robert Whelan b.1860 (Cork) 1883 William Whelan b.1862 (Cork)
Apprentice:
1872 – 5 Nathaniel Sutton b.1855 (Cork) 1875 – 9 Robert Whelan b.1860 (Cork)
Fate of ship:
Tragedy struck on 1 Sep. 1883, when the ship was lost in a storm off the south coast of England while returning to Cork with coal from Newcastle. Denis, Robert, William Whelan and all the crew were drowned and never found. (BT157 missed Robert’s name but BT159/7 and the 1884 Irish Calendar of Wills and Administrations Records capture his Death at Sea on 1 Sep 1883). A subsequent court case ensued after the shipping agent failed to distribute the insurance monies that he had collected to the surviving family shareholders. The shareholders won their case. The sister ships George Sutton and Margaret Sutton were iron-hulled brigantines and considered particularly fast and successful. They were built by George Robinson & Co. at the Waterside Dockyards (see Joseph Wheeler). George Sutton (b.1804, Clonakilty) retained ownership until his death in 1882 (CLIP). Denis Whelan was then listed as an owner. Captain Denis Whelan, a son-in-law of the late Captain Nathaniel Sutton (b.1794, Clonakilty), relinquished captaincy of the George Sutton in 1882 to his son Robert Whelan but was on board in 1883 for a disastrous voyage to Newcastle (see above).
Additional information:
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