The Thracian (Wreck)

 shipwreck, draw only border

THRACIAN, sailing ship. BUILT 1892, SUNK 1892
THE BAD WEATHER THAT HAD DOGGED THE ISLE OF MAN for a week grew much worse on Sunday, 14 August, 1892, writes Kendall McDonald. A south-south-west gale with heavy rain turned into a hurricane, but by 4 on Monday morning the wind had calmed to a strong breeze. At 9am a tugboat, the Sarah Joliffe of Liverpool, sought shelter in Douglas harbour and her captain Owen Jones came ashore with a sad tale of shipwreck during the night?s storm. Captain Jones had been ordered to take his steam tug to Greenock to tow a new four-masted sailing ship, the Thracian of Liverpool, to the Mersey. He had taken 10 temporary crewmen and picked up another five at Greenock. The 2154-ton, 282ft Thracian was under Captain Herbert H Brown, who was aboard with his wife. The tug and Thracian made good time from Port Glasgow until the Sunday afternoon, when they were between the Point of Ayre and Belfast Loch. A gale sprang up and, as the Thracian was in light ballast, the tug could not tow her in the mountainous seas that grew swiftly but kept her head to the seas. A lull in the wind came next but suddenly, at 11.30pm, when the two ships were three miles north of Port Erin, a huge squall struck them. The Thracian turned over and, to save the Sarah Joliffe, Captain Jones cast adrift the towing hawser. When he next saw the Thracian, she had capsized. The tug cruised around for several hours, but no survivors were found. Wreckage was seen in the water from Peel to Port Erin, but it was not until 25 August, 1897, that a local fishing boat hooked her nets on the wreck, three miles off the Calf of Man.