''Despatch'' was a

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the latter part ...

noted for having

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...

ed near

Isle aux Morts Isle aux Morts (, ) is a small town on the Southwest Coast of the Island of Newfoundland, with a population of 559 (2021). The town is located approximately east from the Marine Atlantic Ferry Terminal in Port aux Basques along Route 470. T ...

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

, and for the subsequent heroic rescue of many of her passengers and crew. ''Despatch'' was partly owned by William Lancaster of

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207. Loca ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. On 29 May 1828 she set sail from

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. Th ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

''en route'' to

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

with eleven crew and 200 passengers, almost all of whom were Irish

emigrants Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

hoping to escape the poverty then prevailing in Ireland. The ship ran aground 10 July 1828 on a small, bare rocky island near Isle aux Morts off the south coast of

. A seventeen-year-old girl from the area,

Ann Harvey Ann Harvey (1811–1860) was a fisher and rescuer born near the small fishing community of Isle aux Morts, Newfoundland. Harvey, called the "Grace Darling of Newfoundland", is known for her bravery at the age of seventeen for rescuing, along wit ...

, along with her father, her twelve-year-old brother and a dog, rescued 160 people from the wreck between 12 and 15 July. As a result, Ann Harvey became known as the ''

Grace Darling Grace Horsley Darling (24 November 1815 – 20 October 1842) was an English lighthouse keeper's daughter. Her participation in the rescue of survivors from the shipwrecked ''Forfarshire'' in 1838 brought her national fame. The paddlesteamer ...

of Newfoundland''. The English government later awarded them a medal and a sum of money for their heroic feat. Survivors were taken to Halifax aboard HMS ''Tyne''.

References

External links

Merchant Sailing Ships of the NW of England

Northern Maritime Research
Shipwrecks of the Newfoundland and Labrador coast Maritime incidents in July 1828 Brigs Sailing ships of the United Kingdom {{ship-stub

See also

References

External links