In the age of sail the British coast was a flourishing highway of merchant ships, and many who have traced their ancestors back to that period will have found sailors in their family tree. Although much is known and written about battle ships of the time, much less is known about the men and vessels of the merchant navy, which comprised the majority of men and shipping. Stephen Baines’ recently published book “The Yorkshire Mary Rose, the Ship General Carleton of Whitby” seeks to redress this: it tells the story of an 18^th-century merchantman, probably built by the same Whitby shipyard as Captain Cook’s Endeavour, which mainly traded with the Baltic, but she also acted as a transport ship during the American War of Independence, was threatened by John Paul Jones, suffered from the press gang, and was eventually shipwrecked in a storm off the coast of Poland in 1785. 

The ship General Carleton in a storm

What makes the ship General Carleton of international importance is that when she sank part of her cargo was in barrels of Swedish pine tar which, spilling during her wreckage, covered many items which would otherwise not have survived underwater for over 200 years, most notably clothing. Among the articles found when the ship was excavated by a team led by Dr Ossowski of the Polish Maritime Museum in the 1990s were numerous jackets, breeches, stockings, hats and other garments which together constitute what Professor Babits has called “the finest collection of well-dated 18^th-century common male’s clothing ever found”. It is because of the enormous amount of information that the artefacts from General Carleton can tell us about the life, both afloat and ashore, of the ordinary merchant seaman that she has become known as ‘The Yorkshire Mary Rose’.

A jacket recovered from the wreck of General Carleton (Picture by kind permission of the Polish Maritime Museum, Gdańsk)

This book has been described as “the story of an ordinary ship in extraordinary times”.  General Carleton was in many ways typical of all those eighteenth-century merchant vessels which made Britain rich through trading and which in times of war supported the Royal Navy as transport and victualling ships. "The Yorkshire Mary Rose" conjures up the life of ordinary merchant sailors from their first day aboard as a pre-teen apprentice with their new sea-chest and sea clothes.

A woollen hat recovered from a sea-chest in General Carleton. This hat, and some other items of clothing from the wreck, can be see at The Cook Memorial Museum in Whitby where they form part of the 2010 Special Exhibition "Northward Ho! A voyage towards the North Pole 1773". There is a knitting pattern for this iconic hat, designed by Eleanor Clapp, as an appendix in "The Yorkshire Mary Rose".  (Picture by kind permission of the Polish Maritime Museum, Gdańsk)

Every man and boy who sailed on the ship has been identified and is listed in a 'Dramatis Personae' section at the back of the book, which also gives brief biographical details (where possible). Some of the artefacts have initials on them, which has enabled their owners to be identified, for example a penknife and this comb inscribed ‘IF’ belonged to John Fraiser, one of the servants (ie apprentices), who was part of the crew of General Carleton when she sank on 27th September 1785 when he would have been about 17. Fortunately he survived to sail again on the Whitby ship Two Brothers.

                                                                                                  (Picture by kind permission of the Polish Maritime Museum, Gdańsk)

One of the main characters in the story is Nathaniel Campion, master mariner and later shipowner, who lived at Staithes, just north of Whitby, and who became a friend of James Cook when the latter was working there as a shop assistant. Nathaniel moved to Whitby (as did James Cook) where he married Margaret Holt, the daughter of another master mariner and shipowner. Campion commissioned the building of General Carleton and was her main owner; and after his death his feisty wife not only took control of her late husband's ships but also opened a bank in partnership with her eldest son Robert - probably the first recorded women banker.

Margaret Campion, owner of General Carleton, who forcefully insisted in her will that her daughters should inherit as much as her sons  

"The Yorkshire Mary Rose, the ship General Carleton of Whitby"  has 175 pages and is copiously illustrated, mainly with photographs and line drawings of the artefacts recovered from the wreck, but also with other photographs and with original etchings by the Colchester-based  artist Harvey Taylor. The book is available from Amazon.co.uk, direct from Blackthorn Press, or can be ordered from your local bookshop. The price is £14.95. Overseas purchasers can buy it from Amazon.com.

© All the pictures on this page are copyright, and may not be downloaded without permission. All of them appear in the book, though the pictures in the book are all black and white.

You may wish to look at the following lists:

The names of all the ships mentioned in "The Yorkshire Mary Rose"

The names of all the people mentioned in "The Yorkshire Mary Rose" (mainly 18th-century)

The names of all the people mentioned in "The Yorkshire Mary Rose" (modern)