Bessie Ellen
Built 1904 in Plymouth, Devon by William Kelly. Restored 2001-2003 at Ring-Andersen Yard, Denmark Appointed Traditional ship.
Certified for 36 day pax and 12 pax world wide. LOA 36.27 m (119'), LOD 25.60 m, BEAM 6.25 m, DRAFT 3.28 m, BT 94.00,                HOME

 


History


Launched in 1907, Bessie Ellen is one of the last remaining examples of the schooners and ketches of the West Country, which in the latter part of last century, and up until the 1930’s carried cargo around the coasts of the United Kingdom and Europe. These sailing ships became the livelihood to many families of the small towns and villages in the South West, such as Par and Fowey, in Cornwall, Appledore, Bideford and Braunton on the Estuaries of the Taw and Torridge in North Devon. In fact a large percentage of the community was somehow involved with sailing ships and the sea.

Bessie Ellen’s story starts in Plymouth, a large town on the south coast of England, long associated with maritime tradition and the sea.

Across the water from Plymouth lies the small village of Turnchapel with the small peninsular of Mount Batten leading off it. It was here, in Clovelly bay
that William Samuel Kelly; a shipyard owner had his premises. It was in 1904 that he commenced the building of Bessie Ellen; she was being built as a “chopping block”. This was a project to keep the shipwrights busy in the time of a slack period, meaning that Bessie Ellen took two years to complete before being ready for launching towards the end of 1906. William Kelly had built Bessie Ellen for the Newfoundland trade; with a fine clipper bow and a transom stern she had the appearance of a fast sailer.

It was in the summer of 1906 that John Chichester, a ship owner captain arrived to pick up a cargo in his little ship, the Julie. Whilst in port, he heard mention of a 150-ton ship that was being built over the water in Mount Batten which he duly went to inspect.

When John had decided on buying the ketch, the shipping firm of Clarke, Incledon and Clarke approached him, asking if he would like to go into a partnership of the vessel. John declined though he did borrow some of the capital from Harry Clarke, Harry being his brother -in-law. Bessie, John’s wife
also provided some of the funding. With his finances secure, John went back to Plymouth with his son Jack to buy the ship. During the journey on the
train, father pulled out a bag of gold sovereigns and said to his son” I don’t suppose you have seen them before, and I doubt you will ever see them
again” at which the bag went back in his pocket until his arrival at Williams yard where he laid them on the table and paid for his ship.

 

The Chichester Family		 Although finished at the end of 1906, John withheld the launching date until January 1907, an apparent gain of a year regarding her age. John’s two daughters, Ellen 13, and Bessie 11 performed the ceremony between them, Ellen naming the vessel Bessie Ellen, and Bessie breaking the wine bottle on her bow. (Today in possession of the Chichester family is the postcard of Plymouth Hoe. Dated January 3 1907 it contains the message to his wife Bessie, saying that he was sending
their children home, their part being done.)

 

Thus, after registration in Barnstaple, Bessie Ellen became the beloved ship of the Chichester family.
Adverse weather conditions slowed up the vessels first passage from Plymouth to Bideford, this being 11 days. However, her subsequent voyages
proved her a good and speedy sailer.

An accident with long standing effects befell the ship. In January 1910, Bessie Ellen hit the rock, the Morte Stone in an area of treacherous currents around Morte Point. With a badly damaged keel, the captain took her into Ilfracombe where she was found to be leaking so badly that water was coming
up the cabin companionway. With a temporary repair so she could make a trip to the Appledore shipyard, the local steamer Snowflake undertook to tow
the ship. She was out of action for over a month, her next cargo being on March 3. Even after all the repairs it was found that in some awkward berths, the ship would open up and leak. Some years later she went up to Appledore shipyard again, this time for a more permanent repair.

 

This last voyage was the deciding factor to install an auxiliary. So in 1917 a 25hp Widdop paraffin engine was installed. This engine had previously been
in the Braunton ketch Heatherbell, which had run ashore on the Irish coast. Overhauled by the Bray brothers the engine was put in at Vellator, just down from Braunton town. With a lot of rough language, the sailors came to terms with the new machine. It had to be swung to gain compression, and there
was a hot tube ignition such as was used in early car engines.

A small closed tube extended from the cylinder wall, with its open inner end inside the cylinder, when the paraffin vapour filled the cylinder for each stroke, it filled the tube as well. A big blowlamp was set to play its flame upon the outer end of the tube, to heat it throughout its length and explode the vapour in the tube, this setting off the main charge of vapour in the cylinder. When the
motor was hot, single drops of water served a drip -feed to create steam for increased efficiency. At the start of each voyage the ships boat had to be filled with water for supplying this drip- feed and the water-cooling system.

 

  At the beach Burnham-on-sea. Note reduced rig, with single pole foremast

These engines caused a lot of anxiety as although not relied upon, they were an aid in tricky situations
and due to their complexity quite often refused to start, or they would turn over, chug for a few beats
and then die. It was around this time that Bessie Ellen’s rig was reduced in height. The main topmast
came off her and a single pole main mast took the place instead, the topsail now being sent up from the
deck. All these changes made it possible to handle the ship with fewer men. This all helped in the times of
diminishing cargoes for sailing vessels, most work being handed over to the new and reliable iron steamers.
 

Jack Chichester


Jack had been sailing with his father since he was a schoolboy. Against his fathers wishes he then joined Bessie Ellen as a deckhand.
Jack could draw and write so well that his father was against young Jack taking a life at sea, wanting him instead to go to Chaloners
school at the age of 14, to develop his abilities and become an architect. Jack was determined to follow the family tradition, and make
a career at sea.
After all this, Jack did not show himself to be a keen seaman, becoming a great disappointment to his father. For a while he continued
to skipper Bessie Ellen with the cargoes being organised by his mother Bessie. Some time in the late 1920s, Jack retired and the late Captain
Johns brother undertook the position of skipper. From this time on, the skipper changed regularly, being passed on to an Appledore
man Percy Lamey. The ship still being run by Bessie who refused to sell up.

 

During the war, trade was slow and dangerous, with minefields having been laid in the Irish Sea. Bessie Ellen now found herself running cargoes to and from Ireland alongside the now diminishing fleet of North Devon Ketches. Many of these had been commandeered by the forces, and were put to use as barrage balloon platforms in the Severn Estuary. This was the downfall of many vessels, as the maintenance was severely neglected by the troops on board who had
no knowledge of how to look after a wooden vessel. Bessie Ellen escaped this service as she was deemed too small and not enough headroom below for the
men to live in comfort. With the end of the war came the end of an era for the sailing ship. The small ship owners could not compete with the new steel ships coming form our own shipyards and from across the water in Holland. Cargos were slow in being procured, and when they were found, the price gained could
not compete with the funds needed to upkeep the vessels. The age of sail was dead. Ships were abandoned where they lay up small creeks, the mud claiming and destroying these once beautiful creations.

 

Forsørget - 1971










 

Not all countries felt the need to modernize into steel ships. 
The Baltic States still kept up the traditions of wooden ships and sail.  In 1947, a Dane arrived
in Braunton with the intention of purchasing a sound wooden hull to continue in the coastal trade on the Danish coast.  Captain Christian Moller inspected the Bessie Ellen, found her to be in good order and purchased her on the spot.  He took her back to Frederikshavn in North Jutland, changing her name to Forsøget (The Attempt) Sadly; even in Denmark sail alone was not profitable enough to run a ship. Bessie Ellen went through a radical transformation, the rig greatly reduced and a large Hundested single cylinder engine installed.
 

Deck beams were cut and a much larger steel hatch was made to give ease of handling the cargo by use of machinery for unloading.
Captain Moller did very well with the ship, continuing to run scrap iron cargoes well into the 1970s, until finally the ship became to small a capacity
to be profitable.

Not long after Bessie Ellen was laid up, Ole Pietersen, who recognised the lovely lines of the ship and set about to restore her once again to a sailing ketch, inspected her.  After major timber replacement, Pietersen found that due to his age and lack of finances he could not feasibly continue with
the project. 

The ship was towed down to Svendborg and again laid up in the shipyard of J. Ring Andersen and offered up for sale.  She lay there for 20 years with
little interest shown, until in May 2000 she was purchased and given a new lease of life, 94 years after she had run off the slip of W. S. Kelly.

 


Bessie Ellen Owners

1904 - 1920

Jack Chichester
England

1920 - 1947

Bessie Chichester
England

1947 - 1974

Christian Moller
Denmark

  

1974 - 1996

Ole Pietersen
Denmark

1996 - 2001

J. Ring-Andersen
Skibsværft
Denmark

Foto:
Jørgen Ring-
Andersen
1914-2003

2001 - 

Nikki Alford
England