Ships and Mariners: 19th c Cape and Natal 12 Bell Caithness

At the Cape two children had been added to the Bell family: a daughter, Ellen Harriet, born in May 1846 and named for the child lost two years before, and a son James Colquhoun born in Cape Town on 28 December 1847. The celebrations were scarcely over when James Ramsey Caithness’s brig the Lady Leith was wrecked on Thunderbolt Reef on 27 February 1848. Her remains were sold at auction.*

In September 1847 and February 1849 Bell appears as Master of the schooner Louisa, previously one of the ships sailed by H G Caithness, the disappearing mariner husband of Pamela Halt Okes. 

May 1848 and August 1849 saw Bell commanding the brig Workington: at this stage he was taking whatever voyages were offered by the ship agent. He may even have been the W Bell listed as master of the Bucephalus on a voyage from Calcutta to Table Bay arriving on 9 March 1848.

His services rendered in 1842 weren’t entirely forgotten, though the authorities needed a push in the right direction. They received it towards the end of 1847 when the inhabitants of Port Natal petitioned the Lieutenant Governor for Bell’s reinstatement ‘in the full enjoyment of his former office and Emolument’.

The signatories, who included the Cato brothers, Richard King and other prominent citizens, expressed their ‘strong conviction of what is due by them to Captain Bell, as a worthy, faithful and meritorious Public Servant against whom … no charge of any dereliction of duty, or of any inferiority for the perfect fulfillment of the hazardous and responsible functions of his office has been preferred’. They acknowledged the ‘deep obligation’ they owed to Captain Bell ‘for the preservation of their life and liberty, while adhering to the Standard of their Queen and Country’.

These views were forwarded to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, who subsequently considered that Bell had a fair claim to employment by the Natal Government.

William Bell must have felt indebted to his corps of supporters at Port Natal. It would not be the last time that George Cato stepped into the breach on behalf of his friend. 

Sextant 19th c

*http://molegenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/06/wreck-of-lady-leith-1848.html

Wreck of the Lady Leith 1848

Eastern Province Herald 15 Apr 1848

On Saturday the 22nd Instant will be sold by Public Auction in front of the stores of Messrs Cawood Brothers All the Masts, Beams, Deck, Plank Timbers, Bowsprits, Spars, Sails, Iron Water Tanks ...Guns and Carriages complete, chain, various sizes, Ship's compass, a new Warp, Iron-work etc brought from the above wreck. Also a few cases of ... Beef, Pickled Herrings and a variety of other stores. After which will be sold the remainder of the Wreck including a quantity of workable wood, now lying above High Water Mark, together with the Anchor, Chains and all that may wash up.

W M HARRIES, Auctioneer

Port Elizabeth April 14 1848

The brig* Lady Leith was entering Algoa Bay after sailing from Waterloo Bay when a south-easterly gale forced her on to Thunderbolt Reef, 27 February 1848. Her captain was James Ramsey Caithness jnr., brother of Mary Ann Bell nee Caithness, and brother-in-law of Captain William Bell of the Conch. 

Henry George Caithness was also living at the Cape: captain of the schooner Louisa in 1839 and of the Fame in 1840, sailing between Table Bay and Algoa Bay (Port Elizabeth), and also to Mauritius, carrying colonial produce. 

Though the Lady Leith became a total wreck and her remains were auctioned off in bits, there were no lives lost.

*sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts

Information from Anita Caithness, Steve Steere and Lorna Cowan..