brig Elizabeth Jane
Brig Elizabeth Jane - launched Nova Scotia 1817 - Lost July 1854 off the coast of Yorkshire - Found Robin Hood's Bay, July 2003

Latest News 2009 - 2010

February 11th 2010

An engraving of Waltham Street Chapel, Hull, (John Cutler Ramsden's final resting place), has been added to this site; courtesy of Yorkshire CD books. Colin Hinson produces computer searchable CDrom versions of old and rare Yorkshire books. Colin has also made a link from his significant Genuki Fylingdales page to this website.

February 11th
Unfortunately only a 'snippet' view on Google Books - from:
Zeitschrift für Unternehmensgeschichte - Journal of business history - Page 156
February 10th
 Elizabeth Jane's Entry on Wrecksite and its Excellent Websites page. See also Shipwrecks UK Ltd
February 8th
 See Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory for Questions and Answers about Tides
February 6th
 
  An attempt to show tides at Newbiggin from January 1854 when the Elizabeth Jane 'went onshore' at Newbiggin, and the 15th of February when she was 'got off'. The graphs are from the WolframAlpha search engine. It is difficult to draw too many conclusions from this. Are the graphs accurate, for example; and how did the weather alter the state of the water? Might she have been floated off at the end of January?

National Meteorological Library and Archive
February 6th
 An Image of the Month page has been added.
February 4th
Discovered, an online pilotage guide for small craft at www.visitmyharbour.com.
January 31st
 A trip to Newbiggin by the Sea in Northumberland to photograph* Newbiggin Rocks under snow, and to visit the grave of the captain of a Norwegian brig lost near Newbiggin on 7th January 1854; the same day that the Elizabeth Jane 'also went on shore, at Newbiggin'. The inscription on his stone at Woodhorn Churchyard says: 'Erected in memory of Jens Christian Gustav Cock aged 26 years Master of the Brig Embla of Christiania, Norway. This vessel was wrecked near Line Burn1, on the coast of Northumberland, Jan 7th 1854. Erected by Joseph Hodgson, Lloyd's Agent at the request of Mr Emil Cock, brother of the deceased.'
1Locally this appears to be spelled 'Lyne Burn'.* Photographs are being edited. Capt. Cock's gravestone will be re-photographed, in better light, at a later date.
January 29th
 A transcription of the sloop Samuel's registration document has been added to this site. The Samuel of Grimsby rescued the crew of the Elizabeth Jane at the end of her final voyage in June 1854.
January 29th
 New information from 19th Century Newspapers Online with thanks to Serena Cant of English Heritage.

Newcastle Courant , Friday July 14, 1854 , No.9371, p3.

‘Bridlington Quay, July 9. The ELIZABETH & JANE , Archer, of and for Ipswich from Sunderland, was abandoned off the North Cheek of Robin Hood's Bay at 9pm yesterday, leaky, and pumps choked; crew were picked up by the SAMUEL of Grimsby, and landed here this morning.'

(S.G. says: This refutes my supposition that the crew were landed at Bridlington on the evening of the 8th of July 1854. )

This seems to be the primary source of Lloyd's List 's Bridlington quote, also repeated in the Hull Packet and East Riding Times lacking the time detail, and misspelling North Cheek as ‘North Creek'. (HPERT: Friday July 14, 1854, No.3628, p3)

The WolframAlpha search engine gives hours of sunrise etc., for the July 8th as follows:

begin nautical twilight | 1:03 am begin civil twilight | 2:43 am sunrise | 3:37 am sunset | 8:36 pm end civil twilight | 9:30 pm end nautical twilight | 11:07 pm end astronomical twilight | (not reached) duration of daylight | 16 hours 59 minutes

16th January
Tides for Newbiggin by the Sea on January 7th 1854, the day of the loss of the Embla and the grounding of the Elizabeth Jane, can be found on WolframAlpha search engine.
8th January
Images from this site have been re-presented using a javascript slideshow generated by VisualLightbox, and videos relevant to the story of the Elizabeth Jane have been added to this site using VideoLightbox.
1st January
 A Happy New Year to all visitors to the Elizabeth Jane website!