The Brocklebanks of Whitehaven
Brocklebanks the Shipbuilders
Based upon a Whitehaven News article from 1970
On Tuesday the town and port of Whitehaven, through its Mayor and Corporation, paid special tribute to the oldest shipping line still in existence in the British Isles, Thomas and John Brocklebank Ltd. (now part of the great Cunard Brocklebank Company), at an official luncheon in the Civic Hall. The honour was accorded because the founder of the Brocklebank line, Captain Daniel Brocklebank, son of a Torpenhow curate, served his apprenticeship in a Whitehaven shipyard, married a Whitehaven girl, Anne Cuppage at Holy Trinity church on 7 March 1769 and took Whitehaven carpenters and seamen to Sheepscutt, New England, to start a shipyard there in 1770.
Daniel Brocklebank married Ann Cuppage at Holy Trinity chuch on the 7 March 1769, Ann was probably the daughter of Abraham & Bridget Cuppage born at Irton on 27 April 1740.
But he did not stay long in that British American Colony, for a few years later the Boston Tea Party led to open insurrection and Massachusetts was no place for an Englishman. On June 11, 1775, Captain Brocklebank arrived back in Whitehaven and over the next decade built-up the fleet of locally constructed vessels that really launched Brocklebanks on two centuries of shipping history.
By 1788 Captain Daniel had retired from the sea and started his own shipyard in Whitehaven. Five years later the yard had completed seven brigs, two full-rigged ships one snow and one cutter. In 1800 the Captain, then just 59 years of age, retired from business and died the following year at his home, No. 25 Roper Street, Whitehaven. The firm was taken over in 1801 by his two sons, and renamed Thomas and John Brocklebank.
For the two brothers it was an unsettling time. Whitehaven was still one of the most prosperous ports in Great Britain but the gradual drift towards Liverpool and London was beginning. The Napoleonic Wars were casting a gloom over world trade. Yet by 1816 the Brocklebank fleet numbered 17 and their ships had developed services to South America, Madagascar, Batavia and Calcutta, in addition t o the North American trade.
In 1818-19 Brocklebanks started taking passengers as well as cargo, a cabin passenger living with the ship’s captain was asked £40 from Whitehaven to Tobago. But 1819 also saw the first move by the company from Whitehaven when Thomas moved his headquarters to Liverpool.
John stayed in Whitehaven and for some years the firm was divided. Ships were built in Cumberland, registered in Liverpool and sailed from the Mersey, yet when Brocklebanks celebrated their 50th anniversary the mainstay of the firm was still the Whitehaven shipyard and a ropery at Bransty.
John stayed in Whitehaven and for some years the firm was divided. Ships were built in Cumberland, registered in Liverpool and sailed from the Mersey, yet when Brocklebanks celebrated their 50th anniversary the mainstay of the firm was still the Whitehaven shipyard and a ropery at Bransty.
John Brocklebank died tragically in 1831, when riding to Whitehaven, he reined his horse sharply to avoid a child, was thrown and killed outright.
Proud association
Although the links with White-haven were gradually being broken, with all cargo and sailings centred on Liverpool, most of the captains were still drawn from the town and, since it was from White-haven that all the first voyages were made, most of the crews came from Cumberland.
At the end of 1845, the key figure behind Brocklebanks’ success, Thomas Brocklebank, died at Greenlands, Holmrook, aged 72, and was buried outside the walls of Irton Church. During the 45 years he was in control, the number of ships rose from two to 50 each one an improvement on the last.
By 1846 Brocklebanks realised that steam was far superior to sail and the limitations of Whitehaven shipyard became obvious. In 1863 the firm had its first iron ship in service, built in Belfast, and two years later (August, 1865), the Whitehaven yard was closed for good.
A total of 157 vessels had been launched from this port, the majority stout ships like the Globe II., which survived the turbulent seas better than any in a career of 74 years — a tribute to the shipwrights of Cumberland.
Nev.Ramsden, November 2012
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