Maritime record 14134 - OLIVE BRANCH: BUTT OF LEWIS, ATLANTIC

NB56NW 8011 unlocated

NLO: Butt of Lewis [name: NB 519 665].

28 August 1875, OLIVE BRANCH, 19 yrs old, of Scarborough, Lloyd's A, Red, 3yrs, 1872, last survey 2.74, wooden barque, 319 tons, 10 crew, Master F. Williams, Owner J. Risborough, Sunderland, departed Liverpool for Cronstadt carrying salt, wind WSW5, foundered off the Butt of Lewis.
Source: PP Abstracts Returns of Wrecks and Casualties on Coasts of the UK 1875 - 76 (1876 [C.1632] LXVII.191).

OLIVE BRANCH, Official No. 5,986, built Sunderland, 1856, lost through gross misconduct of the Master in persisting in the prosecution of his intended voyage when the vessel was unseaworthy. In addition he countenanced the brutal treatment to which some of the crew were subjected by the Boatswain. His certificate was cancelled. Inquiry held at Sunderland.
Table 46: Statement of Official Inquiries in the United Kingdom into the Causes of Wrecks, Casualties, and Collisions, ordered by the Board of Trade during the Year 1875-6.
Source: PP Abstracts Returns of Wrecks and Casualties on Coasts of the UK 1875 - 76 (1876 [C.1632] LXVII.191).

OLIVE BRANCH, 319 net tons, carrying salt (480 tons).List of British Sailing Ships which have been reported to the Board of Trade as having foundered between the 1st of January 1873 and the 16th of May 1880.
Source: PP Abstracts Returns of Wrecks and Casualties on Coasts of the UK 1878 - 79 (1880 [C.2519] LXVI.47).

Thurso, 31st Aug., 11.5 a.m., the OLIVE BRANCH (barq.), 318 tons, Williams, from Liverpool to Cronstadt, with salt, foundered off the Butt of Lewis, 28th Aug.: crew landed here in ship's boat.
Source: Shipping Intelligence, LL, No. 19,144, London, Wednesday September [Record received incomplete].

NMRS, MS/829/69 (no. 2571).

(Classified as wooden barque, with cargo of salt: date of loss cited as 28 August 1875). This vessel foundered 15 miles NxE of Butt of Lewis. Capt Williams. A derelict (possibly the Olive Branch) was seen drifting 15-20 miles WSW of Cape Wrath on 2 September 1875; this was expected to drift to Orkney. (Locations cited as N58 45 W6 0 and N58 30 W5 30 respectively).
I G Whittaker 1998.

The map sheet assigned to this record is arbitrary. It is unclear whether the loss occurred in the Atlantic or within the North Minch; the former appears more probable.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 7 April 2004.

REPORT DATE: 07/04/2004