The Yorkshire "Mary Rose": The Ship "General Carleton" of Whitby: Amazon.co.uk: Stephen Baines: Books

Review

One of the most riveting parts of the account is the details about the archaeological recovery of a large collection of well-preserved sailors' clothing from the wreck, providing insights into the seamen and their links to coastal towns in northeastern England ...The book would be a useful complement to anyone interested in English maritime history, especially the coastal trade.
--Northern Mariner Vol XXI No 1 January 2011

... the General Carleton is the main focus of a recent book by Stephen Baines. This Whitby-built vessel
sank in 1785, and has been the subject of extensive archaeological excavations and research in recent years
(see review of W. Ossowski (ed.), The General Carleton Shipwreck, 1785, IJNA 38.1, 202-03). As Baines points
out, it is important in being a merchant vessel, rather than a Royal Navy ship. The artefacts it yielded to researchers were discovered in excellent condition due to their being preserved in a mixture of pine-tar (part of the ship's cargo), sand and Baltic seawater. The General Carleton, as one of the most important 18th-century shipwrecks, has been written about extensively. But Baines does not seek to go over this territory again. Instead, he uses the example of the General Carleton to tell a broader story about the lives of merchant seamen in the late-18th century. The knitting-pattern developed from a sailor's hat found on the wreck (the original is in the `Northward Ho!' exhibition and illustrated on p.61 of the catalogue), and details such as the double lives of chamber pots on board, will be sure to make this an interesting read. As he points out, although the General Carleton is now very important to archaeologists, there was nothing very special about her in her lifetime; she was similar to many other contemporary merchant vessels. But Baines has turned this to his advantage,
painting a picture of ordinary lives, using everyday objects and not a little contextual research.
JOHN McALEER
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
--International Journal of Nautical Archaeology

Product Description

The ship 'General Carleton' was built in Whitby in 1777 and sank off the coast of Poland in 1785. When she was excavated in the 1990s a wide range of artefacts were recovered many of which, due to being coated in tar from the ship's cargo, were in a remarkable state of preservation - most notably a unique collection of sailors' clothing. It is because of the picture these objects give us about life, both aboard and ashore, for 18th-century mariners from Whitby and other coastal towns in the North-East, that 'General Carleton' has been called the 'Yorkshire Mary Rose'. This book is the story of 'General Carleton', of those who built her, owned her and sailed on her in an age of war, shipwreck, privateers and press-gangs; it is the tale of an ordinary merchant ship in extraordinary times.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

This book brings alive the people who lived and worked in an 18th century coastal town. 5 May 2010

By Eleanor Clapp

Format:Paperback

The title does not really do this lovely book justice. I wanted to read the book because I have ancestors involved in merchant shipping and I didn't know much about it. This is an easy to read book, with some lovely chapters giving enough facts and a little creative guesswork to create a detailed picture of what life must have been like for the mariners, sailers and masters of the ships sailing in and out of Whitby during the 18th Century. You can find a lot of information about naval history in other books, but actually merchant shipping was vital to Britains economy and supporing its wars and this book is a great introduction to that history.

The book follows the story of the Ship 'General Carlton' which was wrecked just outside Gdansk in 1785, and due to the large quantities of tar in its cargo, the artefacts on the ship are extraordinarily well preserved. It has been possible to idenify huge numbers of personal effects. There are well preserved textiles such as jackets, socks, and hats, there are even combs with sailors' initials carved on them. Stephen Baines pulls together information from the lists of those on board ship and the items they found and the history of times to create a fascinating picture of how the merchant shipping trade operated. There are even details like pictures of the chamber pots the ships cook used when he needed more cooking pots.

There are some chapters which contain perhaps a few too many lists of names of ships owners, and ships, and sailers. However, if you are researching your family history in this area then this is very useful information. It is easily skipped through anyway.

This book would be a good read for anyone interested in social history, martime archeology, maritime history, historic costume, or Whitby and its surrounding area.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

A Fascinating Seafaring Tale 23 Aug 2010

By Claudia

This is an absolute gem of a book. It tells the story of a ship and all the people who built, owned and worked on her, and the parts of the world she sailed to. The General Carleton's story is an astonishing one, providing a remarkable insight into life aboard a trading ship in the 18th Century. When wrecked in Poland, her cargo of pine tar leaked out and perfectly preserved hundreds of items on the ship - a unique collection. The story of who owned these possessions -who they were, what they did- has been carefully pieced together into a fascinating tale of the those within the seafaring communities of Whitby and surrounding areas who were involved - from the ship owners and master mariners right down to a favourite pet dog.

At first I thought the high level of detail given about ship owners was a little more than I needed to know; but as the story unfolds it gives an amazing overview of the interwoven tangle of family and business connections there were at that time. The contemporary historical background is also given and includes interesting information about the General Carleton's involvement in the American War of Independence.

This book is peppered with amusing anecdotes and touching details that really bring to life some of the people and families involved with the ship. I would wholeheartedly recommend this great little book to anyone who is interested in people as well as ships and history - it really is fascinating.

A Ship brought back to Life 22 May 2010

By M. Holmes

If you love English Maritime History then this book about a ship lost in the dark waters of the Baltic must be read.
From a small town on the North Yorkshire coast she was built, owned & manned. We learn of the involvement with the war of Americn Independence & what happened to Captain Cook's "Endeavour". We learn of convoys, privateers, as well as whalers & the Baltic Trade. With fascinating detail from meticulous research we can read about victualling (do you know what 'swizzle' was?),impressment and redoubtable women ship owners.
Interwoven into the story are the artifacts recovered from the wreck. From the ship's musters we know the names of the mariners involved and their families are traced. From contemporary newspapers we learn of the voyages she undertook.
There are photos from the wreck site, prints from that period, sketches skillfully drawn. There is even a knitting pattern developed from a sailors hat found on the wreck. I do think this should set a new fashion and I won't tell you what the chamber pots were used for.