Schooner “Jane Banks”, Further Reading

Jane Banks was a typical European working topsail schooner.

Jane Banks was a general purpose vessel built in Germany and spent most of her working life operating out of The Wirral and North Wales, later from Fowey, Cornwall.

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British Schooner background

British builders and owners have always experimented with new rigs and hulls.

Generally in the early 19 century, the favoured rig for small general traders was the brig, a two masted vessel  square sail rigged on both masts with staysails between fore and main mast, differing from a ‘ship’ which has three masts all square rigged.
This rig, the Brig (Brick in French) was well suited to open sea voyages and fairly handy.
It did though need a crew of up to 16 men.
Also, regulations required that the master hold a square rigged certificate.
Qualified men were in great demand, however most local men held no formal qualification or in later years only “fore and aft” qualifications.

A compromise was the “Jack barquentine“, more manoeuvrable and with a smaller crew of usually 10 in winter, 6 in summer so more economic.
These  “Jack barquentine” were two and later more often three masted ‘topsail schooners’  with square sails on the foremast and rigged fore and aft on the main and mizzen masts with an additional staysail between main and fore.
This rig allowed the schooner men a command.
The topsail schooners rig suited well the trades to the Mediterranean, Azores,  Newfoundland and Labrador.

The topsail schooners had developed since as early as pre 1492, resulting in the 1890s, in the evolution of the “Western Ocean Yachts“,  fine lined, fast three masted topsail schooners, strongly built with exceptional sea going characteristics.

About Jane Banks

The years 1877 and 1878 saw a spurt of building activity in Llyn and Eifionydd.

18 vessels were built at Portmadoc and Borth y Gest.

This was a transition period as the builders and owners experimented with various rigs adapted for particular trades.

The Frau Minna Peterson became one of these general purpose vessels.
She was rebuilt by Simon Jones at Portmadoc.
Her dimensions were:- 176 GRT, 102′ LOA, 24.3′ Beam and 12.6′ Max Draft.
Reg at Caernarvon.
She was owned outright (64/64ths) by Hugh Parry of Borth y Gest.
For twenty three years the vessel sailed the Atlantic Ocean, Baltic and Mediterranean with visits to Portmadoc to load slate for Germany.
Her launch, in 1878, was watched with great interest.
She was the first vessel launched sideways but unfortunately stuck during the operation.
This was considered a bad omen which proved unfounded as she was to sail for many years.

The FRAU MINNA PETERSON was named after a German slate merchant’s wife, a popular practice.
She entered a trade with origins going back to the days before Christopher Columbus when men of the Atlantic coast of Europe where already fishing off the Newfoundland and Maine coasts for cod and building ‘summer camps’.
Frau Minna Peterson proved an ideal vessel for the Western Ocean passage, beating to windward well against the prevailing winds and handy amongst the creeks and inlets of the Newfoundland and Labrador coasts.

In 1901 Frau Minna Peterson was sold to Fowey in Cornwall and renamed the Jane Banks.
From this port (which the author lived close to hence this painting,) and nearby Par.

China clay was her main cargo, often returning with coal or industrial products from the Mersey.
She was in this trade for many years.
There are some excellent photos of the vessel underway, taken during this period, in Basil Greenhill’s book Schooners and also several of her at anchor and alongside, in the National Maritime Museum collection.

Jane Banks together with her running mate ‘Waterwitch‘ were laid up on Par Beach, for sale, after the death of her owner.

Many thought that would be the end of her; not so.

The Frau Minna Peterson, later Jane Banks of Fowey, ended her days in the Baltic during World War Two as the Viir.

About The schooner Viir.

Jane Banks was sold to Estonia in 1938 and her story thereafter is uncertain however the following is information from Torsten Hagnéus, of Sweden, who kindly sent the following extract from “Estland zur See 1918-1940” (Estonia at sea 1918-1940) :-

VIIR

3-mast schooner 176 grt – 156 nrt Dims: 31.08 x 7.34 x 3.80 m Built 1878 at Portmadoc by S Jones 1878 Frau Minna Peterson H Parry, Caernarvon, GB
1901 Frau Minna Peterson R May, Caernarvon, GB
1914 August, taken as prize at Emden, DE. Use during the war not known.
1919 given back to GB Jane Banks The Shipping Controller, London, GB
1921 Jane Banks (E Stephens, Fowey, managing owner)
1928 Jane Banks T J Stephens, Fowey, GB
1938 Renamed Viir Anton Vilu, Tallinn, EE
1940 taken by Soviet troops at the occupation of Estonia VIIR Estonian State Shipping Co, Tallinn, SU
1941 October 9; fallen into German hands in Tallinn.
Use during WW2 not known.
1944 October; sailed with Estonian refugees to Sweden*
1949 deleted from Lloyd’s Register

*(All Estonian vessels which came to Sweden with refugees were given back to the Soviet Union.
The former owners were however compensated economically by the Swedish Government.)

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Sources

Immortal Sails by Henry Hughes

Porthmadog Ships by Aled Eames

The Merchant Schooners Vol I and The Merchant Schooners Vol II by Basil Greenhill

Schooners by Basil Greenhill

Maritime Wales

Sea Breezes

Torsten Hagnéus

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