THE THREE MASTED SCHOONER KATHLEEN & MAY

Kathleen and May Crossing Bideford Bar
Kathleen and May, later to become famous as the last merchant schooner registered at a home port in the United Kingdom to earn her living at sea carrying cargoes, was built at Connah’s Quay on the estuary of the Dee in North Wales. She was built as the Lizzie May for a local firm, Coppack Brothers & Co., at a cost of £2,700, say some £200,000 at mid 1990’s prices. She was of 136 tonnes gross and just under 100 feet long and she could carry about 250 tons of cargo. She was employed in the general coasting trade carrying such bulk cargoes as coal, china clay, cement, bricks, fertilisers and grain between many ports in the British Isles.

In 1908 Lizzie May was sold to Martin J. Fleming of Youghal in the Irish Republic and registered at Cork. Her name was changed to Kathleen and May. She sailed from Youghal for twenty three years.

In 1931 she was sold again to Captain William Jewell of Appledore in North Devon, who was in partnership with his son Captain Tommy Jewell. Her yards, except for the foreyard, were sent down and she was fitted with a semi-diesel engine. She sailed in the Irish trade. She also carried coal from Mersey to the south coast and she continued trading right through the war. A new engine was fitted, her hatches were enlarged and her masts poled off to give her an efficient and handsome sail plan as a motor vessel with sail assist.

The commercial success of the Kathleen and May into the 1960’s was a remarkable phenomenon. A survivor, powerfully redolent of an earlier age at sea, she was in constant employment in trades in which Captain Thomas Jewell was well established with merchants and shippers. In 1960 he retired the Kathleen & May from active service.