Loss of the schooner Joseph F. Allen and her crew of 10 on Western Bank

Lost and never forgotten: the 10 men of the Joseph F. Allen.

The Gloucester fishing schooner Joseph F. Allen was lost on Western Bank in October 1876 with all 10 men aboard. The city's register records the date as Oct. 16, 1876. The crew's names survive in the city register and in The Fishermen's Own Book (1882).

Vessel

Joseph F. Allen, fishing schooner

When

October 1876 150th anniversary

Where

Western Bank, a fishing ground off Nova Scotia

Aboard

10 men. All were lost.

What happened

1. October 1876 The Gloucester schooner was lost on Western Bank with all 10 men aboard. No one saw her go down. The city's Lost at Sea register records the date as Oct. 16, 1876.
2. Jan. 18, 1877 A news report from Gloucester listed the J. F. Allen among nine schooners long overdue.

Those lost

• John Campbell
  Master. Lost with the vessel. Born in Nova Scotia.
• William McNare
  Crew. Lost with the vessel. Born in Nova Scotia.
• Joseph Brown
  Crew. Lost with the vessel. Born in Nova Scotia.
• James Brown
  Crew. Lost with the vessel. Born in Nova Scotia.
• Alpheus Campbell
  Crew. Lost with the vessel. Born in Nova Scotia.
• Woodbury Lewis (also written Lewis Woodbury)
  Crew. Lost with the vessel. Born in Nova Scotia.
• Angus McDonald
  Crew. Lost with the vessel. Born in Nova Scotia.
• Smith McDonald
  Crew. Lost with the vessel. Born in Nova Scotia.
• William Rogers
  Crew. Lost with the vessel. Born in Nova Scotia.
• Thomas Russell
  Crew. Lost with the vessel. Born in Nova Scotia.

Cape Ann connections

• Gloucester: Gloucester schooner in the port's 1882 loss record and the city register.

What the records leave open

• The register gives Oct. 16, 1876, but does not say what happened that day, and no one saw the schooner sink. We remember her in October, the month both records agree on.
• One man's name appears as Woodbury Lewis in an 1882 history of Gloucester's losses and as Lewis Woodbury in the city register.

Sources

• The Fishermen's Own Book, Procter Brothers, Gloucester, 1882; digitized by the Internet Archive
• Lost at Sea register (PDF dated July 29, 2010), City of Gloucester, Mass. (compiled by the Gloucester Archives Committee)
• Portland Daily Press, Jan. 19, 1877, p. 2 (Gloucester dispatch on overdue schooners), Library of Congress, Chronicling America

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Written in our own words from the sources above. Know something the records miss, or a family story about this ship? Tell us.