Commemorative 'coin' Rummer Glass for Schooner RANGER

Date1833

Object NameGlass

MediumGlass and metal coin

ClassificationsShipping

Dimensions15cm diameter x 24cm high

AcquisitionPurchased in 2009 with assistance from the National Fund for Acquisitions and the Friends of Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDMS077144

About MeLarge glass, rummer-type, with a three-penny glass in the stem dated 1831, probably made in Sunderland.

Engraved with portrait of schooner on one side with 'S. Ranger' underneath.

Wreath of flowers on other side with words:
'J & B. Christie
the Schooner Ranger Lost off Aberdeen
Sept. 1st 1833'

According to the Aberdeen Registers at Aberdeen City Archives, John Christie of Sunderland bought the schooner, Ranger, outright 15th February 1830.

Correspondence with Susan Enns, independent researcher and relative of John and Barbara CHRISTIE provided a transcript of a letter in her posession:

The vessel proved to be the Ranger, a schooner from Caen to Sunderland in ballast. She was riding with two anchors ahead on the North sand head. A dangerous part of the Goodwin and owing to the incessant shifting of the ballast producing a terrible rolling of the schooner, the boat could not board her but by skilful management and after surmounting many difficulties went under her stern. Such was the sense of desolation and distress that nothing could exceed the desperate situation of the vessel and nothing was left under providence, but the unshrinking firmness and skill of the boatmen to save the crew from destruction. A rope was speedily thrown from the vessel which secured the vessel to the boat, and afterward by means of a lead line, each of the crew consisting of four men and a boy, was dragged in succession through the waves. The boy cried bitterly before he was plunged into the water.
An accident of peculiar interest, deserves to be recorded hereafter. The boatmen had in vain sought a suitable juncture to board her and had repeatedly passed round the vessel. A seaman on board the schooner held up the boy in his arms, the appeal was irresistible, and the boatmen were resolved to face every danger to preserve the crew. Sept. 1st 1833.