The Adelaide was a British ship which was wrecked in a storm on 19 December 1850, off Laxe, 32 miles west of A Coruña, Spain, carrying 17 passengers and crew, bound for the West Indies. It is recorded as "Memorial M3147" on the "Maritime Memorials" database of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. An illustration of the plan of the ship is shown as folio 90 in Hilhouse Draughts, in 1950 in the possession of Charles Hill & Sons, shipbuilders at Bristol.
Details
The ship was built in 1830 for owners James Cunningham and Henry Robley, merchants at Bristol. Her 25' 1"; height 5' 5 1/2". She had 2 decks and a raised quarter deck, 3 masts, was ship rigged, with a square stern, quarter galleries, and bust head. The masters were Thomas Brooks, later on 25 October 1836 William Dovell, after whom Thomas Brooks again 2 April 1844, at Tobago. On 28 June 1850 all shares in the ship were purchased by William Dovell, master mariner. In 1850 it was described as having a "barque rig". On 13 November 1850, 21 shares were sold to Charles Hill, merchant of Bristol.
Shipwreck
The Shipwreck was recorded in the Bristol Mirror published on 4 January 1851. During a journey from Cardiff to St Vincent in the West Indies, during the night of 19 December 1850 it was stranded during a hurricane off Laxe, 32 miles west of A Coruña, Spain. Of the 17 passengers and crew the only survivor was Captain William Dovell, the owner and master, his wife and only son aged 12 having drowned, along with 14 men.
Captain William Dovell was born in the parish of Parracombe in Devon on 30 October 1806. His wife Frances Quartly was a daughter of Henry Quartly , one of that family famous for having established during the period of the Napoleonic Wars, the breed of Devon Cattle at Great Champson and West Molland Barton, both within the parish of Molland, as tenants of the Throckmorton family. Ten years after the shipwreck he remarried to a certain Mary. The Dovell family had been tenants in Molland since at least 1701, as the following deed dated 12 May 1701 is summarised:
Later Courtenay/Paston/Throckmorton Molland deeds in Warwickshire archives show the Dovell family as resident in High Bray, West Anstey, Dolworthy in the parish of Parracombe, Martinhoe and Countisbury, all in North Devon.
