The Life And Times Of The Schooner “Result”



THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE SCHOONER “RESULT”



In the April edition of What’s On, I  presented an article about the old  Bristol Channel Pilot sailing cutters. In  that article I mentioned in passing a  ship named the Result which I said was  worthy of its own article. Here is that  article as summarised from Wikipedia  by Tony Hodge.


The Result is a three-masted cargo  schooner built in Carrickfergus,  Northern Ireland in 1893. She was a  working ship until 1967, and served for a short time in  the Royal Navy as a Q-ship during World War I. She  currently rests on land at the Ulster Folk and  Transport Museum and in 1996 was added to the  National Register of Historic Vessels.

Construction of the ship was commenced in 1892 in  the Paul Rodgers & Co. yard in Carrickfergus, for the  shipping company Thomas Ashburner & Co., based in  Barrow. Her overall length is 31m and her beam is  6.6m. She was launched a year later and operated by  the Ashburner company until 1909, when she was  sold for £1,100 to Capt. Henry Clarke of Braunton,  North Devon. In March 1914 a 45 bhp single-cylinder  Kromhout auxiliary engine was fitted.

In January 1917 Result was requisitioned by the Royal  Navy to act as a Q-ship (namely one to entrap Uboats)  and armed with two 12-pounder guns forward  and aft of the mainmast, a 6-pounder gun forward,  and two fixed 14-inch torpedo tubes aft. The crew of  23 were commanded by Lieutenant Philip Mack RN.

On 15 March 1917, Result was on her first patrol,  sailing off the south end of the Dogger Bank, under  the flag of the neutral Netherlands, when she spotted  the German submarine UC-45 on the surface astern  about two miles off. The UC-45 approached to 2,000  yards before opening fire. The “panic party” of five  men rowed away in a small boat, leaving the  seemingly abandoned vessel to the Germans.  However the submarine, wary of deception, closed to  no more 1,000 yards, keeping up a steady and rather  inaccurate fire. Result sustained some damage to her  sails and rigging, and eventually Mack gave the order  to attack, and the aft 12-pounder hit the submarine in  the conning tower with its first shot. The 6-pounder  also hit the submarine, but it then dived, and the 12-  pounders second shot missed. Result then headed for  the English coast, but that night encountered another  German U-boat. Result fired a torpedo, which missed,  and both vessels opened fire, to little effect, before the  submarine dived. For his actions Lt. Mack received a  mention in despatches. Other such missions followed  with a variety of subterfuges and levels of success.

After the war Result was employed transporting  Welsh slate, sailing from Portmadoc to Antwerp and  other ports, and then along the south coast of England.  For most of this time she was jointly owned by Capt.  Clarke and Capt. Tom Welch, also of Braunton, but  shortly before the outbreak of World War II sole  ownership passed to Capt. Welch. During the war she  was employed in the Bristol Channel, transporting  coal from ports in south Wales

In 1946 she was refitted with a new  120 hp engine. In 1950 she was hired  to take part in the filming of Outcast of  the Islands, directed by Carol Reed,  and starring Trevor Howard and Ralph  Richardson. She was refitted for her  part at Appledore, and filming took  place around the Scilly Isles.  Result returned to her previous trade in  January 1951 and, under the ownership  of Capt. Peter Welch, was employed up  until 1967, by which time she was the last vessel of  her type still in operation. She was at Jersey being  converted into a charter yacht when Capt. Welch died  and was laid up at Exeter before eventually being sold  by Mrs. Welch to the Ulster Folk and Transport  Museum. Result sailed to Belfast in late 1970 for some  restoration work at the Harland & Wolff shipyard. In  1979 she was transported to the museum’s site at  Cultra where she remains on display to this day.