This record consists of a documentary reference to a shipping casualty which has been assigned to the maritime named location CARDIGAN BAY pending more information becoming available which may allow a more precise location for the loss to be assigned.

Event and Historical Information:
The CLARISSA is recorded a wooden schooner built at Aberystwyth in 1854 by John Evans. Technical and configuration specifications are given as 96gt; 81ft 4in length x 16ft 6in breadth x 10ft 4in depth; 1 deck, 2 masts, schooner rigged with a standing bowsprit, square stern, carvel built, with a woman full figurehead, wooden framework and planking; partly fastened with iron bolts; official number 3220. The vessel was owned by Thomas Jones of Aberystwyth, merchant. The vessel was on passage from London to Douglas, Isle of Man, with a cargo of bagged cement when it developed and leak. The schooner subsequently foundered off the Cardigan Bay lightship on 30 July 1886.

Sources include:
Board of Trade Wreck Return 1886 Appendix C Table 1 pg103 (869)
Larn and Larn shipwreck database 2002
Lloyds Register of British and Foreign Shipping, 1 July 1883 - 30 June 1884, number 87 in C
Port of Aberystwyth Shipping Register 1853-1855, Ceredigion Archive Service AT/SHIP 4, folio 49

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, September 2008.