Stephens Family of Fowey, Shipowners

This collection comprises an assortment of ship records, handwritten notes, newspaper cuttings, photographs and postcards relating to the Stephens family of Fowey and their ships.

Administrative / biographical background
John Stephens (1832-1902) of Fowey in Cornwall acquired interests in a number of small merchant vessels, beginning in 1867. His son Edward Stephens (1864-1935), as well as other family members, took over the shipping interests he established and acquired several more sailing vessels which operated in the coasting and Newfoundland trades. They included the barquentines WATERWITCH (1871) and OCEAN SWELL (1875), and the schooners ISABELLA (1864) and LITTLE MYSTERY (1887). Ten of the fleet were lost by enemy action within a period of 12 months during the First World War. One of the survivors, the WATERWITCH, became the last square-rigger in the British coasting trade. After 1929 it became the last British vessel in which steamship officers who wished to become Trinity House pilots could obtain the necessary square-rigged qualification, a rule that was dropped in 1937. After Edward Stephens' death the WATERWITCH was sold to Estonian owners, in 1939. The last ship acquired by a member of the Stephens family was the RIGDIN, purchased in 1929 by Edward’s sister, Annie Stephens (1866-1959), but it only traded until 1931 and was broken up in 1939. The Stephens family never formed a limited company; they were simply individuals who were shareholders in and managers of sailing vessels. For more information on the Stephens family and their ships please also see the book 'Stephens of Fowey: A Portrait of a Cornish Merchant Fleet 1867-1939' by C.H. Ward-Jackson, NMM Maritime Monographs and Reports No 43, 1980, available in the Caird Library.