Morning Light (ship)
{{distinguish|USS Morning Light (1853)}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
|+ {{Infobox ship image |Ship image= |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=no |Ship country= United Kingdom |Ship flag=Image:Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg |Ship registry=*Saint John, New Brunswick |Ship name=Morning Light |Ship owner=*William and Richard Wright,
|Ship ordered= |Ship builder=William and Richard Wright, Wilmot, Nova Scotia |Ship original cost= |Ship laid down=1855 |Ship launched=1856 |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship in service= |Ship renamed= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= no |Ship country= Germany |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|German Empire|naval}} |Ship registry= |Ship owner=Jacob Fritz |Ship name= |Ship original cost= |Ship acquired=1881 |Ship in service= |Ship out of service=1889 |Ship renamed=J.W. Wendt |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship fate=wrecked and abandoned, 1889 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= |Ship tons burthen= |Ship length={{convert|265.3|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{convert|44.1|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship draught={{convert|21.1|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship hold depth= |Ship propulsion=sail |Ship sail plan= |Ship complement= |Ship armament= |Ship notes= |Ship registry=*Saint John, New Brunswick, }} |
Morning Light was a wooden sailing ship. Her size was 265.3’ by 44.1’ by 21.1’. Launched in 1856, she weighed 2377 tons. She was registered at Saint John, New Brunswick until 1867. She was made of tamarack, oak, birch and pitch pine. Her last voyage was in 1889. She was wrecked and abandoned. Her last known cargo was iron and oil.Charles A. Armour, Thomas Lackey, Sailing Ships of the Maritimes, McGraw-Hill, Ryerson Limited, 1975
History
The brothers William and Richard Wright built Morning Light of tamarack, oak, birch and pitch pine. They were a team of shipbuilders and businessmen who built an average of almost two vessels per year over the course of 16 years. Morning Light was the last one they constructed.
Slightly larger than their penultimate ship White Star, Morning Light was the largest vessel in British North America{{cite web|url=http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?id_nbr=5329 |title=Wright, William | work=Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online |publisher=Biographi.ca |date=2007-10-18 |accessdate=2013-03-15}} when she was built in 1855. The ship was launched from Wilmot, Nova Scotia in 1856. Morning Light was mostly used by merchants transporting goods between Saint John, New Brunswick, and Liverpool, England. As with many ships, she had many different owners such as Jacob Valentine Troop and William Thomson and Jacob Fritz. Jacob V. Troop was one of the most important men in the shipbuilding industry in the 1800s and he owned many vessels, which he used to run his business.
{{cite book
|author=Stanley T. Spicer
|title=The Age of Sail
|isbn=0887805396
|publisher=Formac Publishing Co.
|location=Halifax
|year=2001
}} The builder of Morning Light was unknown in Canada because from July 1855, registers did not mention the name of the builders of the vessels in New Brunswick. However, Lloyd's of London had appointed inspectors to survey vessels being built in New Brunswick in 1851.
{{cite book
|title=Saint John Ships and Their Builders
|author=Wright, E.C.
|lccn=82217661
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BHX9MwEACAAJ
|year=1976
|publisher=E. C. Wright
|location=Wolfville, Nova Scotia
}}
Morning Light remained on the Saint John register until 1867, when her registration was transferred to Liverpool, England. From there she was sold to a German company in 1881 and her name changed to J.W. Wendt. On February 21, 1889, she left Bremen, Germany for New York City carrying iron and oil. A month later she was found ashore three miles north of Barnegat, New Jersey. She had been stranded and wrecked in a gale.