Steam Turbine Ship Lorena

The 'Lorena' was built in Leith in 1902 for a Mr A. L. Barber from New York (known as the Ashfelt King). She was named after his Daughter, was 300ft long and weighed 1,650 tons. The 'Lorena' undertook her steam trials in August 1903 down the East coast and as her Captain came from Brightlingsea, it was arranged for her to stop in Brightlingsea for coal, before continuing down to Southampton and then to New York. On Monday 10th August 1903 on arrival in Brightlingsea, nine stokers requested shore leave and were told to return by 21.30. At the due time a local Ferryman agreed to take the crewmen back to their vessel, a small and unseaworthy boat was taken from the hard and when within 400yds of the 'Lorena' the overladen vessel foundered. Apart from the Ferryman and a stoker called Jamieson, all the rest were lost. Of all the nine men lost, eight were from Leith. They are buried in an unmarked mass grave in All Saints churchyard in Brightlingsea. Mr Barber paid for the funeral and the cost of bringing Families down to Brightlingsea for the service. The It was undertaken by the Rev: Arthur Pertwee. It was not until 2013 that a commemorative service was held for these victims, and another was held in 2023. The 'Tiles' project have undertaken to install a fitting memorial at the grave site, and the names of those lost will appear in a new tile within the church. They would like to use a sandstone plinth from Leith for the memorial, depicting the Leith coat of arms and a brief outline of the 'Lorena' disaster. We would like to contact the descendants of those Leith victims, who were John Currie, James Douglas, Alexander Smith, John Johnson, John McGregor Andrew Wilson, D. Wilson and F. McLaren. If anyone has any information please get in touch via the attached form.