Lost 1823 - Schooner
The Collector was an American schooner commanded by Captain Seth Hall, bound from Philadelphia to St Thomas in the Danish West Indies with a cargo of flour, rye flour and corn meal, together with a valuable consignment of 'India' cloth: Madras handkerchiefs, salampores, nankeens and Canton crapes.
According to the Bermuda Gazette of 31 May 1823, she struck a rock to the north-east of St George's at about eight o'clock on the evening of Monday 26 May and immediately filled with water. Her crew escaped to the shore in their own boat at about midnight, with some difficulty but without loss of life. Several Bermudian boats went out to her, and the next morning, while they were trying to tow her in, she capsized. Her masts were cut away to right her, which partly worked, and the salvors began taking out her cargo. Part of the cargo and some of her gear were brought ashore before she settled below the surface and finally drifted away with most of her cargo still on board.
The magistrates at St George's settled the salvage on 2 June, and on 3 June the goods saved - about 250 barrels of superfine flour, rye flour, corn meal and the India goods, with a new cable, anchors, sails and rigging - were auctioned on Mr Shedden's Wharf in St George's.
The loss has sometimes been placed at St George's, Grenada: a Lloyd's List report of July 1823 records the same schooner, on the same voyage and date, as wrecked 'off St. George's, Grenada'. The Bermuda Gazette's report shows that the St George's in question was Bermuda's. Berg's guide gives the same date and master but a different voyage (from Saint John, New Brunswick); the contemporary Bermuda account is followed here.
No wreck site is known. After sinking she drifted away, so where her remains came to rest was never recorded.