The ketch 'Friendship' whose official number was 10896 and port of registry was Bridgwater, Somerset. Her date of build is stated as 1837 at Watchet. She was listed within the Mercantile Navy List for 1900 (p.507) [630] as 54 registered tons and was owned by Edwin Withers, 5, Russell Place, Bridgwater. Her International Code Signal letters were M.C.R.G.

However, the Appropriation Book applicable to official number 10896 lists the 'Friendship' of 67 registered tons and whose port of registry is Bridgwater during July 1830. Her date of Appropriation is stated as 2nd June 1855. [630]

The ketch 'Friendship' is included within a fine book by Tom Bennett entitled 'Shipwrecks for Walkers -  Volume 1'. [1062]   He states:

'With a crew of four and a cargo of coal, loaded at Penarth, the Friendship' was on a voyage across the channel to the Devon coast. Being a heavy old, buff bowed ketch, she would have not have sailed very well and her voyages would have been tedious and log, requiring ideal conditions to sail across the Bristol Channel. She stranded on the beach at Sully in unusual E.N.E. winds force 4, her crew of four all saved. The wind conditions at the time would have favoured her trip south to the DEvon coast and it is possible she was attempting to sail away from the Sully anchorage when she stranded on the beach on a dropping tide. The date was the 30th January 1902.

 in 1837. Her owners at the time of loss was E. Withers of Bridgwater. Net tonnage of 54 tons and she carried a cargo of coal intended for the village of Fremington, North Devon. Her coal cargo, however, ended up in the hearths of the local Swanbridge village instead'. . . .

The Sully Island Wreck - the photograph was uploaded by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales to the People's Collection [048] website during 2011. The text accompanying the photograph suggests 'The Wreck - Several possible identities'.

The research of the Royal Commission suggests if could be either the ketch 'Friendship', or the smack 'Robert', or a barge named 'Eliza'.

Intriguingly, the documentary losses in the vicinity also include references to a type of vessel which remains iconic nearly 90 years after the last was sold out of service; the Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter.