BESSIE ELLEN is one of the last west country ketches from a fleet of nearly 700 vessels. She was built as a speculation (or ?chopping block?) between 1904 and 1906 to keep the shipwrights busy between other work, at the Mountbatten, Plymouth, yard of William Kelly. She was purchased off the stocks by John Chichester, a north Devon home trade captain who registered her at Barnstaple in January 1907. She was named after the owner?s two daughters, who launched her on 3 January 1907, Bessie (aged 13) breaking the wine bottle on the ketch?s bow whilst Ellen (11) named her.