Thomas Kent Ridler's ships including Looe and Perriton

By the late 19th century Minehead shipping was dominated by two men Thomas Kent Ridler and Henry Pulsford of very different backgrounds. Pulsford was from a seafaring family but Thomas Kent Ridler came from a family of wealthy gentlemen farmers.By 1901 he had been succeeded by his second son, also Thomas Kent, a timber merchant. Thomas Kent Ridler the younger also inherited his father’s shipping and in 1901 owned not only the schooner Perriton, built on Minehead beach in 1881 by a Watchet boat builder, but also the 48-ton Orestes and the 38-ton Looe. The oldest and luckiest was undoubtedly the Looe.