Baron of Renfrew (ship) was exempt from the high taxes on imported timber. She was built by Charles Wood, Anse du Fort, Quebec, Canada, on his own account. She followed the construction of a similar disposable ship, the barque "Columbus" built the year before. On August 23, 1825 under the command of captain Matthew Walker the ship left Quebec with a crew of 25 men and a cargo of 9000 tons timber (probably ship and cargo weight, both timber) bound for London, England. On October 21 of the same year the ship appeared in the English Channel but stranded the day after on the
English Channel land connection across the southern North Sea would have existed intermittently at later times when periods of glaciation resulted in lowering of sea levels. At the end of the last glacial period, rising sea levels finally severed the last land connection. As a busy shipping lane, the Channel experiences environmental problems following accidents involving ships with toxic cargo and oil spills. Indeed, over 40% of the UK incidents threatening pollution occur in or very near the Channel. One of the recent occurrences was the MSC "Napoli", which on 18 January 2007 was beached with nearly 1700 tonnes of dangerous cargo