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An image of Skinningrove Jetty with SS Hummersea moored up for loading, with two steam cranes in attendance, either just before or just after high-tide by the water levels on the jetty wall. Even more rare is the vertical-boilered railway engine (known as ”the coffee pot”) on the left with the train of pig-iron trucks; we’ve never seen an image with these on before, or with a vertical-boilered railway engine. The pig-iron trucks were lowered from (and raised to) the works via a rope incline down Jetty Bank – a feature still visible to this day. SS Hummersea looks pristine – we wonder if this was her first trip? Her last according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission was during World War I, when it was believed she struck a mine and sank. Charles Hannaford advises us: ”My great uncle, Charles F Hannaford, was the Master of the S.S.Hummersea. The ship was lost in December 1915, probably by an enemy mine as my uncle died from his wounds in naval hospital, London on 30th December 1915 and listed as a casualty of war. As the wounds were unlikely to have been caused through the ship foundering in the bad weather and the submarine activity at the time was low, a mine is the most logical explanation.”
Many thanks to Charles Hannaford and Terry Shaw for the updates.
Seen here, the SS Northgate at Skinningrove jetty with the cranes busy at her side. The details that follow are from the ‘Tyne Built Ships List’:
Name: NORTHGATE
Type: Cargo Ship
Launched: 23/04/1925
Completed: 05/1925
Builder: R & W Hawthorn, Leslie & Co Ltd
Yard: Hebburn
Yard Number: 539
Dimensions: 425grt, 155nrt, 144.9 x 25.2 x 11.7ft
Engines: C2cyl (17 & 36 x 27ins), 77nhp
Engines by: Shields Engineering & Dry Dock Co Ltd, North Shields
Propulsion: 1 x Screw
Construction: Steel
Reg Number: 135610
History:
18/05/1925 Pease & Partners, Stockton-on-Tees
1933 Free Trade Wharf Co Ltd, Stockton-on-Tees
1938 Bristol Sand & Gravel Co Ltd (FE Peters), Bristol; renamed GARTH
26/11/1946 Sank
Comments: Specially designed for carrying pig iron & travelling under low bridges
1938: Converted to a sand dredger
26/11/1946: Fouled anchor chain of another vessel in Redcliffe Bay & sank on a voyage from Cardiff to Avonmouth
Additional details courtesy of Eric Johnson and Terry Shaw.
This photograph was taken at Beck Meetings, Dale House on the 20th December 1884 (according to its caption). Simon Chapman advises : ”It shows a train from Mr. Palmer’s Grinkle Park mine carrying workmen towards Port Mulgrave. The locomotives were ‘cab less’ to allow them to travel through the low tunnel under Ridge Lane.” The gentleman with the horse and trap has now been identified as Dawson Robinson the Loftus Ironmonger; perhaps on his regular round delivering to farms and villages in the area.
Many thanks to Simon Chapman for the update.
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