More information : Wreck Site and Archaeological Remains:
Divers were reported at the wreck in September 1839 and 'what they have got are mostly pieces of machinery, copper and such like.' (17)
'The wreck is totally smashed and spread over a large area of seabed consisting of rock and kelp. Timber, brass pintles and nails have been seen in depths of 8m and more. In 1986 an anchor believed to have come from the wreck was raised by divers.' (2)
'Wreckage is scattered about on the lee side of Big Harcar Rock; plates, air intake and ladder can be seen. There are strong currents in area and depths of 20m can be reached.' (4)
Foundered on the west corner of Big Harcar, 55 38.24N 001 37.15W. (5)
Charted without qualification as the FORFARSHIRE in 5m general depth. Quality of position said to be unreliable; no dimensions or orientation given; therefore virtually a casualty record. Position read off as 55 38.24N 001 37.21W at 1:10000 by WGS 84, which is located towards the north-west corner of Big Harcar. (10)
Seen to be charted without qualification as the FORFARSHIRE at approximately 55 38.24N 001 37.21W off the north-western corner of Big Harcar. (11)
22-DEC-1999: Not located. Amended to dead. (12)
22-JAN-2002: Not located. (12)
Wreck Event and Documentary Evidence:
'Known in history as the Grace Darling wreck, this paddle steamer left Hull on 05.09 at 6pm. At 4am the following day, it was discovered her starboard boiler was leaking and two furnaces were drawn. Repairs completed, the voyage was continued but by evening the wind had increased to gale force, which threw boiling water from the boilers across the stoke hold so that the firemen could not attend the fires. At 1am on 07.09 both engines stopped, the vessel then being off St. Abb's Head, and despite sails being set, she was gradually blown inshore. The ship drifted until 3.45am, when she was about to anchor under the shelter of the Inner Farne; breakers were seen dead ahead and she crashed on the rocks. She immediately broke in two, and one boat was lowered, which was swept away, the captain and his wife washed overboard. At dawn Grace and William Darling from the Longstone lighthouse rowed out to the wreck and saved 9 lives.' (1)(8)
'The most written about shipwreck in the history of the NE coast. The FORFARSHIRE was wrecked on Big Harcar, Farne Islands, on the morning of 07-SEP-1838...She was a paddle steamer, brigantine-rigged with a tall single funnel between two masts, and was the pride of the Dundee, Perth and London shipping line, plying between Hull and Dundee. She left Hull on 05.09 at 6pm carrying 63 people. While off Flamborough Head her pumps supplying water to the boilers began to fail; fearing damage, two of her fires were put out while emergency repairs were made. She carried on her journey and made Berwick Bay by 8pm the following day, by 10 she had reached St. Abb's, but the wind was storm force and the boilers were leaking, boiling water filling the bilges and flooding the stokehold, her engineer reported the engines failing. Her sails were hoisted but the wind became a northerly gale and she had to run before it for the lee of the Farnes.
'At 3am on the 7th she struck the west point of Big Harcar, with passengers still sleeping in their cabins and the sailors lowering the boats. A boat with 8 crew and 1 passenger made it through Piper Cut and was picked up by a sloop and landed at Shields. The ship had broken her paddle boxes in two and her stern quarter deck and cabins were washed overboard, along with the captain and his wife. When daylight came, the ship was seen by the lighthouse keeper and his daughter, William and Grace Darling, and the rescue began of the 9 survivors. (2)
'At 1am on 07.09 the engines stopped, the vessel being off St. Abb's Head. The captain decided to make for the Fairway and ride out the gale in the lee of the Farnes. At 3.45am the captain gave orders to drop anchor, assuming they were in the Fairway under the shelter of the Inner Farne. The order was never carried out as the Harcars were seen dead ahead, and an attempt was made to turn about, but too late. The aft portion was engulfed at once with all the first class passengers apart from 1. Some sailors lowered a boat and hoped to lay off, but were swept away. The captain and his wife were washed overboard leaving only 13 people alive, 1 woman and 2 children, 3 steerage passengers, the ship's carpenter and 6 crew.
'During the night 2 men, one a clergyman, and the 2 children died of exposure. At dawn, as the tide was ebbing, they crept down to the rocks, unaware of a double tide in 2 hours' time. Initially nobody was seen on the wreck, until at 7am a figure appeared and William and Grace Darling began their rescue of 9 people. Of the 63 people on board, 45 died and 18 were saved.' (3)
'A boat from North Sunderland arrived and found three lifeless bodies, also a fishing smack arrived and attempted to carry off a quantity of cargo. On 12.09 the wreck was taken into the possession of Mr Sinclair, agent to Lloyd's of London, and he sold the wreck to Mr Adamson, shipwright of Dundee, for £70. Medals were awarded to both Grace and her father.' (4)
'Gateshead 8th Sept. The FORFARSHIRE (s) Humble, from Hull to Dundee, is on the Great Hawker Rock, near Sunderland; part of the crew and passengers saved, and the remainder expected to be.' (6)
'The FORFARSHIRE (s) Humble, from Hull to Dundee, which was on the Great Hawker Rocks 8th [in]stant, has gone to pieces; about 38 passengers drowned; 8 men and 1 woman saved; 8 of the crew and 1 passenger had previously saved themselves in the boat.' (7)
The parish register for St. Lawrence, Warkworth, contains an entry [125/995] for the burial of "The body of a man, name unknown, supposed to belong to the steamboat FORFARSHIRE wrecked on Fern Island" on 03-OCT-1838. (9)
The earliest reports for the loss of this vessel suggested that more lives had been saved than was actually the case. (13)
Inquest on 11th September with witness reports from survivors. James Kelly, a steerage passenger, of Dundee, said that there were 'about 30 passengers in the after cabin, and about 9 in the steerage. The vessel left Hull at 6 o'clock in the evening. The weather at that time was pretty moderate, and continued so until about 3 o'clock the following afternoon. A little before 6 o'clock on the morning of Thursday, the day after they sailed, witness heard the sailors remarking that the boilers were leaking, and that the vessel was not making so much way as she ought, and that two of the fires had been put out. About 3 o'clock in the afternoon the weather became squally, and during the night the sea became very stormy and rough . . . The wind blew strong from the land - witness thinks from the north-west. Witness and others were set to the pumps during Thursday and Friday night. The vessel, he understood, was making a good deal of water. The water was in the vessel up to and upon the floor where the trimmers was [sic] stationed. The water came from the boiler. About 11 or 12 o'clock on Thursday night witness heard the sailors remark that the vessel was off Berwick; both sails were set. Some time before the vessel struck the paddles were stopped. The firemen said that the water from the boilers was so hot, and had risen so high in the vessel, that they could not put the fires out. They had the hatches off nearly the whole way to admit air, and let the steam out. A little before 4 o'clock on the Friday morning the ship struck, it was quite dark; all Thursday and during the night the weather was very thick and foggy. When the vessel struck, witness was in the cabin, and two or three minutes after he got on deck the vessel parted in two. The fore-part of the vessel struck upon the rock, and the after part from the engine was washed away. Wtiness was told there were two boats, but did not see either of them. Did not see any of the after-cabin passengers on deck after the vessel struck: they were washed away with the wreck. There were nine saved, who were on the forecastle, amongst whom were the carpenter, cook, two coal-trimmers, and a fireman. During the night, about 10 o'clock, the captain and steward were in the fore-cabin collecting the fares from the passengers. The captain and mate were on the deck during the night; they brought witness and others at the pump some porter, and encouraged them to exertion, but expressed no fear for the safety of the vessel. During the night the wind ws strong, and the tide being flowing set very strong against them from the north. The sails were up during the whole night, and were up when the vessel struck . . . after the vessel struck, witness never saw anything more of the captain and mate, or cabin passengers. It rained throughout the whole of Thursday and during the night very heavily, which witness said might account for some of the cabin passengers being on deck. There were several ladies and children in the after-cabin. Witness heard the captain and firemen say that the boilers had been repaired before they left Hull, and that they were soon to have new ones; that the committee were to have a meeting at Dundee to determine whether the vessel should be laid up till the spring, or that they were immediately to have new boilers put in . . .
'Thomas Buchanan, a steerage passenger on board the FORFARSHIRE, and who was present and hard the examination of the first witness, corroborated it in every particular.
'Daniel Donovan, of Hull . . . was shipped on board of her as fireman for the first time this last voyage . . . Before they left the Humber the boilers were discovered to be leaking very much; they were then not 20 miles from Hull. At this time the starboard boiler had all leaked out, and they were obliged to put two fires out . . . When the boiler first ran out, there was nothing said of taking the vessel back to Hull, which might have been done very easily; cannot say whether the passengers were informed the boiler was defective. In the course of Thursday night the same boiler that had leaked out would not hold again . . . There were three boilers on board, and before 12 none of them would "feed" properly. . . Witness could not tell where the vessel was at 12 o'clock, when he went below . . . before he left the Humber he would have given all he possessed to be on shore again. He considered the vessel altogether unseaworthy . . . When he felt the vessel strike upon the rock he immediately run upon deck, and was nearly washed overboard . . . Witness and the others who were saved remained on the wreck till the tide ebbed, and then got upon the rock.
'Jordan Evans, of Bamborough, Custom-house officer, being sworn and examined, said, that he had been on the rock where the wreck of the FORFARSHIRE lies. The fore part of the vessel and the paddle wheels are lying there. The engine, likewise, is all there. All the materials before the paddle-box, consisting of mast, rigging, anchors and cables, are saved. Believes that the materials saved may be worth 200l. The vessel belongs to the Hull and Dundee Steam-packet Company.
'After a long and patient investigation, the Coroner summed up the evidence, and the jury returned a verdict to the following effect: "Wrecked on board the FORFARSHIRE steam-packet by the imperfections of the boilers, and culpable negligence of the captain in not putting back to port. Deodand on the vessel 100l."
'Connected with this, the most calamitous case of shipwreck . . . is an instance of heroism and intrepidity on the part of a female unequalled, perhaps, certainly not surpassed, by any on record. I allude to the heroic conduct of Miss Grace Horsley Darling . . . By a dangerous and desperate effort, however, the father was landed on the rock, and the frail boat to prevent its being dashed in pieces was rapidly rowed back among the awful abyss of waters, and kept afloat by the skilfulness and dexterity of his noble-minded daughter . . . ' (14)
Ennumeration of recent steamship accidents, including that of the FORFARSHIRE, with a call for action: 'This circumstance also forcibly suggests the propriety, ay, the necesssity of engineers, as well as engines, being brought under the notice of Government . . Public safety has rendered it necessary that no person shall be at liberty to practise as a physician until he has undergone a rigid examination by the College of Surgeons, or some other authorized body; and now that steam navigation has become so general, public safety imperatively demands some similar security for the skilfulness of engineers.' (15)
Account of personal property, a bale of cloth, a box of soap, a mattress, a box of machinery, and 'a considerable quantity of the materials of the vessel', being picked up. Bale goods belonging to the FORFARSHIRE were seen floating off Hartlepool, and a stern boat came ashore at Middlesbrough.
The Duke of Northumberland then conducted an interview with Mr Darling and his daughter at Bamburgh Castle. (16)
Report of the Commissioners on Steam Vessel Accidents, noting that they had more minutely examined the FORFARSHIRE and NORTHERN YACHT as the most recent examples of such accidents. (18)
Examination of witnesses at Bamburgh on 11 September 1838 reiterated, and summary of investigations in Scotland, dated 1 December 1838: ' . . . wreck occasioned by the imperfect state of the boiler of the said steam boat and by the culpable conduct of the captain in not putting back to Hull when the boilers were first discovered to have leaked out . . . ' (19)
Built: 1834 (7)
Where Built: Dundee (7)
HP: 190 (7)
Boilers: 2 (7)
Propulsion: Paddle driven, 2 x 2 cylinder compound engines; auxiliary sail (7)
Master: John Humble (7)
Crew: 22 (7)
Passengers: 41 (7)
Passengers Lost: Approx. 38 (7)
Lives Lost: 45 (8)
Owner: Dundee, Perth & London SS Co. (7); Hull and Dundee Steam-packet Company (14)
Date of Loss Qualifier: Actual date of loss
Additional sources cited in Shipwreck Index of the British Isles:
Perils of the Deep, Edward N Hoare, 1885 p168-175; Bamburgh Grace Darling Museum; BSAC Wreck Index (East Coast) No 21(226); SAC Jan 1985; Great Sea Rescues Vol 2 |