Hazardous haar

A recent article in The Courier highlighted the story of the ghostly apparition of Lieut Desmond Arthur, the flyer who died in a flying accident near Lunan Bay in 1913. Also revealed was his romantic link with Miss Winsome Ropner, a young member of the well-known shipping family of West Hartlepool.

An interested reader has emailed to say: “The company also had a connection with Johnshaven where one of Sir Robert Ropner’s fleet of cargo steamers came to grief in the early days of the First World War.

“On September 10 1914 the ship was bound for Archangel with a cargo of coal. The Admiralty had instructed merchant shipping to hug the coastline in order to keep close to shallow water to prevent attack by U-boats and to receive protection from coastal batteries against German surface marauding warships.

“However, what their Lordships in London had not taken into account was the onset of dense fog, or haar, making such navigation rather hazardous.

“The Hawnby, heading northwards, drove so far up the rocks that salvage was impossible and she was considered a constructive total loss. Some of her equipment was brought into Johnshaven harbour and part of her cargo was said to have been sold at prices below local supplies. The crew’s belongings were brought ashore and stacked on the quayside, guarded by Boy Scouts.

“A writer at the time commented: ‘They were sailing the way the Admiralty has laid out for them but it is an ill wind (or fog) that blaws naebody any good.’ By November, the remains of the vessel had all but disappeared and young and old were seen to be gathering coal from the foreshore.

“The Ropner shipping company came back to Tayside in the early 1950s when they ordered the cargo liner Swiftpool from the Caledon shipyard at Stannergate, Dundee.

“It was a blustery day when the 6,725ton ship was launched into the Tay. In the river over towards Newport, waiting tugs eventually got her under control and towed her across to the fitting out wharf. A sudden strong gust of wind caused a wire mooring rope to snap under the extra strain. Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident,” he recalls.