History group

For the October meeting, the guest speaker was Tony Mayman, a volunteer at the RSPB reserve at Bempton. He presented an illustrated talk about shipwrecks of the east coast of Yorkshire, mainly in the Flamborough and Bridlington area.

Since 1500, there have been possibly 50,000 wrecks from the Tees to Spurn Point.

There used to be 17 lifeboat stations from Redcar to Spurn, and the fact that there are still nine active today shows that it is still a coast where danger to shipping exists. An 1866 lifeboat journal stated that collier brigs from Teeside were ‘floating coffins’.

Probably one of the two most famous wrecks on this coast was the ‘Rohilla’, a hospital ship heading for war service in October 1914 with a crew and staff of 229 on board. A gale smashed her onto rocks near Saltwick Nab (where a few remains may still be seen) and it took several lifeboats, including a motor lifeboat from Tynemouth, to rescue the 145 survivors in appalling sea conditions.

The rest of the wrecks Tony showed pictures of were from Filey to Flamborough. A few remains of the ‘Laura’ and the ‘Hawkwood’ wrecked in 1913 can still be seen near Reighton at very low tide. In 1921, submarine G3, en route for the breakers yard, broke her tow and went ashore at Buckton cliffs. She was eventually salvaged by borrowing gull egg “climmers” ropes to haul pieces broken off by explosions up the cliffs. In 1923 the ‘SS Radium’ went ashore at Staple Nook. Her 28 crew had to be saved by using a breeches buoy from the ship to the cliff. The boiler and prop shaft are still visible at low tide. Boilers are the main pieces of steam driven wrecks that survive today. Most famous of the wrecks of this coast is probably the ‘Bonhomme Richard’ captained by John Paul Jones, an American privateer. In a battle with the English ‘Serapis’, Jones’ ship was sunk after they captured and transferred their crew to the Serapis. Searches still go on for the American ship in the area of Flamborough Head.

The first time a crew were all saved by employing a breeches buoy was in 1923 when the Radium was stranded at Bempton, and lifeboat man Henry Freeman of Whitby was saved by his new cork jacket in 1861 when attending the ‘Merchant’ - the rest of his crew lost their lives, having declined to wear the new jacket.

The Plimsoll Line was invented after many ships from