THE WRECK OF THE TADORNE

Northumberland can be proud of its lifeboats and their crews.The county was early to be involved in the idea of a lifeboat service. So it gave me great pleasure to read the recently published booklet about the rescue of the crew of the the Tadorne at Howick in 1913. It covers the story of the wreck and the subsequent rescue of most of the sailors  by the crew of the Boulmer lifeboat.Unfortunately five of the ship's crew did not survive.There is also an account of recent commemorations associated with the centenary of the shipwreck. It is another witness to the bravery and dedication of the folk who crew the lifeboats. In this booklet we can see photos of many  members of the lifeboat crew. In those days and for a long time after the names of the Stephenson and Stanton families were closely associated with the Boulmer lifeboat. The booklet reproduces a painting by Arthur Marsh which reminds us that the women of fishing villages also played their part in rescues-here they are shown pulling the lifeboat into the waves.

The steam trawler Tadorne (Shellduck) had been on her way to Iceland for the fishing.She had a crew of 30, presumably to  allow for shift work.She went aground on the night of 29 March 1913 and her boiler is still visible on the coast near the site of the old boathouse at Howick Haven.The sailors who died are all buried at Howick, just as you enter the churchyard.

Part of the Tadorne's Boiler

 Perhaps Ms Meakin could have given more background about Howick itself. In the parish registers there is plenty of information available about the anonymous corpses of sailors found "cast ashore" at Howick in the early nineteenth century.Their clothes are described or there may be a note to say that the corpse probably came from a particular shipwreck.This would have been helpful if there were subsequent enquiries about the victims. In those days the sailors were often buried within 24 hours of discovery. In the parish records you will also find the name of the Catholic priest who conducted the funeral service.The register states, "Buried by  Alfred Verity Young, Roman Catholic Priest, Alnwick."The burials are listed under numbers  466 to 470.

 One press account has Earl Grey sending his driver to Boulmer with news of the wreck.This is not discussed in the publication-either to refute or confirm the story. The Craster coastguard  had certainly spotted the wreck. Did they not have any method of contacting/signalling to Boulmer?

Ms Meakin states that the Craster coastguard tried to get a line to the boat to use breeches buoy to rescue the survivors. The Evening Mail of 31/03/13 says that says that four attempts were made to get a line over the boat were made. Three failed but one did succeed.The paper states that the men were: "apparently so be-numbed as to be unable to make the line fast". The Mail also states that there was a gale blowing from the south-east and a heavy swell. 

For further background I would add that the Berwick lifeboat was also out that weekend in thick fog and rescued the whole 11  crew of the Swedish barque Jacob Rouers carrying timber to Grangemouth. Newspaper accounts paint the picture of a Northumberland coastline strewn with debris such as pit props from Scandinavia .We should remember that in those days the amount of shipping lost through running aground was considerable.

All that remains of the ship is half of its boiler which is very visible from Howick Haven and other parts of the coastline. If you want to visit it you must go at the lowest possible tide.Either the half boiler has moved in the past few decades or there was another half nearer the shore. Part of the boiler appears in  an illustration on page 68 of Ian Smith's Northumbrian Coastline (1988) and it is definitely horizontal and further inshore than the present fragment.But in 1993 Alec Thompson-whose family cared for the sailors' graves was photographed with a part of the boiler which is upright.As the remaining fragment is now. I tend to think that there were two halves of the boiler and that the part inshore was removed. But I could easily be wrong.

 Themes new to me are the involvement of Countess Grey's French maid who acted as interpreter at the inquest (on the Monday following the wreck-they did things differently in those days). And I would  have appreciated more information about the letter Countess Grey is described as writing to the Archenoux family after the remarkable recovery of Pierre Archenoux's sea chest.

This is a pleasantly presented publication  in the A5 format. But one page does seem to be superfluous.It is a wholly impressionistic  and general sketch of the mood associated with a shipwreck-not this shipwreck or rescue. It is Mademoiselle not Madamoiselle and there is some inconsistency in spelling the name Stephenson. Just the sort of typos you find after going to press.

You can buy the booklet at various tourist information centres in the locality. Its price is £3.00.

THE WRECK OF THE TADORNE-Avril Meakin, published Howick Heritage Group, 2013

(Updated November 7, 2014.)
(Updated October 30, 2015 with reference to the Evening Mail newspaper account.)

And see also my post of the cutting with ref to Alec Thompson of the Howick Seahouses family which first sheltered the seamen and then tended the grave of the dead sailors for years afterwards.  Also my painting of the site is here