3-053-482 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The natural death of an old collier, 1873. 'A member of the Hartlepools branch of the Plimsoll and Seamen's Fund Committee, Mr. W. H. Chambers, has sent us a sketch of the first condemned collier at that port..."the Board of Trade are now beginning to see the necessity of surveying the old rotten patched-up craft that too long have carried our seamen at the risk of their lives from unseaworthiness. The Shipwright...was built on the river Tyne...by a company of shipwrights then struggling to establish their now powerful union; hence the name...After a somewhat chequered career, she has been condemned and sold by auction, with all her sails, rigging, and spars, for some £60 or £70. Her purchasers, Messrs. Sharper and Co., took her out to sea and beached her behind the pier...Their view, no doubt, was that the first breeze of wind that came on the sea would knock the old ship to pieces, and so save much labour; but the Port and Harbour Commissioners refused to allow the ship to remain on the strand, so they have been compelled to tow her off, and she now lies on the sand in the East Harbour...I...have been connected with shipping more than thirty years, yet this is the first collier I have ever seen die a natural death".' From "Illustrated London News", 1873.