Hawarden

Official No. 84537: Code Letters WGMR.

Owners: 1882 TS Hudson & Co, West Hartlepool: 1885 Hudson Shipping Co Ltd, West Hartlepool: 1895 R Schneider, Memel, Germany: 1897 Memeler Dampfsch (R Schneider) Memel, Germany: 1905 Robert Thalin, Stockholm, Sweden-renamed Robert.

Masters: 1882-83 GR Nisbit: 1883-90 W Wilson: 1890 Rowe: 1891-94 T Dunstan: 1894-1904 R Schleebeoher: 1905 AB Littner.

Hartlepool Northen Daily Mail, Friday, November 4^th, 1887:
THE FIRE ON BOARD A WEST HARTLEPOOL STEAMER. LLOYD'S TELGRAM.  The Hawarden, of West Hartlepool, which arrived at Queenstown yesterday with forehold cargo on fire, has proceeded to Passage Dock and is discharging part off her cargo.

Shields Daily Gazette, Wednesday, November 16^th, 1887:
FIRES ON COTTON SHIPS. IMPORTANT INQUIRY IN LIVERPOOL.
An important inquiry, held by order of the Board of Trade was commenced in Liverpool yesterday before Mr. Raffles, stipendiary magistrate of Liverpool, and Sir Digby Murray, one of the inspectors of the Board of Trade, into the recent fire on board the West Hartlepool steamer Hawarden, now in dock in Liverpool. The captain stated that smoking was strictly prohibited upon the wharves or upon the decks or in the holds of vessels at Savannah, and inspectors were employed to enforce the prohibition. The mate, Mr. Bryan, gave further evidence on this point of a somewhat remarkable nature. He said fires on certain ships had become so common at Savannah that one night, when about forty officers of vessels were in an hotel at that place during the loading of the Hawarden, they were speculating as to whose turn it was next for a fire, and that same night a fire occurred on the Hughenden, a vessel belonging to the same line as the Hawarden. Within a few days there were fires on board the Naples, the Resolute, the Hawarden, the Hughenden, and the Dessong, the last-named being a New York liner, running between that port and Savannah. In that case there was explosion amongst the cargo, and several men were injured.—The inquiry will be resumed to-day.

Bound from Alexandria for Bristol with a cargo of cotton seed & a total crew of 21 Hawarden had a boiler explosion in the Bay of Biscay on 7 January 1894. One life lost.

Bound from Huelva for Stettin with a cargo of pyrites, 17 men & two women, all Swedish, on board Robert sank after a collision with the Gothenburg steamer Niord off the island of Hveen on 30 September 1905. Only the carpenter was picked up by the Niord. 18 lives lost.

Thomas Hudson purchased his first ship, Hudson, in 1878 and went on to found the Hudson Shipping Co. Ltd. which was registered in May 1884. The company was wound up in 1896.

Family History:

Thomas Sharp Hudson was born in 1847 at Sunderland to parents Joseph and Mary (nee Sharp). Between at least 1851 and 1871 he lived with his family at Seaton Carew. In 1871 his occupation was listed as a commercial clerk. By 1889 he was living at Victoria Terrace, Hartlepool.

He was chairman of the Seaton Carew Local Board from 1879 to 1881 and was also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Thomas travelled to the U.S.A. in 1881/82 and returned there in 1889. He died at Runnymede, Harper County, Kansas, U.S.A. on 31 January 1890 leaving a personal estate of £1,146.