Hudson Technical Specification

Official No. 78419: Code Letters WVTB.

Owners: 1878 TS Hudson, Hartlepool: 1884 Hudson Shipping Co, West Hartlepool: 1895 Dampskibslak Union (Peter L Fisker) Copenhagen-renamed Anglia: 1900 D/S Anglia (A. Isachsen), Grimstad.

Masters: 1878-80 Fleetham: 1880 George R Nesbitt: 1882 W Tindall: 1883-86 Benn: 1887-88 Wandless: 1890-91 S Strickland: 1892 W Minton: 1893-95 J Hodgson: 1896-97 NL Nilsen: 1898-1900 E Erichsen: 1901 A Tellefsen.

Bound from Hamburg for Sunderland to collect a cargo of coal Anglia struck the Needle Point near Newbiggin on 9 December 1904. A lifeboat & a number of cobles rushed to assist & one, the Henry & Jane, was capsized with all but one of the eight fishermen drowned. The Newbiggin men, except for John Dent, were all related. Later in the day the crew of the Anglia were brought ashore.

Crew of Henry & Jane 1904:

Edward Armstrong aged 29, married

George Armstrong married

James Armstrong senior, 60

James Armstrong junior, 32, married

John Armstrong

John Brown Armstrong, 37, married

John Dent, 60, married

John Armstrong (survived)

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.