The remarkable affair at West Hartlepool Docks

A ship got stuck going through the lock gates

On Tuesday 9th May, 1876, at ten minutes to four in the morning, a Norwegian ship called the Europa, tried to pass through West Hartlepool dock gates. She was heading towards Jackson Dock, but got stuck when half-way through.

The accident happened at high tide, when the deep water made it easiest for ships to come in and go out of the dock. When the Europa got stuck, the lock gates could not be closed to shut in the water, as they usually did. The tide would soon go out, and the water would run out of the dock.

The Europa was a Norwegian ship, from Sandjefjord, laden with timber. A powerful paddle steam tug, Conqueror, tried to haul Europa free. This did not work. Three more tugs joined the Conqueror, and they all tried in vain to tow her clear. As the tide was going out the ship had to stay where she was until the next high tide.

The worst that could have happened

If the worst had happened, there could have been two disasters. The first would be that all the ships in the dock would fall over sideways, because there wasn’t any water to hold them up. This would damage both themselves and any ship they fell onto. The second was that the sides of the dock could have caved in when the pressure of the water was not there to hold them out. This could have brought down the enormous warehouses built on the quayside.

Rumours brought a big crowd

Meanwhile, word had got around amongst the shipping community and the townspeople. The docks were rapidly emptying of water, it was said. The warehouses might come down, without the pressure of the water to hold up the dock walls.

Thousands of people flocked to the scene of the accident almost as soon as it had happened. Some of them may have realised what a disaster it could have been, but many probably came out of curiosity.

What did happen

Happily, the tide went down slowly enough, over about six hours, so that people working in the dock could prevent the ships’ damaging each other. They moved them further apart, to lessen the damage.

The sides of the dock did not fall in, so workmen at the dock took the opportunity to do some running repairs below the normal level of the water.

The dock officials did their best to avoid any accidents, but they could not prevent all of the damage. They shut the gates of the Swainson Dock, which protected the warehouses around that dock. The timber docks were also made safe.

But none of the other dock-gates could be closed. Those leading into the Coal Dock from Jackson Dock were hung so that the weight of water in the Coal Dock would have pushed them open. Hence all the vessels moored in these docks were left in a depth of about a metre of water. There were lots of ships in the dock and most of them fell over on their sides.

Although the dock officials put the ships further apart, there was some damage. About forty of the ships, which were made of wood, had their planks pulled apart as well as other damage. The ship Philo, was crushed by Her Majesty’s training ship Trincomalee, which lay next to her. The crew of the Trincomalee did their best to keep their ship in as upright a position as they could by means of mooring chains and ropes attached to mooring posts on the quayside.

Some of deck cargo was taken off Europa and she floated on the next tide. This was on Tuesday afternoon between three and four o’ clock. She was quite a heavy ship for the time, but being protected with copper underneath, escaped with relatively little damage.

The aftermath

The ship owners could have made claims against the Dock Company, for the damage to their ships. There were not as many claims made as the Dock Company feared. Those that did claim were mostly foreign owners, excepting Mr Isaac Bedlington of West Hartlepool, whose ship, the Deodar, was severely damaged. The Norwegian ship, the Familiar, was also very shaken up.

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