Stranton

The West Hartlepool Harbour and Railway Company was amalgamated with the larger North Eastern Railway Co. The terms were finalised on 1 July 1865. Between 1867 and 1870 Ralph Ward Jackson, Robinson Watson and others co-owned vessels with the Company.

Royal Navy service personnel and their ships during the First World War.

The N.E.R. tug Stranton, ashore on Middleton beach in 1913.

The following extracts are from 1913 and 1915 issues of the North Eastern Railway Magazine:

1913: Exciting scenes were witnessed at West Hartlepool on the night of May 8^th, when the Swedish barquentine Meda, bound from Vastervik with a cargo of pit-props, broke her tow rope and, drifting towards the south pier, grounded to become a total wreck. The vessel has since been dismantled and her cargo sold.

The tug-boat engaged was the Stranton, belonging to the N.E.R. Company, the crew of which made a gallant effort to throw another rope to the helpless sailing ship. Ere this could be done however, another mishap occurred. The Stranton’s twin propellors coming into contact with some obstacle were almost stripped and rendered useless. It was now the Stranton’s turn to drift and it also stranded, about 600 yards from the Middleton beach. The crews of both vessels were taken off by lifeboat, but a second visit had to be paid to the Stranton before the men could be induced to leave and then they only did so on the advice of Captain Standing, Assistant Dockmaster, who accompanied the lifeboat.

Captain J. Whales of the Stranton elected to remain on board and did so despite the danger. The Hartlepool Life-Saving Brigade took up a position on the Middleton pier and fired a rocket across the ttug-boat but happily their services were not required. The Stranton drifted further on to the beach and when the tide receded next day was left “high and dry”. It has since been refloated and at the time of writing is undergoing repairs at Newcastle.

1915: On 8 May 1913, Stranton went to the aid of a Swedish barque Meda which had broken free from her mooring ropes at Hartlepool docks and grounded where it looked like she would surely be wrecked. Whilst the Meda was drifting, the North Eastern Railway crew of the Stranton made many attempts to throw lines to the helpless crew. Then the two propellers of the Stranton struck an unknown obstacle, almost entirely stripping them and making Stranton just as useless as Meda, and she began to drift too, the would-be rescuer now in need of rescue herself. Hartlepool’s RNLI lifeboat arrived on scene and took off the crew of both the Meda and the Stranton, however not without difficulty;

A second visit had to be made to the ‘Stranton’ before the men could be induced to leave and then they only did so on the advice of Captain Standing, Assistant Dock Master, who accompanied the Lifeboat. Captain J Whales, of the Stranton, elected to remain on board and did so despite the danger. Eventually the Stranton drifted up Middleton Beach and when the tide receded was left clear out of the water, the severe damage to her propellers becoming apparent.  The Stranton was floated soon after and towed to Newcastle where she was repaired and re-entered service at West Hartlepool. 

A photograph of the N.E.R. steam tug Stranton ashore on Middleton beach in 1913.

A photograph of William Hatch which appeared in an issue of the N.E.R. Magazine in 1915.