Eddlethorpe - a general history

Official No. 86385: Code Letters HCVF.

Owners: 1882 CS Todd & Co, Hartlepool: 1887 Robert Hauxwell Coverdale, West Hartlepool: 1888 John Coverdale & Son, West Hartlepool

Masters: 1882-1888 Robert Boutfleur: 1888 Humphreys: 1889-91 Scholefield: 1891 T Webster.

Eddlethorpe left Sulina on 11 June 1891 with a cargo of 2,260 tons of wheat bound for Rotterdam. On 25 June, when near Ushant, the vessel struck on something unseen. She managed to be got free after a few minutes & carried on to Rotterdam. When she arrived back in Hartlepool she was put into dry dock where it was found that some of her bottom plates were bulged in & the plate on the port side forward there was a plate clean cut upwards. The inquiry held into the cause of the damage came to the conclusion that the vessel had struck on a submerged wreck.

On a voyage from Constantinople for Odessa in ballast she was in collision with the London steamer Rugby when passing Bebek near Constantinople in the Bosphorus on 19 November 1891. Eddlethorpe sunk immediately & the Rugbywas badly damaged. A steam launch belonging to the Russian Embassy happened to be in the vicinity at the time & picked up most of the crew of Eddlethorpe. Three lives lost, including the master who died soon after being picked up of injuries sustained in the collision.

Shields Daily News, Friday, June 20^th, 1891:
WEST HARTLEPOOL STEAMER SUNK. THE CAPTAIN AND SOME OF THE CREW LOST. Messrs. J. Coverdale and Sons, of West Hartlepool, received intelligence by telegram, yesterday, to the effect that their s.s. Eddlethorpe (Captain Webster), had been sunk after collision with the s.s. Rugby, in the Bosphorous, while on her passage to Odessa.
She sank in few minutes from the effects of the collision, in seven fathoms of water. Captain Webster was taken out of the water in such an exhausted state that be died almost immediately on being got on board of a Russian gunboat. The rest the crew, all of whom belong to Hartlepool, have, it is hoped, been saved.
LIST OF THE CREW. A West Hartlepool correspondent writes:—So far further details of the foundering of the s.s. Eddlethorpe have come to hand, but further information is anxiously anticipated.
The following is list of her crew:—Thomas Webster, Park Square, West Hartlepool, master: J Dixon, first mate, Hartlepool; R. Prentice, second mate, Hartlepool; W Nicholls, steward, Hartlepool; Wm. Nunnery, cook; W. Sweeney, A.B.; C. Russell, A.B.; Carl Svingard, A.B.; Olaf Vingo, A.B.; Hans Anderson, A.B.; John Dald, A.B.; Alfred Ayrton, first engineer, West Hartlepool; Thos. McGilton, second engineer; Wm. Dawson, third engineer; G. Goldsworth, donkeyman; J.P. Charner, fireman; W. Sullivan, fireman; W. Stewart, fireman; T. Atkinson, fireman; H. Haggerty, fireman; L. Clements, boy.
Constantinople. Nov. 19 —A disastrous collision, attended with loss of life, occurred this morning, between two English steamers, in the Bosphorous. One of these, the Eddlethorpe, Captain Webster, with a cargo of eleven hundred tons, was on her way from Port Said to Odessa, and, when passing Bebek, was run into by the English steamer Rugby. The former vessel sank immediately, and the Rugby was seriously damaged. The loss of life might have been more serious than was actually the case, but steam launch belonging to the Russian Embassy fortunately happened to be passing at the time, and succeeded in rescuing several men belonging to the Eddlethorpe. Three other sailors of the same vessel are missing, and Captain Webster has died of injuries received in the collision.

Lives lost November 1891:

Dawson, William, 3^rd engineer, Wolverhampton

McGilton, Thomas, 2^nd engineer, Durham St, West Hartlepool

Webster, T, master, Park Terrace, West Hartlepool

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