Captain Knaggs' Compensation - 1909

Hull Daily Mail, March 24^th, 1909:
A GOOLE STEAMER. COMPENSATION AFTER COLLISION. In the London Sheriff's Court on Monday, before Mr. Under-Sheriff Burchell and a special jury, the action Knaggs v. the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company came on for hearing, the case having been remitted from the High Court for assessment of damages. Mr. Horridge said the action was brought by Mrs. Elizabeth Knaggs and her three children in respect of the death Captain George Knaggs, the husband and father, who lost his life through the admitted negligence the defendants' servants.

On the night of October 27, 1908, Captain Knaggs, who lived at West Hartlepool, was the commander of the brigantine Enterprise, and when off Cromer his vessel was run into and sunk by the Railway Company's screw steamer Derwent. With the exception of a boy, all the crew were drowned. Captain Knaggs was in the habit of taking cargoes of coal to Gravesend and returning with chalk, and he was paid the sum of £8 per voyage, receiving in addition gratuities amounting to £1 11s 6d. He made on an average twelve voyages a year, and, roughly speaking, his income was £125 per annum. Of this sum he allowed his wife £8 per month, and she had two children dependent upon her and one son, a boy of 15, who was earning 5s 6d a week. She kept a grocer's shop, but the business did not pay.

In mitigation of damages, Mr. Miller pointed out that the plaintiff's two daughters were of marriageable age, and that the probability was that the son would not be long before he was earning his own living.
The jury assessed the damages at £910, and apportioned them as follows: The widow, £600; eldest daughter, £50; second daughter, £100; and the son, £160. They expressed a hope the boy's money would be put in trust. 

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