The gravestone of Fritz Holgar William August Herskind in Holy Trinity Churchyard, Seaton Carew.

Buried in this grave are:

Fritz H W A Herskind, 76 of Lancaster Gate London , 11th Dec 1907

Edward Herskind, aged 2, July 7th 1877

Marie  3rd March 1939

Fritz Holgar William August Herskind

(Images and some of the detail kindly donated by his great granddaughter Nina Brammer whose paternal grandmother was Violet Herskind)

Fritz Holgar William August Herskind was born in Aarhus, Denmark on 13 August 1831 to Peter Herskind and his wife Anne Marie Margret.

On 22^nd October 1858, he married Cornelia Brammer in Aarhus and they moved to Hartlepool from their native land. Presumably Fritz had a sense of adventure and could see the potential of the quickly growing port in the mid 1800s.
The London Daily Telegraph & Courier of July 10th, 1860, records the dissolving of a partnership between Hermann Julius Schier and Fritz Holger William August Herskind, Merchants of Hartlepool.

On the 1861 census, the couple were living in Cliff Terrace on the Headland which at the time was locally known as ‘millionaire’s row’. The beautiful terrace of substantial 4 storey houses are still there today and look over the North Sea, Tees Bay and in the distance the hills of the Yorkshire Moors, an  ideal location for watching ships coming and going. In 1861, there were no children, Fritz was a coal merchant and the couple had two servants.

The Newcastle Journal of February 19th, 1862, records Fritz making a donation of £1.1s 0d to the Hartley Colliery Disaster Fund. 

In January 1868, their daughter Signe Marie was born in Hartlepool and sadly, her mother Cornelia died in October of the same year. By 1871, Fritz and his young daughter Signe (given as Marie) had moved to Bay House, Foggy Furze, a prestigious area of quite substantial villas in West Hartlepool and they had two female and one male servant. Fritz by 1871 was a shipbroker. The previous year he had become a British Subject.

In 1873, Fritz was remarried to Sophia Blackburne who had been born in Attercliffe, Sheffield to a Church of England Rector. Her father was not alive when she married, and the couple were married by Sophia’s stepbrother who was a clergyman in Chipping Sodbury in Gloucestershire. Fritz was given as a gentleman of West Hartlepool at the time.

The South Durham & Cleveland Mercury of September 29th, 1877 records Fritz making a donation of £5.5s.0d to the Mansion House Fund for the relief of sufferers from the famine in India.

The Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail of January 31st, 1879 gives notice of a Ball to be held in the Athenaeum, at 8.30pm on Friday, February 7th, in aid of funds for Hartlepools' Hospital, noting that Fritz was a member of the Ball Committee.

The 1881 census shows that Fritz and his family had moved to 137 Station Lane, Seaton Carew, West Hartlepool. Although the actual house name is not on the census, we now know it is the propery currently called Dinsdale Lodge, (2023) a large Victorian villa at the east end of the road not far from the sea. He was shown as a shipowner and in the household were Signe (May) Daisy  (who was Margaret Dagmar) aged 6, Violet (Constance Violet Sophie) aged 4 (the Morning Post of Friday, September 26th, 1879 records: Herskind – on the 21^st inst., at Seaton, Mrs. Herskind, of a daughter), and Letitia (Letitia Maria) aged 1 year. All three girls were born in Seaton to his second wife Sophia who was not there on census night. There were two visitors and seven servants in the house which indicates Fritz’ prosperity. In 1875, Sophia had given birth to their only son, Edward, in Bristol but he died in 1877 in Seaton Carew.

By 1891, the family had moved to Duchy Court, Harrogate which was a fine house close to The Stray. Fritz by then was an ‘East Indies Shipowner’ and making up the family were Sigme, Dagmar (now apparently born in Ventnor, Isle of Wight where her mother was living in 1861, rather than Seaton Carew) Constance and Beatrice (Letitia) born in Seaton. There was also a 26 year old niece. The number of women in the house seems to have necessitated a dressmaker, a sewing maid, a cook, two housemaids, a parlourmaid, a kitchen maid and a scullery maid ! As Fritz was a pianist, he had a conservatory built onto this home in which he kept two Steinway grand pianos. His daughters all played instruments and the family often gave concerts in their home.

1901 finds the family at Lancaster Gate London. Fritz was a shipowner employing sailors and his wife and four daughters were still at home along with a visiting surgeon and nurse and seven servants. The company offices at this time were in Victoria Terrace, West Hartlepool.

In 1907, Fritz Herskind died at Lancaster Gate but was brought ‘home’ to Seaton Carew for burial in Holy Trinity Churchyard. In the same grave are three of his children, Edward aged 2 in 1877  and Marie in 1939.  His estate was £15,085 .

Although not born in Hartlepool, William Phippen served for many years on the ships of local shipping company Herskind & Co.; the following information has been very kindly provided by his great grand-daughter, Janet Hiscocks:

William Phippen was born on 6 December, 1840, in Bishops Hull, a village near Taunton in Somerset, to parents William (a tailor), and Ann Phippen (nee Bear).  He was the third child in the family, having a brother, James Hewes, and a sister, Mary Ann.

William junior’s career in the Merchant Navy began on January 9^th, 1856 when, aged just fifteen, he was Indentured to “John(?) Edwards, merchant of Bristol”. His first ship was the Monarch of Bristol, owned by John Edwards. Lloyd's Register of Shipping shows that the Monarch was a brigantine of 175 tons, 56 feet long, 'sheathed in yellow metal', and had been Barnstaple in 1839. 
The Master, at the time, was J. Lever.  William was certified as 'Only Mate' (OM), on 16 April 1861, at Bristol, at the end of his indenture and after he had passed the appropriate examinations.  The rating OM meant that he was able to be engaged as Mate when there was no other Mate on board, or as Second Mate when there was a First Mate.

A document has been found of a voyage William made in 1869, as Mate of the 175 ton brig Ann Humphreys, of Whitehaven, William Pearson, Master. William joined this small sailing ship (oened by Thomas Humphreys of Whitehaven), at Newport, on May 8^th, 1869. William's wages were £5 per calendar month and he received £5 in advance on entry.  His monthly allotment was £2 10s.  The voyage was from 'Newport to Seville and/or any port or ports in Spain, Portugal or the Mediterranean and back to a port of discharge in the United Kingdom', and was 'not to exceed nine months.'  Rations for all the crew are stipulated though it states that 'substitutes may be given for any or all the above at the Master's option.'  The crew is listed with their age, place of birth, previous ship in which they served with details of date and place of discharge, date and place of joining the ship, capacity, wages and date and place of discharge.

William entered the service of Hartlepool shipowners Herskind & Co. in 1874. In 1881 he was appointed as Master of the company’s brand new ship, the Miranda, built by Pearse & Co., at Stockton-on-Tees.

In 1888 he was appointed as Master of another of the company’s new steamers, the Ursa, built in the Hartlepool shipyard of Edward Withy & Co. In 1890 he took his elder daughter aged 18½ and her younger sister aged 14½ on board Ursa for a voyage to India and back, and a diary written by my grandmother Kate (always known as Cherrie) survives.  They travelled by train from Bristol and sailed from Middlesborough on 12^th December, 1890.  The diary describes their various adventures and Cherrie's reaction to a different way of life, Sundays particularly seemed very strange.  They spent Christmas in Bombay having passed through the Suez Canal where the ship went aground.  They steamed to Calcutta and then home arriving in Gravesend on 26^th February, 1891.

Documents relating to the Ursa have been found in the PRO namely the crew agreement for a voyage starting on 16 January 1892 from Dundee to Hull arriving on 19^th April, 1892.  The crew numbered thirty-five with six being engaged as sailors.  Many of the crew had served on the Ursa previously and some on the Miranda.  The cook Henry Thompson had his wife Alice on board as stewardess and they had both served on the Ursa before.  There was a carpenter, a bos'n of lamps, four engineers, seven firemen and a messroom steward.  John Robertson, one of the Able Seamen, was discharged at Aden on 24^th February, 1892.  A visit was paid to Bombay and another Able Seaman was engaged "within the terms of the agreement" on 15^th March, 1892.  A document survives recording an agreement for a voyage from the Tay to Newcastle-on-Tyne employing only seventeen crew members (home Trade only), and largely the same personnel; likewise a voyage from Tyne to Madras with an account of thirty crew members, although the crew was deemed complete with twenty-four hands all told.  The Ursa departed on 18^th August, 1892, from South Shields and returned to Dundee on 17^th December, 1892, having called at Madras and Chittagong.

It was thought that at some point William Phippen, Master Mariner, retired from the sea, returning again in 1915 at the age of seventy five, to play his part in the First World War.  However, there is evidence, including a newspaper report altered by a family hand, that he had not retired and therefore had remained at sea during the whole of his life since his apprenticeship in 1861. He commanded another of Herskind’s steamships, the Rowena, of West Hartlepool, but on 21^st May, 1915, she was taken-over by the Admiralty and numbered H.M.T. 695. 

A list of William's war time voyages written by Kate survives.  He made a total of seven, to various ports in France and then a longer voyage calling at Malta, Mudros, Port Said, Huelva, Savannah, Galveston, Newport News, Falmouth, Rotterdam and back to Tyne.  On the sixth voyage, to Malta again, he saw an enemy submarine sink a steamer.  It then turned its attention on the Rowena and shelled her for 1½ hours dropping fifty shells around the ship.  One piece of shrapnel fell on the bridge. The Rowena was carrying two motor boats, their guns and crews of sixteen to Port Said, and Captain Phippen ordered the guns to be turned on the submarine and fired eighty shells.  The submarine gave up the chase but he could not say if it had been hit. 

The agreement and account of crew for the seventh voyage has been found at the PRO. This voyage commenced at Garston, Liverpool, on 11^th May, 1916, and had a crew of twenty-eight who came from all over the world.  According to Kate's notes they called first at Malta, then Alexandria but they must have moored offshore as there are no official stamps between the Cardiff Customs House stamp and the British Consulate stamp in Port Said.  There Joseph Cockrane was discharged due to illness viz. a whitlow; the engagement of Isa Ali was sanctioned as fireman and trimmer to replace Cockrane.  In Aden a sailor, S. Leech, was discharged due to illness.  The balance of his wages were paid to him and his discharge book and NHI card were deposited in the office of the Shipping Master at Aden.  The voyage continued to Basra in the Persian Gulf, though Kate mentions a call at Henqum, a tiny island off the coast of Iran in the Straits of Hormuz.  The Rowena seems to have spent almost two months in Basra and during that time Isa Ali was discharged due to illness and invalided to India, another sailor, Mr. J. Casey, the third Engineer and the Chief Engineer, Mr. F. Golightly, were also discharged due to sickness.

Rowena eventually left Basra on 16^th September and arrived in Karachi on 24^th September, when six new crew members were duly and correctly signed on.  At some point, it is not clear where or when, a group of "seedies" were embarked on Rowena, numbering forty-two.  “Seedies” are probably Arab seamen.  One was landed at Muscat, the rest at Aden and Robert Chatfield, in charge of two Red Cross motor boats, was landed at Basra on 26^th June, 1916.  Two more crew were signed on in Port Said in October, and they appear to be gunners of some description.  According to Kate's list the Rowena called at Algiers on 2^nd November; the First Mate and an AB were discharged at Poplar on 23^rd November, and on 2^nd December two sailors were added to the compliment for the return to West Hartlepool, their fares to be paid back to London.  On 8^th December, 1916, the remainder of the crew, including the Master were discharged in West Hartlepool receiving the balance of their wages, though there was no figure for the Master. There is a note at the end of Kate's list "Took 695 to Hartlepool and gave up command November 1916, Rowena sunk by a submarine following voyage."  William Phippen was issued with the British War Medal and the Mercantile Marine Medal on 11^th December, 1922.  He also held a certificate from the Belgian Relief Committee in recognition of the fact that he brought a cargo of grain to help feed the Belgians.