John Wyrill nearly shipwrecked
The following story is based upon a real life account written by John Helm Gibson. He was nearly wrecked in the same place as his father. These appeared in the Scarborough Daily Post in 1920 as part of the 'Sea Dogs' stories by Forrest Frank.
Although I was at sea for 54 years, I was never shipwrecked, but on returning from the Mediterranean on this occasion I had a very narrow escape of being so, and within almost a stone's throw of the spot where my father lost his life. At London we took all our ship's store's for another voyage to the Mediterranean, and were ordered to proceed to Shields. We actually got off the Tyne and taken to Shields pilot on board when a strong head wind sprang up, forcing us to tack on and off the land, and gradually driving us down till one night we had drifted back as far as Robin Hood's Bay. At this, Captain Husband decided to run to Scarborough and shelter there till the blow was over. The wind was coming strong from the North West and when we ran in under the Castle Hill the high land had the effect of "blanketing" us, and a flaflw of wind catching the ship aback, she was driven stern first on to the rocks. The position was a very serious one, and we would soon have been poundered to pieces, but our plight was instantly recognised by fishermen on the look out, and assistance was soon forthcoming. An anchor was taken out by the shore boats, and the ship was hauled off into deep water, leaking badly, the water getting over the top of the ballast. When daylight returned we hove up anchor and commenced to tack into the harbour, the pumps being kept going all the time. In this way we got within half a mile of the pier head, when the pump gear wore out and the pumps became choked with the ballast. The anchor was dropped, and here we rode, gradually sinking deeper and deeper the meanwhile, all available ropes were musted both on board and from the piers and ships in the harbour and knotted together, when the anchor was once more lifted and the vessel was hove in by the pier capstan just in time to save her from sinking. It was a very near go.
OTHER ARTICLES
• The early years of the Scarborough Lifeboat
• The 200 year history of scarboroughs RNLI
• William Cammish - log book of the Aurora - a Scarborough merchant ship
• Fighting the Scots in Scarborough Waters in the early 16th century. John Rushton
• The national RNLI and the Scarborough lifeboat of 1861.
• Harwood Brierleys description of Scarborough harbour at the opening of the 20th century
• The Yorkshire smuggler - the smuggling of contraband
• The need for canals in the scarborough area - discussions in the late 1700's
• What was on board a ship in the North Sea in 1520
• Shipping Ironstone down the coast by John Rushton
• The port of Scarborough in the late 15th Century
• Scarborough trawlers sunk and wrecked in the modern era
• Wreck of the Mary Stoddart - Dundalk
• Coastal erosion in the 19th Century around the North Bay and Scarborough Castle area
• The U-Boat campaign in the First World War
• Scarborough ships in the baltic - an article by John Rushton
• Scarborough shipwrecks - surviving a shipwreck
• An epic Lifeboat rescue in Robin Hoods bay and a terrible tragedy
• Hinderwells account of the first launch of the Scarborough Lifeboat in 1802
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