School children see their relatives drowned

This story appeared in a series of articles by Forrest Frank in 1920 in the Scarborough Daily Post - This story came from Captain John Wilson

In southerly winds what was known as the Mosquito Fleet - small coasting traders - bound south would bring up for shelter under Speeton Cliffs; but , if it came too hard and had a bit of east in it, they would up -anchor and make a run for Scarborough - dozens at a time maybe, and there was always a bit of excitement ashore and on the piers when this occurred. The vessels had kedge and rope prepared to drop to stay their way at the piers end, and cobles with six men in each were waiting to meet them and warp them in. I remember one afternoon such a rush as this occurred - we could see the little vessels coming along and the cobles meeting them from our school windows - whenn we saw one of the cobles capsize. Whichever coble it was, it was bound to contain the father or some relation of one or more of our scholars, and we were soon all out of school and rushing harboursward. Before we got there all six of the men - Cappleman, Goulder, Nightingale, Douglas, Clark and another - were drowned within sight of those assembled on the pier, for nothing could be done to save them. The Rev. Richard Felvas, Wesleyan minsiter, was near the lighthouse at the time, and he knelt down and prayed for the men as they were drowning. He subsequently raised a subscription for the dependents, and I remember going with my mother to the memorial service at Queen Street Chapel. the bodies of all but Clark were washed ashore, but his was only found after his father, Kitty Clark, had got the guns in the South Steel Battery to be fired with the object of raising it.



OTHER ARTICLES
• Harwood Brierleys description of Scarborough harbour at the opening of the 20th century
• The national RNLI and the Scarborough lifeboat of 1861.
• A sea shanty about a storm on the Scarborough coast
• The port of Scarborough in the late 15th Century
• Filey and the gales of 1860,1867,1869 AND 1880
• Shipping Ironstone down the coast by John Rushton
• Thomas Crimlisk - First of the Crimlisks
• The early years of the Scarborough Lifeboat
• The U-Boat campaign in the First World War
• Children of the fishing families in Scarborough
• Charles Dickens account of Filey and Scarborough graveyards
• The Allen and Truman Scarborough fishing families
• Primitive Methodism amongst the Scarborough Filey and Flamborough fishing communities
• Tommy Rowley - stories about loss of life at sea
• The 200 year history of scarboroughs RNLI
• Coastal erosion in the 19th Century around the North Bay and Scarborough Castle area
• Scarborough pleasure boats - the Bilsdale, Coronia and Royal Lady
• Shipbuilding at Scarborough - the wooden barques and schooners
• Watching for ships by the harbour walls in Scarborough

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