Yorkshire Almanac 2026

Unedited excerpt

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Fifteen lives were lost when … the Hull trawler Edgar Wallace foundered in the Humber last night. The crew numbered 18. The survivors are:

• W. Cameron. of Coleman Street, Hull, a spare hand, who was picked up by the steamship William Cass and taken to Goole;
• Clarence Wilcock, of Wellstead Street, Hull, who was picked up by a steamer and taken to Goole; and
• Charles Hendrick, who was picked up by a motor-boat and landed at Keadby, in Lincolnshire.

The Edgar Wallace was within sight of home when she foundered, after having steamed nearly 1,400 miles with a cargo of fish from Bear Island in the Arctic.

W. Cameron stated that it was dusk when they arrived off the Fish Dock at Hull. There were four or five other vessels abreast of the Fish Dock, and the Edgar Wallace could not get clear of them. “We grounded four times, I believe, before the ship overturned. We had dropped anchor ready for coming alongside, and then got it up again. When we dropped anchor a second time I was down in the fo’c’sle with the deckie learner. The vessel turned over on her port side, but it would be about an hour before she was completely submerged.

“The deckie learner boy and I,” continued Cameron, “were trapped in the fo’c’sle, but we managed to scramble through a port hole. The skipper shouted directions and counted the men and we got on to the whale back. The skipper, mate, and chief engineer were all forward and all went together.” Cameron added that one of the engineers afterwards clung to the wireless mast. He himself followed suit and was rescued a minute or two before the pole snapped.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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A Gaumont newsreel:

British Pathé.

The first inquest report:

An inquest was held at Hessle, near Hull, yesterday on the body of David Martin, 27, the only one recovered after the Hull trawler Edgar Wallace struck a sandbank in the Humber on January 9 and capsized, 15 lives being lost.

William Cameron, one of the three survivors, said that when they reached the Humber they were unable to get into dock because of the state of the tide. After their ship had twice grounded and got free in endeavouring to get up the river she became fast and pulled up nearly athwart of the tide with her bows heading in a north-westerly direction. The skipper was manoeuvring the engines full speed astern to clear the obstruction, and the vessel gave a sudden jump as if it had gone over a hump. There was a crash and the vessel fell over on to its beam ends. The water began to fill the forecastle, and he (Cameron) climbed through a porthole to a skylight which remained above the water, and he reached the high side of the deck. The ship was gradually covered with water and he was just above the water level when he was picked up. The ship was fully equipped with lifeboat, lifebelts, and lifebuoys, but there was no chance of making use of them because the disaster occurred so suddenly and the aft end of the ship was practically submerged immediately. All the crew were on deck before the ship was submerged.

The jury returned a verdict of “Accidental drowning.”
(Times 1935/02/14)

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Accident (27) W/G ·
• Bear Island (Norway) (1) W/G ·
• Drowning (24) W/G ·
• Fishing (7) W/G ·
• Goole (8) W/G ·
• Hessle (3) W/G ·
• Humber (21) W/G ·
• International trade (17) W/G ·
• 📌Kingston upon Hull (74) W/G ·
• Lincolnshire (15) W/G ·
• 📌Port of Hull (19) W/G ·
• Work accident (22) W/G ·

All tags.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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A Gaumont newsreel:

British Pathé.

The first inquest report:

An inquest was held at Hessle, near Hull, yesterday on the body of David Martin, 27, the only one recovered after the Hull trawler Edgar Wallace struck a sandbank in the Humber on January 9 and capsized, 15 lives being lost.

William Cameron, one of the three survivors, said that when they reached the Humber they were unable to get into dock because of the state of the tide. After their ship had twice grounded and got free in endeavouring to get up the river she became fast and pulled up nearly athwart of the tide with her bows heading in a north-westerly direction. The skipper was manoeuvring the engines full speed astern to clear the obstruction, and the vessel gave a sudden jump as if it had gone over a hump. There was a crash and the vessel fell over on to its beam ends. The water began to fill the forecastle, and he (Cameron) climbed through a porthole to a skylight which remained above the water, and he reached the high side of the deck. The ship was gradually covered with water and he was just above the water level when he was picked up. The ship was fully equipped with lifeboat, lifebelts, and lifebuoys, but there was no chance of making use of them because the disaster occurred so suddenly and the aft end of the ship was practically submerged immediately. All the crew were on deck before the ship was submerged.

The jury returned a verdict of “Accidental drowning.”
(Times 1935/02/14)

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Similar

1 July 1840: The opening of the Hull and Selby Railway terminates the threat to Hull’s port from Goole, Scarborough and Bridlington

23 January 1640: Andrew Marvell’s father drowns in the Humber at Hull

19 October 1775: Mayor Joseph Outram lays the first stone of Hull’s first dock and customs quay, dooming the town’s walls and commencing its great expansion

30 July 1798: The homeward-bound Greenland whaler Blenheim fights off a Royal Navy press gang in Hull harbour, killing two boarders

14 October 1854: During the Crimean War, Queen Victoria visits the docks at Hull, and comparisons are made with the capital of our Turkish ally

26 July 1802: Dorothy Wordsworth travels with brother William from Scarborough across the Wolds to Beverley and Hull

24 August 1921: The British-built United States Navy R.38 airship collapses, explodes, and crashes into the Humber at Hull, killing 44 of the 49 crew

26 November 1851: Exports in sterling to foreign ports for the year to date by one of Hull’s largest shippers, Brownlow, Pearson and Co.

26 April 1867: In a requiem to Hull’s whaling industry, the Diana sails into port at the end of its fateful Arctic voyage

17 August 1778: Civil engineers John Smeaton and John Wooler explain how to use the River Hull to flush the dock which has replaced the northwest section of the city walls

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Smeaton’s scheme did not prosper. John Timperley:

Various schemes had been suggested for cleansing the dock of the mud brought in by the tide; one was by making reservoirs in the fortifications or old town ditches, with the requisite sluices, by means of which the mud was to be scoured out at low water; another by cutting a canal to the Humber, from the west end of the dock, where sluices had been provided, and put down for the purpose, when it was proposed to divert the ebb tide from the river Hull along the dock, and through the sluices and canal into the Humber, and so produce a current sufficient, with a little manual assistance, to carry away the mud. Both of these schemes were however abandoned, and the plan of a horse dredging machine adopted; this work began about four years after the Old dock was completed, and continued until after the opening of the Junction dock. The machine was contained in a square and flat bottomed vessel 61 feet 6 inches long, 22 feet 6 inches wide, and drawing 4 feet water: it at first had only eleven buckets, calculated to work in 14 feet water, in which state it remained till 1814, when two buckets were added so as to work in 17 feet water, and in 1827 a further addition of four buckets was made, giving seventeen altogether, which enabled it to work in the highest spring tides. The machine was attended by three men, and worked by two horses, which did it at first with ease, but since the addition of the last four buckets, the work has been exceedingly hard.

There were generally six mud boats employed in this dock before the Humber dock was made; since which there have been only four, containing, when fully laden, about 180 tons, and usually filled in about six or seven hours; they are then taken down the old harbour and discharged in the Humber at about a hundred fathoms beyond low water mark, after which they are brought back into the dock, sometimes in three or four hours, but generally more. The mud engine has been usually employed seven or eight months in the year, commencing work in April or May.

The quantity of mud raised prior to the opening of the Junction dock, varied from 12,000 to 29,000 tons, and averaged 19,000 tons per annum; except for a few years before the rebuilding of the Old lock, when, from the bad and leaky state of the gates, a greater supply of water was required for the dock, and the average yearly quantity was about 25,000 tons. As the Junction dock, and in part also the Humber dock, are now supplied from this source, a greater quantity of water flows through the Old dock, and the mud removed has of late been about 23,000 tons a year.

It may be observed, that the greatest quantity of mud is brought into the dock during spring tides, and particularly in dry seasons, when there is not much fresh water in the Hull; in neap tides, and during freshes in the river, very little mud comes in (Timperley 1842).

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