One of our customers came into the search room recently to enquire about the crew of the Steamer “Paris” that sunk off the Northumberland coast near Hauxley, South of Amble, on the evening of the 29th March 1901.
The archive didn’t have any records specific to the “Paris”, so we had to do some research. We started by identifying the parish that Hauxley belonged to in 1901, which was Warkworth parish. Having ascertained this, we could then search on “Reading Room” a piece of software available to use in the search room that has our collection of digital parish records. However not everything is on Reading Room and this particular record wasn’t, so we had to go to the microfilm parish records of St Lawrence church, Warkworth and look at the burial register. Sure enough there was an entry for the burials listed as “Five bodies cast up by the Lee at Hadston from the wreck of the “Paris””. They recorded the names as:
- A Thompson about 43 years old
- E Sawyers – 22 years
- R Felsed – 34 years
- Man Unknown – 37 years
- S Fergusen 22 – years
The date of burial was Aril 3rd 1901 and the ceremony was performed by Charles Baldwin.
A little more digging found a report in the Shields Daily News on the 3rd April 1901 listing:
- W Jennings, as the Able Seaman
- H Waterhouse, the Steward
- ? Bell, the Chief Engineer
- ? Tenby, 2nd Engineer
As the deaths were sudden and in suspicious or violent circumstances there needed to be an inquiry. The inquiry was reported in the newspapers and is available to view on the British Newspaper Archive (you can search for free in our search room). The Shields Daily Gazette on 3rd Aril 1901 reported the full list of the crew as obtained from a “pocket book cast up by the sea”. The list of the crew is as follows:
- W Hutton, Captain
- A Thompson, Mate
- T Bell, Chief Engineer
- ? Tenby, 2nd Engineer
- R Felsed, Boatswain
- W Jennings, Able Seaman
- Walter Smith, Able Seaman (survived)
- S Fergisen, Fireman
- E Sayers, Fireman
- H Waterhouse, Steward
As you can see the spellings differ somewhat, but eventually we found all the names of the crew recorded, albeit without the first initial of Mr Tenby, 2nd engineer.
Interestingly, Walter Smith, the only survivor of the wreck, appears on the 1901 census staying as a boarder with George Douglas a farmer at Bondicar in the Parish of Hauxley and unusually some additional information is recorded under “Profession or Occupation” recorded is “Sailor saved out of 10 men 29/3/01”. The census of 1901 was completed on the 1st April that year and, as the accident was just a few days before, the enumerator may have been sufficiently moved by the tragedy to feel the need to add the additional information.
The “Paris” was a screw steamer heading with its cargo of cement from Rochester to Leith when it struck the Bondicar rocks near Hauxley around 8 o’clock in the evening. The crew managed to get into the lifeboat but were capsized three times, each time less of the men were able to clamber back into the boat until Walter Smith was the only man left, the lifeboat eventually drifting him to shore.
All the bodies that were recovered from the “Paris” were buried at Amble East Cemetery. Perhaps you are related to one of the men, perhaps you can help us with some more information?