The 1830s day trip that turned into a chaos - and a 'remarkable event'
The excursion which began with hijinks but turned into a washout. Tony Henderson reports on a day trippers never ever forgot
In keeping with Tyneside tradition, the day trippers who left North Shields were determined to have a good time on their outing to rural Northumberland.
On June 17, 1839, what was described as a “numerous party” made a decidedly early start at 5am as they boarded the North Shields-owned Queen Victoria steamer for the excursion to Warkworth.
By 11.30am the trippers were enjoying a “hearty country dance” – but the fun was not to last.
The ordeal of the revellers is revealed in one of the latest Facts of the Day – a series which is running as part of the North Shields 800th anniversary celebrations.
The task of unearthing 365 facts for daily consumption on social media, including Facebook and North Tyneside Council’s 800 website, is being undertaken by Alan Fidler, David Young and Rachel Chapman.
Alan led the Northumbria World War One Commemoration project, David is secretary of the North Shields Heritology Project, which works to involve schools in heritage learning, and Rachel is a trustee of the Old Low Light heritage centre on North Shields Fish Quay.
“We look for facts from the offbeat and light-hearted to the serious, which reveal the long and diverse history of North Shields,” said Alan.
What happened on the fateful jaunt on the Queen Victoria is revealed in the Local Records publication of “remarkable events” in the North East compiled by 19th-century chronicler Thomas Fordyce.
He tells how, with the country dance in progress, the boat struck “with great violence” the rocks at Hauxley Head off Druridge Bay.
The account says: “The effect of the shock was tremendous. Many were thrown on their faces and all was confusion. The screams and cries of the women were truly heartrending.
“One gentleman had seized a piece of timber with which to spring in the sea. A few young men were standing with their clothes unbuttoned ready to throw off ere they jumped into the deep.
“The boat by this time had nearly filled. The vessel was forced as high on the rock as she would go.”
But just as it appeared that those on board might suffer the fate of so many wrecked boats along the Northumberland coast over the years, deliverance was at hand.
“It would be superfluous to state the joy that beamed from every face when six fishing boats came in sight. The passengers were taken out and landed on the shore,” says Fordyce.
It was thought worth mentioning the attitude of one of those who had been rescued: “In speaking of the gratitude of the party to the fishermen, one creature deserves notice who had been most lusty in the expression of woe in the hour of peril.
“He demurred to give his preservers, as the others did, one shilling, observing that sixpence was plenty.”
But the trippers’ trial and tribulation was not quite at an end.
In the days before the provision of a supplementary bus service, the passengers were loaded into six carts for the long journey on rough roads back to North Shields.
The account concludes that they “reached Shields at five o’clock on the following morning in a miserable condition.”
A day to remember, for sure.