SHIPWRECKS & GROUNDINGS – Furnace lights mistaken by shipping

Accreditation The Redcar and Saltburn-by-the-Sea Gazette 26/08/1877

VESSELS ON REDCAR ROCKS

            Within the last few days to vessels have been on Redcar Rocks, pointing to the necessity for some additional light on this part of the course. On Saturday night (20/08), about ten o’clock the s.s. Vine from Grimsby to Hartlepool, in ballast, struck the Saltscar, a little to the West of Redcar pier, managed to get off without assistance. The following tide, after being detained about eight hours. It was said that those on board had mistaken the Warrenby furnaces for those higher up these Tees. On Tuesday (23/08), shortly before midnight, the schooner Alert, of Ipswich (H. Bailey of Suffolk owner), from London to Stockton, with old rails, struck on the rocks, east of Redcar Pier, it being about half ebb tide. A strong south-westerly gale was raging at the time.The schooner was first noticed by one of the Redcar police-officers, and on his giving the alarm three or four Redcar fishing cobles were put off to the vessel, which it was found had sustained serious damage. With the assistance of the crews of the fishing cobles, who remained on board through the night, the schooner was got off, between eight and nine o’clock on Wednesday morning (24/8), and towed to her destination, where, after discharging her cargo, she will have to undergo repairs.