For those in peril on the sea...

Can you imagine being out at sea in that! Scary stuff. I waited for half an hour to grab a shot of Arklow Rainbow, a dry cargo boat and regular visitor to Seaham Harbour (just out of shot) feeling its way between the piers but she remained off shore, pitching and plunging in the swell with huge waves breaking over her.

Shipwrecks litter the seabed in the area we are looking at here, war ships, fishing and cargo boats of all sizes, submarines too. Ron Young's excellent two-book set "Shipwrecks of the North East Coast" makes fascinating reading about lost shipping and sadly, an horrendous loss of life on this stretch of coast.

My grandfather, a Seaham resident used to tell the story of a WW1 U Boat (unterseeboot) hailing some fishernan near Featherbed Rocks here "Where are we"? They replied "Seaham Harbour". The Captain then opened fire on the town! True? Maybe.

42 U-Boats operated between the Humber and the Tyne in WW1 and they sank at least 250 vessels. In WW2 out of 1150 U-boats, 900 were sunk in action by the Allies.

Fifty years ago in a November storm the Seaham Lifeboat 'George Elmey' was called out to rescue the crew of the fishing coble "Economy'. With the saved fishermen safely on board she was hit by a huge wave and all but one were drowned.



Go to sleep little one though you daddy's far away

He lies asleep in a watery grave

In Seaham Harbour bay my son

In Seaham Harbour bay. ©Ed Pickford mcps/prs