Matilda’s Meanders

The giant steel fisherman at Fiddlers Green, North Shields over looks the mouth of the River Tyne, across the water is the Herd Groyne Lighthouse at South Shields. Although a memorial to lost fishermen from North Shields I feel it oversees all who have been lost at sea from this great river.

It was past this point on Christmas night 1924 my great grandfather left these shores as Captain of the MV John Harrison, a coal merchant ship heading to Amsterdam. His crew had refused to set off on Christmas Eve but the delay put them head long into a North Sea storm. All were lost.

Today Matilda look us south from Warkworth to Hartlepool where we are staying the night at the Marina. My extra is of Matilda by the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Hartlepool.

We had taken the coast road through Newbiggin-on-Sea, Blyth, Seaton Sluice, Whitley Bay, North Shields and across the Tyne Bridge. It is an area rich with my ancestral past.