I am an avid family and local historian and have stumbled across the story of the 19 men from Tyneside who died on the pilot cutter “Protector” on December 31st 1916.
I have done a little research on these men and would like to find an image to illustrate their story.
I cannot find any picture of “Protector”, but could you let me have any image of a similar pilot cutter from around 1916?
I am happy to send you my story if you wish.
Thank you for any help you can give.
Wendy

I was very interested to read the above article. I was born in 1948 and lived at 22 Trajan street in South Shields for the first 7 years of my life, along with my grandmother Betty Brierley. I remember the Purvis family.

I am presently researching into my family History, and believe that my great, great grandfather Thomas Stewart (1837 – 1876) was a Tyne pilot. I would be very grateful if anyone could give me any information as to where I can research records of the Tyne pilot families. Thank you.

I have found a extract from the Port of tyne Pilot (13/6/1840)regarding an ancestor. Are there pages where I can browse through?

Kevin Forge
My name is Bill Purvis, i think i could help
you with Ella Smith (Purvis.Get in touch it might also help me in family history.

Kevin Forge.I might be able to help you
with Ella Smith also my cousin.
Bill Purvis

Hi
I too am researching my family tree and have been trying to find information on River Pilots for some time.I have a Robert Redhead born 1792 and in 1841 Census was recorded as a river pilot living in Wallsend. He married a Mary Hedley and they had 6 children. Can anyone point me in the right direction to find Tyne River Pilots information

Kim Purvis

William Purvis was my 2nd great uncle. I believe his wife also passed away in 1849. There is information on Williams death on Dec 4, 1849 while performing his duties as a pilot. His rescue boat was the “Providence” and 20 men died during a rescue. There is also some service information available on line

The following was posted on Rootsweb in 2000

North and South Shields Gazette
7th December 1849

Appalling Catastrophe at Harbour Mouth
Loss of twenty South Shields Pilots

It is our painful duty this week to record one of the most melancholy and
deplorable accidents, which has befallen our port for a long period of years.

Twenty of the bravest of our pilots have fallen victim to their daring
intrepidity in the cause of humanity and have been engulfed beneath the
waves, under circumstances which much touch the heart of the most obdurate.

Since last Sunday our coast has experienced a continuous succession of
violent gales, the destructive character of which the long list of disasters
and wrecks which swell our shipping intelligence too painfully testify. On
Tuesday forenoon it blew a heavy fresh of wind from the East with snow and
sleet, producing a very sharp and dangerous sea on the bar. Between 9and 10
o’clock a light brig, the ‘Betsy’ of Littlehampton, was seen making the
harbour, and shortly after was drifted by the force of the sea on a very
dangerous point of the Herd Sand. No sooner was she seen to strike than the
‘Providence’ lifeboat was launched from South Shields and with that
promptitude and alacrity, which in the hour of danger characterises our
pilots, was instantly manned with a crew of twenty four lion hearted fellows.
In a few minutes she was alongside the brig.

A rope was thrown to her and made fast. A part of her crew were preparing to
mount the vessels side to rescue the endangered mariners, when in a moment
she was seen to heel suddenly round, mount upon the crest of an enormous
wave, tilt over and bury her crew in the turbid waters. Three by almost a
miracle gained her upturned bottom, and fastening themselves upon her
upturned keel, where they waved their hands in anguish towards the shore for
assistance. A fourth snatched a rope, which had been thrown from the brig and
was hauled to safety on her deck. The remaining twenty, after a short time
vainly struggling and contending with the waves, sank exhausted and “insight
of land and friends who thronged to save”, were swallowed up by the
remorseless deep.

Scarce was the fearful experience discovered from the shore by the friends
and relatives of the sufferers than general rush was made to the lifeboat
house where the other boat was launched. In a moment she was upon the waters
and impelled by all the might of a powerful crew toward the scene of
disaster, but little time elapsed till she returned and there ensued one of
the most harrowing scenes which it has ever been our painful lot to witness,
one which God and his mercy grant may never again meet our eyes.

No sooner had the boat touched the beach bearing with it the three surviving
men whom it had rescued, than a wild and tumultuous mass thronged around her,
mother seeking for their sons, sisters for their brothers, children for their
fathers, and wives rushing up to their waists in the waters, frantically
shouting out the names of their husbands and in a wild frenzy of passion
tearing out their hair and rending their clothes when they found that they
were not. It was truly a scene which might well appeal to the stoutest of
hearts and melt to tears the most callous and indifferent. Many a manly
fellow was seen averting his face that he might conceal the emotion he could
not restrain, and the stifled sobs and wailing cry which burst from the
congregated women, plainly evidenced the depth and intensity of their grief.

With the return of the boat all hope of rescuing the remaining twenty had
vanished from the hearts of the more reflecting, but a wild belief having
being expressed that it was possible, some poor fellow might have secured
himself beneath the capsized but still floating boat, and thus preserve
himself alive for some time. The gallant fellows with the stout hearted pilot
master, Mr. Pearson, at their head instantly put off again and pulled a
second time to the scene of the disaster, where they were soon joined by the
‘Northumberland’, the North Shields boat, which an accident until then had
unfortunately prevented from assisting.

Few spectacles have been witnessed more truly sublime than was afforded by
the progress of those two noble boats on their forlorn mission of mercy. The
whole ocean was white with foam, breaker after breaker burst over their sides
as they dashed along on their perilous course. For long the object of their
search was undiscernable. The quick Keen eye of the pilots who stood on the
banks aided by their glasses, swept the shore, but no trace of the ill fated
providence was to be seen.

All hope was nearly abandoned when the men in the boats were seen to rise up,
bend eagerly foreword then in a moment settling down to their oars, dash
furiously to the Southward, and in a few minutes the cry was heard, ‘They
have her’. Scarcely had the cry been uttered than there were hundreds
standing on the sea banks watching the boats streaming towards the shore. By
good fortune it was our lot to reach the point where the boat was beached
amongst the first, and certainly for it’s wild grandeur and thrilling
excitement, the scene was one never to be effaced from the memory.

Above our heads the startled sea fowl were whirling in wild gyration,
screeching and screaming as if they had been the spirits of the storm. Below
the waves instead of rolling in their regular succession, which ordinarily
gives to them grace and beauty, were madly tossing and tumbling as if engaged
infurious sport, while around were hundreds of anxious countenances eagerly
directed toward the upturned boat, reluctant to relinquish a delusive hope
condemned though it was, by general judgement.

The work of righting the stranded boat proved one of great danger and
difficulty. The great weight of the boar and the immense force of suction
which held her to the sand, rendered abortive the repeated attempts of the
crews of the lifeboats to bring her up on keel. Seeing their exertions
useless, the South Shields crew ran their boat on to the sand and a part of
them, leaping fearlessly, many of them up to their shins, proceeded to attach
a stout rope to the side of the ‘Providence’. Scarce was this done than a
number of the spectators of all classes rushed in, and though up to the
middle in water and in the midst of a heavy sea, began to pull vigorously at
the line. Five times the rope snapped, and many of them were laid prostrate
on their faces. Nothing daunted they continued their exertions, and being
well supplied with auxiliaries from the shore, the at last righted her.

An instant run was then made for the boat, but alas, the objects of their
solicitude were not there. Not a trace was left of them but parts of a
woollen scarf which one of the ill fated crew must have stripped from his
neck, and firmly attached to a seat, binding probably the other end to his
arm, but the brittle threads had separated and he had been washed away to his
terrible doom, leaving this, the only sad and afflicting memorial to his
fate. The last hope, so long fondly clung to, now gone. The assembled crowds
began to wend their way slowly and sadly towards the town, spreading a deep
and general gloom as they communicated their melancholy intelligence. The
tide being a strong ebb, and being mixed with a great deal of fresh, little
hopes were indulged that the bodies would be easily recovered. However some
two hours after, the body of Launcelot Burn, a fine stalwart man, the
steersman of the unfortunate boat, was picked up near the rocks.

An inquest was held on the body on Wednesday and particulars of which will be
found below. Subjoined we append a list of the unfortunate sufferers with
such particulars as we have been able to gather.

Launcelot Burn, has left a widow and two children.
John Burn, has left a widow and four children.
John Burn Junr., unmarried
John Bone, has left a widow and five children.
William Smith, has left a widow and three children.
John Marshall, has left a widow and three children.
John Donkin, married no children.
Robert Donkin, has left a widow and two children.
William Purvis, has left a widow and five children.
James Joseph Wright, has left a widow and eight children.
John Wright, unmarried.
Ralph Phillips, has left a widow and one child.
John Phillips, unmarried.
Ralph Shotton, has left a widow and four children.
George Tinmouth, has left a widow and two children.
George Tindall, has left a widow and one child.
Henry Young, married no children.
James Young, married no children.
James Matson, married no children.
Robert Donkin, left a widow and two children.

Those who were saved were John Milburn, John Harrison, George Ayre, who were
taken off the boat’s bottom and George Marshall, who was by a rope from the
brig, and brought in with the brig’s crew by the ‘Northumberland’ lifeboat.

It will be seen by the above list that seventeen houses have lost their main
prop and stay by this most awful catastrophe, and no less than forty six
children are left fatherless. Perhaps never was there a case where there
existed stronger claims upon the sympathies of the benevolent and
philanthropic than the present one. Our port, the birthplace of the lifeboat
has ever furnished the choicest of those daring spirits whose hardy arms and
calm skill alone impel and guide her on her beneficent yet most perilous
mission. Hundreds – nay thousands, have they snatched from the gaping jaws of
destruction at the eminent hazard of their own lives.

Feats of daring and deeds of hardihood have been performed by them amid storm
and tempest unsurpassed by any act of bravery on record. Twenty of these
gallant souls we see have perished in the performance of an act of the
highest mercy, and shall their wives and little ones be left to want? Forbid
it heaven. They seek not statues of bronze or monument of marble, though
these their service well deserve. They want but bread for their forlorn
children. Such a provision for their fatherless families as will prevent them
from taking a paupers meal and for the honour of our common humanity we hope
this will be extended to them.

The above was taken from my copy of Boswell Whitakers excellent book,
“Skeutender Lifeboat”. I also have a transcript of the entry in the gazette,
but could not locate it at short notice.

The inquest ruled; “That Launcelot Burn was drowned by the lifeboat upsetting
when alongside the ‘Betsy’, and that the iron rods set up on the Herds and
are in a very dangerous position and likely to cause great loss of life by
being in the direct road of lifeboats passing from South Shields across the
Herdsand and likewise to pilot cobles.”

These iron rods were left by those people boring for the foundations for what
is now the ‘Groyne’, and the ‘Betsy’ had come aground a mere fifteen to
twenty feet from these latter-day pilings. This restricted access to the
‘Betsy’ as the rods would have damaged the lifeboat. Accordingly it was felt
that the lifeboat men instead of concentrating wholly on the brig, had to
spend a lot of their time trying to avoid these rods. Who can say?

Hope this helps you some

Hi is there anybody can put me in touch with Eddie Cowell ?

I would like to get in touch with both Bill Purvis and Kevin Forge regarding Peter Knowles Purvis (1891-1959), a Tyneside pilot along with his son of the same name.

Peter Purvis Snr. did marry Hannah Isabella Rae, the sister of Mary Ann Rae (which may be related to people about which Kevin Forge seeks information).

A nephew of Peter Purvis died in Canada last week and there are some photos left which may portray the Purvis family in the 1920s.

I would appreciate some help identifying them.

Lorne Larson