Sunderland, Thetis

HER Number:
14725

District:
Sunderland

Site Name:
Sunderland, Thetis

Place:
Sunderland

Map Sheet:
NZ45NW

Class:
Maritime Craft

Site Type: Broad:
Transport Vessel

Site Type: Specific:
Cargo Vessel

General Period:
Post Medieval

Specific Period:
C18

Form of Evidence:
Wreckage

Description:
1796 wreck of English cargo vessel which stranded near Sunderland, after springing a leak en route from Klaipeda to London with timber; a wooden sailing vessel. Ten days later a great tragedy was enacted at the scene of the wreck. Captain Irvine was one of the twelve survivors of the shipwreck, and on this Thursday, 12 January, while he was assisting to salvage the cargo, a tier of the timber that had been stacked on the shore suddenly fell down upon him and imprisoned him by the thigh. Every endeavour was used to extricate him, but in vain, and before a surgeon could arrive to cut off the imprisoned member, the tide flowed in and ended all hopes of relief. In this terrible situation and under the most excruciating torture from the pressure upon his fractured limb the poor man remained, recommending his wife and children to the agonized spectators upon the strand, till the water reaching his head closed the afflicting scene. Captain Irvine left a wife and two children.

Easting:
4113

Northing:
5819

Grid Reference:
NZ41135819

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
National Monuments Record MONUMENT NUMBER: 971461; Lloyd's 1969 Lloyd's list 03-JAN-1797, No.2886; Richard and Bridget Larn 1997 Shipwreck index of the British Isles, volume 3. The east coast of England : Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, County Durham, Northumberland, Section 6, County Durham; Terence Grocott 1997 Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras Page 46; Newcastle Courant 07-JAN-1797, No.6274 Page 4; Newcastle Courant 14-JAN-1797, No.6275 Page 4; Newcastle Advertiser 14-JAN-1797, No.431 Page 2