Membland Gallery

In this section you will find information, photographs and stories relating to more than 260 Hartlepool seamen who lost their lives during during the First World War, and of the ships they served on.
To find a particular crewman, simply type his Surname in the Search Box at the top of the page.

This section will, in time, contain the stories of more than 450 merchant ships built or owned in the Hartlepools, and which were lost during the First World War. As an illustration of the truly global nature of shipbuilding, these ships were owned by companies from 22 different countries, including more than 30 sailing under the German flag at the outbreak of war.

Dundee Evening Telegraph – November 25^th, 1915
THE MEMBLAND MYSTERY. A Message from the Sea. At Carton Hall, Westminster, Captain David Davies held an inquiry into the loss of the British steamship Membland while on a voyage from Hull to the Tyne on February 15th, 1915. Mr. A. J. B. Tapling, on behalf of the Board of Trade, said the vessel left Hull on February 15th, and was last seen on the same day off Spurn Lighthouse. There were 20 of the crew, and in addition a North Sea pilot and assistant engineer, and there was reason to believe the wife of the chief officer and their child, as well as the wife of the chief engineer, were on board.

The vessel was in water ballast at the time, and was going to the Tyne for a cargo of coal for a gas company in Buenos Ayres. The owners were Messrs. Macbeth, with registered offices at Great Clyde Street, Glasgow, and they bought the vessel for £30,000 only six days before the voyage. Messrs. Macbeth surveyed her, and found her equipment and life-saving apparatus satisfactory, and that she was in a quite seaworthy condition. When she was last seen, at 10.40 a.m., there was moderate fresh breeze from the N.N.W. and a moderate sea.

A thin piece of wood, a foot long and two inches broad, had been found off the coast, bearing the words, written in indelible pencil, " S.S. Membland torpedoed engine-room port side. Good-bye, dear." Witnesses thought that the handwriting was known, but this was now doubtful. There were no survivors. Mr. W. G. Macbeth, one of the owners, said the vessel and freight were insured for £36,500 and at war risks. On the day before the vessel sailed the captain wrote to the managers that he could not leave dock that day owing to rough weather. Witness had not heard that she sustained any damage in opting out of dry dock at Hull. Mr. Wilfrid Wright, a carman, said he found the message on the shore at Hornsea on April 11^th. He showed it to the coastguard, who expressed the opinion that it was genuine but unfinished. It was further stated that no enemy ships were seen in the neighbourhood at the time, and there had been reports that several vessels had been damaged by mines.
This closed the inquiry. The Commissioner will examine letters from relatives of the crew, and if necessary will ask for further evidence as to identification of the handwriting.

Western Times – February 6^th, 1916
SEA MYSTERY Message on a Piece of Wood Doubted by Inspector. The report Captain David Davies; Board of Trade Inspector, of the inquiry into the loss, or supposed loss in the North Sea of the steamship Membland, of Glasgow, has just been issued. Among the witnesses was Fred Wright who stated that on April 11^th, when walking along the beach he picked up a piece of oak stave. It was about 50 yards from the cliff and about the same distance from the water's edge, and on it was written in indelible pencil- "s.s. "Membland" torpedoed engine-room port side. Good-bye dear.” The Inspector, in his report states that that this oak stave had. At one time a rougher surface, but now it is as smooth glass. This smoothing process, in his opinion, had been brought about by the continued action the sea washing up and down the beach, tide after tide, for very long time. If the wood had been written when it had a rougher surface, he contends that all t writing would have been obliterated before the surface had become so smooth. Therefore he is led to believe that it could not have been written anyone on board the "Membland."
"I have come to the conclusion," he add "that she must have struck a mine, or mines which damaged her bottom so badly that she sank immediately, carrying everything to the bottom with her. thus giving no time for anyone to do anything, even to save their lives.”

Northern Echo – August 28^th, 1900
LAUNCH AT WEST HARTLEPOOL. on Saturday last Messrs. Wm. Gray and Co., Ltd., launched the large steel screw steamer Membland, built to the order of the Pyman Steamship Co., West Hartlepool. The vessel takes Lloyd's highest class under special survey, and her dimensions are: length overall 341ft., breadth 47ft., and depth 24ft. 10in.

Official No. 112422; Code Letters RVJL.

Owners: 1900 Pyman SS Co (G Pyman & Co) West Hartlepool; 1914 Macbeth & Co Ltd, West Hartlepool.

Masters: 1902 OH Bommen; 1903-11 AW Middleton; 1915 John Brotchie.

Membland left Hull at 8am on 15 February 1915 bound for the Tyne with a crew of 20 & a pilot & was not seen again. It was presumed she had struck a mine. She was posted with Lloyds as missing on 25 March 1915 but as the date of loss is uncertain it is given as 15 February 1915. 21 lives lost.

Lives lost February 1915:

Andersen, EE, fireman/trimmer, 31, b. Denmark, resided Hull

Bergs, Charles, seaman, 31, b. Sweden

Brotchie, John, master, St Aidans Rd. South Shields

Ellis, Leonard Joseph, ordinary seaman, 17, Bank Street, Hull

Finon, John, fireman/trimmer, 33, b. Plymouth

Freer, Thomas, able seaman, 51, Hull

Grant, Charles, steward, 46, b. Nairn, resided Ingleton, Yorks.

Guthrie, William, 1^st engineer, 34, b. Kilmarnock

Husdell, Edward, 1^st mate, 34, Tankerville Street, West Hartlepool

Jansson, John, fireman/trimmer, 31, b. Sweden

Johnsen, O, boatswain, 42, b. Denmark, resided Hull

Johnson, M, sailor, 30, b. Oslo

Mather, R, donkeyman, 45, b. Edinburgh

McDermott, William, sailor, 21, b. Leeds

Porbom, Wemer, seaman, 22, b. Stockholm, Sweden

Richards, Alfred, able seaman, 36, b. Whitstable

Smith, Alex, fireman/trimmer, 26, b. Warsaw

Tattersall, Richard, fireman/trimmer, 34, Hull

Taylor, Guy Harry, fireman/trimmer, 26, b. Texas, USA

Ware, Percy, 2^nd mate, 26, Hull

George Pyman was born in May 1822 in Sandsend, North Yorkshire. He went to sea as an apprentice and by 1843 he was Master of the vessel Nameless.

He married Elizabeth English in 1843 and they had two daughters and seven sons.

In 1850 he left the sea and the family settled in West Hartlepool where he went into partnership with his brother-in-law Francis English, as grocers and ship chandlers. In about 1854 he changed direction and went into partnership with Thomas Scurr as shipbrokers for the local collieries. They owned shares in a number of sailing vessels. Other shareholders included Francis English, John Smurthwaite, Thomas Wood & Ralph Ward Jackson.

Thomas Scurr died in 1861 and George then formed his own company as George Pyman & Co. In 1865 he purchased his first steamship, the George Pyman, and gradually shares in the brigs were sold off. Eventually the company became the largest owners of steamships in the north of the U.K.

In 1873 Thomas Bell of Newcastle joined as a partner in the firm. From 1879 the company opened branches in Hull, Grimsby, Immingham and Glasgow. When George retired in 1882 the Bell family took over the running of the company.

Pyman, Watson & Co. was set up in Cardiff in 1874 by John, one of George’s sons along with Thomas Edward Watson and Francis and Frederick, another two of his sons, set up Pyman Bros. in London in 1903. Some of these companies ships were registered in West Hartlepool.

George was elected a Poor Law Guardian in 1861, an Improvement Commissioner in 1868, and was sitting on the Durham County Bench from 1872. In 1879 he was appointed Vice Consul for Belgium and in 1888 was elected the second Mayor of West Hartlepool. In 1895 he received the honour of being made a Freeman of the Borough. George died in November 1900 at his home, Raithwaite Hall.

There is a wealth of further information in Peter Hogg’s book ‘The Pyman Story’.