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Alicia - a general history

Completed August 1880; Official No. 81515; Code Letters TRCG.

Owners: 1880 Robert Morton Middleton & Co, West Hartlepool; 1887 R Ropner & Co, West Hartlepool.

Masters: 1881-82 R Williams; 1882 Adwick; 1883-85 R Dryden; 1886-87 R Stranack; 1888 O Jones; 1891 R Crombie; 1891-92 JN Reid; 1894-95 J Clark.

Alicia had left Middlesbrough at about 3am on Friday, 20 December 1895 bound for Bilbao in water ballast with a crew of 20. At about 9.30am she was off Cromer on the Norfolk coast when the Netley Abbey (from London for Blyth) ran into her just abreast of the poop. It was obvious the Alicia was going to sink but there was a problem in getting out the starboard lifeboat because the davit was stiff & difficult to work so the gig was put out & 10 of the crew proceeded in it to the Netley Abbey. The gig was sent back & also a boat from the Netley Abbey but by this time the Alicia was sinking. Four of the crew were picked out of the water by the gig & one by the Netley Abbey boat. The master & three men from the Netley Abbey & a boy from the Alicia were drowned. The Netley Abbey was built in Hartlepool by W. Gray & Co. in 1878.

Survivors Alicia December 1895:

Blanshard, Edgar James, 2nd mate, 19

Osborne, Frederick Henry, chief engineer

Parks, James, able seaman

Syer, William, able seaman

Tarrell, James, able seaman

Life lost Alicia December 1895:

Fixture, Joseph, youth, Middlesbrough

Lives lost from Netley Abbey December 1895:

Clark, J, master, Port Talbot

Williams, Jenkins, 1st mate, Aberystwith

Watson, Alexander, 2nd engineer, Brunswick St, West Hartlepool

Fields, JS, 3rd engineer, Elliott St, West Hartlepool

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