The Story of LV50’s Predecessor

Thanks to the Crete Fleet Team who are the source of much of the historical information about the Cretehatch and the rest of the fleet. For more information, see their excellent website at thecretefleet.com.

Early on the morning of Wednesday 26 October 1949, a strong gust of wind blew in the windows of George Davidson’s shop in West Percy Street, North Shields. The wind ‘robbed’ the shop window of its collection of men’s wear and disposed of the garments down the street. George got most of it back after a wild chase.

The trousers, jackets, and shirts strewn along the street were not the only casualties of the storm that battered NW Europe. The Holyhead lifeboat rescued eight of the crew of the ‘Mayflower’ that had been driven onshore, the Blyth bound collier ‘Archglen’ was driven onshore at Dover by 70 mph winds and the crew rescued by the Dover lifeboat, and off the Lizard in Cornwall the coaster ‘Yew Park’ was rescued by the aircraft carrier, ‘Illustrious.’
Closer to home, House Yacht Tyne II (HYT II), the predecessor of LV50 as headquarters of the Royal Northumberland Yacht Club, turned over in Blyth’s South Harbour. Record gusts of 72 mph blowing directly from the North capsized the vessel and nearly drowned the steward and stewardess who lived on board.

The wreck of the House Yacht Tyne II, the Cretehatch.

Charles and Jean Wilson were woken up by the sound of a dinghy moored under the stern of the boat knocking against the vessel. Charles went to investigate but soon dashed back to tell Jean that they must abandon the house yacht. Jean wanted to get properly dressed but Charles fortunately insisted they go immediately. Jean just had time to take down an overcoat from a peg and managed to leap for the jetty in her night cloth before the boat went down. Jean said, ‘It was all over in less than two minutes, we have lost everything’.
The Wilsons were naturally badly shaken, but it was also a disaster for the club.

Imagine the chaotic scene in the morning: the upturned hull of House Yacht Tyne II in the water surrounded by many small craft that had been either sunk outright or so badly damaged that they were ruined (see photo above).

This was not the end of the club’s troubles with the vessel, as we’ll see later, but now’s a good time to look a bit more in detail at HYT II, as she was no ordinary boat.

She was launched on 29 July 1919 in Aberdeen as the ‘Cretehatch,’ a ferro concrete tug, part of the Crete-fleet of tugs and barges designed and built at the end of the First World War or just after to compensate for the acute shortage of steel.

The Cretehatch at sea soon after her launch.

During the war, almost 5,000 allied merchant vessels had been sunk. To compensate , the British government funded a £4 million (£196 million today) programme to construct 24 steam tugs and 130 barges from steel-reinforced concrete. It was claimed they were cheaper and faster to build using unskilled labour and cost less to maintain. In the end, 12 tugs and 52 barges were completed.

The plans for a ferro-concrete tug such as the Cretehatch.

Building a ferro-concrete tug.

In 1922, 45 Crete ships (tugs and barges) were sold to the Crete Shipping Company. However, concrete ships were heavier than conventional vessels, more expensive to operate. They were classed as experimental and therefore were more expensive to insure and required expensive annual surveys. The Crete Shipping Company carried coal from the Northeast to London, Continental Europe, and the Baltic Sea, but the post-war slump in shipping rates heavily impacted their business.

On 19 August 1924, the hulk of the ‘Cretehatch’ was sold to the Royal Northumberland Yacht Club, her engines having been removed, for £75 (£3,900 today) to be converted to a clubhouse. The ‘Cretehatch’ was renamed house HYT II and served the club for 25 years until the fateful day in 1949 when she was wrecked by a freak gale in Blyth harbour.

When she came to Blyth, she was modified to meet the club’s needs. Square casement windows were cut into the hull, although perhaps close to the water line, to let in natural light.

House Yacht Tyne II, the Cretehatch

She must have been a comfortable and well-appointed clubhouse. In the words of John Lowrie, a visitor to the yacht club, ‘I have memories of the panelled mahogany and polished brass interior and the Stateroom lined with copies of Lloyds Register of Yachts.’

During the Second World War, Blyth was a major submarine base and the Cretehatch was commandeered by the Royal Navy as the wardroom for WRENS. She was de-requisitioned in October 1945 in a ‘sorry state.’ However, she remained in use until she capsized in 1949.

From this point onwards, the main source of information is the minutes of the Yacht Club. A dry but precise source of information, of course, only giving their point of view.

With the loss of their house yacht, the club was in a bit of a quandary about what to do next. Some members wanted to move the clubhouse ashore, but the harbour commissioners would not let them have any land. The compromise was a temporary headquarters in a shed recently vacated by the RAF, which the club used while they looked for a new floating base.
The problem remained that any new vessel could not be berthed on the club’s Wharf until the wreck of the Cretehatch was moved and no new vessel could be purchased until the insurance for the Hulk had been settled.

At a special committee meeting of the Yacht Club on 1 November 1954, Edmund Wilson reported that he had inspected the wreck with representatives from the insurance company, members of Blyth Harbour Commission, and salvage experts.

After considerable discussion – you can bet that it was quite heated too! – they agreed to approach the Blyth Harbour Commissioners for a price offer to break up the wreck. Discussions moved on, and by 1 March 1950 the club had received an offer from the insurers which they managed to negotiate up before all sides agreed on the amount.
1950 passed without much progress, no details of the reply from Blyth Harbour Commission but future developments make it clear that no firm price was agreed.

The wreck was still in the harbour and the club started looking for a new ship. In April 1952 LV 50 was identified as a good bet. After trying to buy her from Trinity house, she was finally bought from Mr. J Howard Iron and Metal Merchant of Gateacre Road Ipswich for £600 in June 1952 and she came to Blyth in July of that year. However, it was going to be some time before she could take her place where the club wanted her to be.

1953 came and went and by 1954, there was increased anxiety. In March, the secretary was instructed to make as tactful an approach as possible to the Harbour Commission to find out about the prospect of a final removal of the wreck. In April, the vice Commodore was brought in to try and get a date. In May 1954, he reported back that the commissioners were taking the matter seriously. They were having difficulty getting a wire under the hull to ease the wreck onto the foreshore to the west.

1954 passed without results and by 1955 things were getting a bit desperate. They tried to exert greater pressure to hasten the removal of the wreck and, by May 1955, a 15-ton rock breaker was on site. By July, the secretary reported that the Harbour Commission were making an all-out effort to get the wreck removed by cutting 3 sections to remove separately, adding ominously that there was not much hope of success by any other method at present available to the commissioners.

1955 and 1956 passed without progress. February 1957 brought the usual optimism that they hoped the berth would be clear that year. However, also the new information that the centre section would not lift as the chains, when in position, cut straight through the hull.
The Blyth Harbour Commission were generally helpful to the yacht club but were keen businessmen at the same time. They were running one of the biggest coal exporting ports in Europe. The club were never going to receive their full attention.

By June 1957, things finally came to a head. A meeting had been held and Blyth Harbour Commission informed the club that the cost of removing the wreck was more than estimated and more money was needed. They would do their best for the club but, as a public authority, the power of officials and commissioners was limited.

Things were finally resolved with the commissioners, a final price agreed, and by May the wreck had been removed and LV50 moved to her new, permanent berth the same month. By 15 May 1958, she was in place, eight and a half years after the Cretehatch capsized.

The ghost of House Yacht Tyne II, the Cretehatch. Source Steven Paul Lockhart

However, if you look into some of the corners of Blyth Harbour you can still see blocks of reinforced concrete scattered about, the ghost of the Cretehatch.

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