Shipwreck By Sunset

In September 1988 I went down to the Promenade at Anchorsholme and walked across the beach to the wreck of the Norwegian barque, The Abana.

The tide was just turning to come in but I had a good hour or so before I would have to move away from the incoming sea and during that hour the sun sank lower in the sky, creating one of those glorious Blackpool sunsets.

A barque was a three-masted sailing ship and the Abana had left Liverpool some three weeks earlier, sheltered from the weather in Ramsay Bay, Isle of Man and then resumed her voyage at Christmas 1894 after sailing from Liverpool. According to one newspaper report, she was bound for "Savello", but apart from a castle in central Italy - an unlikely destination for a ship - I'm not sure where that could be... Seville has been suggested and the Abana's Wikipedia entry lists the destination as Savannah, Georgia, USA.

In any event she was not destined to get there. The crew saw Blackpool Tower on the coast, but as this was then brand new and an unfamiliar sight, they mistook it for a lighthouse. Not that they could do much about it anyway for, with her sails torn to shreds, the Abana was tossed around the Irish sea until, after being spotted off the North Pier, she grounded off Anchorsholme. The alarm was raised by the landlord of the Cleveleys Hotel.

The weather was so bad that the lifeboat could not be launched at Blackpool, nor could horses pull it along the coastal road. They had to use the back streets which afforded some shelter and then launched the lifeboat, the Samuel Fletcher from Little Bispham. This then had to rowed out to the Abana by the 16-man crew, who rescued the entire 17 men onboard the barque and also the ship's dog.

They were all taken to Bispham's Red Lion Hotel to recover from the ordeal. The ship's bell was given to Robert Hindle, the landlord of the Cleveleys Hotel in gratitude for his having raised the alarm and the dog also stayed with that gentleman when the Captain of the Abana was recovered enough to go home.

The ship's bell was given to St Andrew's church in Cleveleys - where it can still be seen today.

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The Ship Choppers

Remember the Riverdance ferry that was wrecked on Anchorsholme beach near Blackpool last January?

They were hoping for months to be able to refloat her whilst the residents of Blackpool shook their heads sadly and thought "No chance..." Well they have now come to the same conclusion and are in the process of cutting up the ship and taking it away bit by bit. We went down on Sunday morning to have a look and the stern of the ship has already disappeared. The first week of the operation saw the welding torches start a fire aboard the Riverdance - always a distinct risk of this type of operation.

So after six months it seems Anchorsholme is to lose the biggest tourist attraction since the Abana suffered the same fate in the late 19th century. At least there are a few spars of that wreck still left on the beach for people to see. Only a few hundred yards away in fact! Sad end to a ship.

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What? A Week???

Ah yes... perhaps a little remiss of me, but it has been a busy week.

Since my last missive I've been to Glasgow, Lancaster, Newcastle and Edinburgh for work and there's not been a lot of time to devote to the blog! I've not taken the camera with me either on the trips I've been on.

Last weekend Fran and I drove up to Anchorsholme for a walk along the cliffs and a view of the Riverdance which is still there. As you can see from the photo it is now well and truly on its side and as fast as they empty the fuel out, it has to be filling up with seawater as the tide half submerges it twice a day. My guess is that if the March spring tides don't let the salvage people float her then she will end up being dismantled where she lies - or Cleveleys will have a new permanent tourist attraction.

The roads in and out of Cleveleys - which is the main Fleetwood peninsular road - has been horrendous at weekends with sightseers coming in to have a look.

In an non-customary fit of junk-throwing I unearthed a folder containing a load of old photography magazines from the early 1980s last weekend which have provided a few hours of fun reading through them again.

I used to buy Practical Photography every month, Amateur Photographer every week and Photography most months in the 70s and 80s. Practical Photography I see used to cost 80p in 1982... It brought a load of memories back, of sending off loads of photos and the joy of seeing one in print every now and then. Ex-PP editor Robert Scott also used a couple of photos in the Club Canon magazine and I came across a couple of photos of the gorgeous Collette Caton, a model who got noticed through Practical Photography's annual Photo Girl contest one year. I met her on the PP stand at a fair in Haydock and have a hideously underexposed slide somewhere that totally fails to do her justice!

Ah well, so now at least you know what I've been up to and now I've got to get ready for another trip. Shrewsbury, here I come!

The Two Shipwrecks of Anchorsholme

I've mentioned both of these before, but here's a photo of both of them! It's not one of mine this time, it was taken by my best mate, David Lancaster on Friday.

I've not found the time to get down again since the week after the Riverdance beached. The photo show the few remaining timbers of the Abana, wrecked in 1894 and just a little further north, the ferry, Riverdance, now listing heavily as work continues to empty out the fuel in the hopes of re-floating her later this week.

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Blackpool's Latest Wreck

Well, of course it's not the first. In fact I wrote of one not much more than half a mile away only a few days ago.

The Riverdance was hit by a freak wave in gales and was driven onto the shore off Anchorsholme during the night of 31 January 2008. Thousands of packets of McVitie's chocolate biscuits have washed ashore - presumably a little salty after floating ashore... I've not yet been able to ascertain what Burtons Biscuits factory in Blackpool have to say about that!

There's a fair bit of traffic around the area with people going to have a look. The ship is a ferry of the rear gate roll-on, roll-off type. The Promenade road is closed to traffic and pedestrians by the police at the moment. The road has been closed for a a bit as roadworks have been ongoing, but I think the police have closed it to pedestrians to try to prevent any repeat of the amateur salvage operations of the type seen in Cornwall a while ago. Certainly it's hard to understand what the risk might be that requires the area to be blocked off

Just how close to shore the ship is can be seen from this shot, taken from the garden in front of the flats along the seafront at that point. A good viewpoint is also to be gained from Anchorsholme Park. If anyone feels the urge to go for a shufty, I'd recommend parking a bit off and walking down either from Cleveleys main car parks or from the main road parking areas between the Esso garage and Cleveleys town centre. The roads between there and the seafront were choked when I went down and as the ship is likely to be there for a while you have plenty of time.

A high tide is going to be necessary to re-float her, even if they take off fuel to lighten her as I gather is the plan.

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The Christmas Wreck

It was Christmas 1894 that this tale has a beginning. One of the worst ever storms crossed the Irish Sea and a Norwegian barque got into trouble off North Wales, drifting with torn sails until it finally beached in the sand off Anchorsholme.

With huge waves crashing over, bringing down the main mast and with 17 men and a dog on board the ship sent up distress flares. Blackpool's lifeboat, Samuel Fletcher, was taken over land from the old lifeboat house on Lytham Road, behind the Manchester pub, to Little Bispham where it was launched with a crew of 16. Reaching the Abana was no easy business for a large boat under oars, trying to get close to a ship whose mast and rigging were hanging over the side. The lifeboat was large enough to take all of the Abana crew, who were taken to the Red Lion inn to dry out and recover following their ordeal.

The Abana's bell was salvaged and can still be seen in Cleveleys parish church. The original lifeboat house still exists on Lytham Road and even the Samuel Fletcher survived as a pleasure boat on Stanley Park lake. The ship's dog was given a home by a Cleveleys local when the ship's crew returned to Norway. The wreck of the Abana can still be seen off Anchorsholme and is easily reached at low tide.

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