The Wreck of MV Hendrika - Memories of Redcar

 

On 4th May 1973, the coaster MV Hendrika ran aground on High Stone, off Redcar. The ship was carrying a cargo of maize.

 

When the maroons went off, to summon the lifeboat crew, we switched on our ship-to-shore radio, to hear a distressed voice announce: "We have run aground on Saltscar Cliff." I dashed down to the seafront with my camera and a telephoto lens. I was taking photographs, from the shore, during a brief thunderstorm, of the lifeboat rescuing the crew. Sadly, those photos are now lost.

 

Shortly afterwards, I took a series of photographs of the Hendrika as it lay, doomed, on High Stone. Here are two of them. In spite of salvage attempts, the ship was a total loss.