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Fortitude Gallery
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Dixon Taylor Sharper
Dixon Taylor Sharper, and his son of the same name, owned a number of small sailing ships, all of which were pre-owned. Very few of these vessels were re-registered at Hartlepool and many came to grief under their ownership. Dixon senior had shares in ships from about 1869 and owned his first ship in about 1879.
The list of the vessels below are those currently known to have been owned at some time by Dixon Taylor Sharper senior and junior.
Family History:
Dixon Taylor Sharper (Senior), was born at South Shields in 1825 to parents John and Mary Ann. He became a sail maker. He married Barbara Ridley Allen on 23 August 1847 at St Hilda’s Church.
The Durham County Advertiser of November 30th, 1849, records the death (on the 24th), in Shadwell Street, South Shields, of Andrew Allen (aged 4 months), infant son of Mr. Dixon Taylor Sharper, mariner.
By 1861 Dixon and Barbara had moved to Hartlepool and were living at Harbour Terrace with their son and three daughters. By 1871 they were living at Tower Street, West Hartlepool with their son and two daughters. Barbara died in 1880 aged 55. Dixon was remarried in 1881 to Susannah Fox and by the time of the 1881 census they were living at 17 Thornton Street. On the 1891 census they were visitors at Doncaster.
Dixon died aged 69 at Doncaster on 18 March 1895 leaving effects of £1,409.
Dixon and Susannah’s son, John Henry Sharper, joined the Royal Garrison Artillery and was killed in France on 22 March 1917 aged 31.
Dixon Taylor Sharper (Junior), was born on 19th April, 1855, at West Hartlepool to parents Dixon and Barbara. Following the trade of his father he became a sail maker. He married Mary Alice Burgess at Hartlepool in 1874. In 1881 they were living at Brunswick Street, Stranton with their daughter. By 1901 the family were living at ‘Ardrossan’ No. 40. Clifton Avenue.
Dixon died at Hartlepool aged 58 on 16 April 1913 leaving effects of £7349.
Fortitude - a general history
Built at Sunderland: Official No. 2666: Code Letters HQCR.
Owners: Curtis & Co; 1818 Hall & Co; 1821-27 S Rudgard; by 1853 Edward Granger, Robin Hood’s Bay, Whitby; 1854 Joshua Brayn, Jersey; 1857 London; 1860-68 Peter McKellar (coal merchant) Rochester; by 1875 James Roberts (Chatham Intra, Kent) Rochester; 1876 Dixon Taylor Sharper & John Hood, West Hartlepool.
Masters: 1810-12 S Gribble; 1819-21 M Cressy: 1822-27 R Andrew; 1853 Greenup Moorsom; 1854-57 G Wood; 1865 Stains; 1881 William Hogarth.
Bound from West Hartlepool for Sidmouth with a cargo of coal & iron & total crew of five Fortitude went to pieces on the coast at Towan Beach east of St Anthony’s lighthouse at the entrance to Falmouth Harbour on 20 October 1881. Five lives lost.
South Durham Herald 22 October 1881.
‘The old schooner Fortitude, after battling with the waves & time for getting on for a century, & which is jocularly said by the old salts to have been built “the year of Adam’s reign” has gone below. She left here (Hartlepool) a fortnight since last Saturday, bound for Sidmouth, with a cargo of gas coals, to be used at the gas works, & was wrecked yesterday, late in the afternoon, off Falmouth, losing all hands. Her last voyage but one was unfortunate, & during it she lost four anchors-an almost unprecedented occurrence. Last week she successfully encountered the first gale, & passed Dover on Monday afternoon with a fair wind all well. During yesterday’s gale, however, she must have become unmanageable for when wrecked she had been driven between 90 & 100 miles SW of her destination. She became embayed a little to the east of Falmouth harbour, & her progress shoreward was watched with intense anxiety, says a Plymouth correspondent. The rocket apparatus was brought to the spot where it was feared she would strike. But instantly she touched the ground a resistless sea broke over her, washing her crew off, & not one reached the shore alive. She is still lying entire however & it is stated all her cargo will be saved. 3 bodies up to the present time have been washed ashore. The Fortitude, which belonged to Messrs Dixon Taylor Sharper & John Hood, had recently a new inside put in her under the Board of Trade survey, & was in every way sea-worthy despite her age.’
Crew 1881; (voyage prior to being wrecked)
Ablett, William, able seaman, b. 20/12/1861
Andreus, Thomas, seaman, 17, GreenSt.
Brady, Edward Taylor, seaman, b. 14/03/1859
Ely, William, mate, b. 21/01/1840
Garrington, William, seaman, 19, York
Godden, Alfred, seaman, b. 1859 Faversham
Goransson, Anders, able seaman, b. 21/10/1860, Sweden
Harris, James, ordinary seaman, b. 06/03/1859, Liverpool
Hogarth, William, master, b. 1852, Whitby
Hurker, James, mate, 48, Whitby
Johansson, Himer, seaman, b. 13/10/1859, Gothenburg
Johnson, John Thomas, seaman, 20, West Hartlepool
Nembrig, John, seaman, b. 1860
Potts, George T, able seaman, Sunderland
Randle, Arthur, able seaman, Arbroath
Staff, Thomas, seaman, b. 06/02/1864, Yarmouth
Watson, William, saman, b. 01/07/1860
Lives lost October 1881;
Hager, Thomas, mate (his wife was housekeeper at Stranton Vicarage)
Hogarth, William, master, Alma St. Hartlepool (wife & three children)
Johansene, Nielsen, able seaman
Boy, Hartlepool (trial voyage before apprenticeship)
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