Rockcliff - a general history

Completed May 1887; Official No. 92913: Code Letters KLSR.

Owners: 1887 G Horsley, West Hartlepool: 1889 G Horsley & Son, West Hartlepool: 1900 Horsley Line Ltd (MTD Horsley) West Hartlepool: 1906 Antwerpsche Zeevart Mij (JD’Haene & Co) Antwerp-renamed Schelde

Masters: 1887-88 JL Baxter: 1888-89 J Borwick: 1891 J Donovan: 1892 J Lewis: 1894 JL Baxter: 1895-98 T Whittingham: 1898-99 J Hogg: 1900-04 T Scantlebury: 1905 W Cliff: 1906 TH Webber: 1907 A Pavot.

On 10th May, 1889 the Rockcliff of Hartlepool went ashore at Ashrafi lighthouse in the Suez. The British steamer Discovery assisted her to discharge her cargo. She was eventually assisted off & proceeded for Suez for a survey on the damage.The certificates of the master, Borwick, & the mate, Thompson were suspended for twelve months for gross negligence. They had both been drunk for several days before the casualty.

Notes: 10th May, 1889, at about 01.00 whilst on a voyage from Middlesborough to Madras with a cargo of about 3,000 tons of Railway materials the Rockcliff stranded near the Ashrafi Lighthouse on Shab Ashrafi reef, Staits of Jubal, Gulf of Suez.

The British steamer Discovery assisted her to discharge her cargo. She was eventually assisted off and proceeded for Suez for a survey on the damage. The certificates of the master, James Borwick, and the mate, Thompson were suspended for twelve months for gross negligence. They had both been drunk for several days before the casualty.

On the Morning of Saturday, November 4^th,  1893, the Rockcliff(in ballast) ran aground on the Longsand, the weather was squally and threatening, the Ramsgate smack Annie stood by the vessel all day and at 9.00pm, with the help of a Harwich tug succeeded in getting the vessel off. The Rockcliff was apparently undamaged and proceeded on her way.

On September 4^th, 1895, Charles Stobstand fell from the gangway of the Rockcliff into the Hartlepool dry dock fracturing his arm and sustaining cuts & bruises. The Rockcliff left Hartlepool on Saturday, 7th September, 1895, for Cardiff in ballast.

Shields Daily News, Monday, December 31^st, 1900:
WEST HARTLEPOOL STEAMER IN THE GALE. CAPTAIN AND CREW BADLY INJURED. The steamer Rockcliff, of West Hartlepool, has arrived at Queenstown in a crippled condition. She was on a voyage from Barry to Philadelphia, and had proceeded about two hundred miles west of Queenstown when she encountered fearful seas and had to put back. All boats save the skeleton one were carried away, and the men were lashed to the wheel for fifteen hours. Some of them were badly hurt, the captain sustaining injuries to his ribs.

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