Official No. 5362: Code Letters JHKM.

Owners: 1847 R. Hutchinson, Sunderland; 1849 William Brownlow, George Holmes & William Pearson, Hull; by 1867 Louts Kuling, Hull; 1868 A.G. Robinson, Hull; 1871 Benjamin Ralph Huntley & Co, Hartlepool; 1876 Huntley, Berner & Co (Benjamin Ralph Huntley & R.C. Black) Hartlepool; 1882 Francis Cheers & Thomas Henry Williams (Liverpool) Hartlepool.

Masters: 1850 R Lancaster; 1855-57 G Groves; 1860-65 J Brown; 1881 William Walker; 1882 Frank George Cheers (son of part owner Francis Cheers).

1877 insured with the Hartlepool Mutual Marine Insurance Association for £250-value £1200

Voyages: 18 March 1860 arrived at Gibraltar with a cargo of coal; 1874  sank after a collision in the Thames. She was raised & underwent repairs; November 1881 she had been heading up river to Dundee & had grounded on Drummond Rock & in December the same year had sustained damage at Amber Harbour.

Secret left the Tyne on 14 October 1882 bound for Plymouth with a cargo of coal & a crew of 14 & becoming difficult to manage put into Hartlepool. Some of the crew refused to stay aboard & were replaced with fresh hands. She left Hartlepool on 26 October with a crew of 13. On 28 October she struck on Newcombe Sand & as the crew tried to launch the lifeboat it was found the davits were too short so could not clear the vessel’s side & the boat was stove in. As they went to get out the jolly boat it fell to the deck & was split open. The starboard lifeboat was then launched although that had also been damaged & almost immediately began to fill with water. The crew returned to Secret except for one man who continued bailing the water from the lifeboat. Eventually he reached Kessingland Beach where some time later the wrecked Secret also came ashore with no sign of the crew. 12 lives were lost.

 Wreck Report 13 December 1882:

‘The Court, having carefully inquired into the circumstances of the above-mentioned shipping casualty, finds, for the reasons annexed, that the stranding and loss of the said vessel Secret was due to the defective condition of her machinery and boiler, and of the cables by which she was riding in Corton Roads. The Court further finds that the said vessel, when she left Shields, as well as when she left Hartlepool, was in an unseaworthy condition in hull, equipments, and machinery, and that she was overladen; and that Thomas Henry Williams, of No. 2, Chapel Walk, South Castle St. Liverpool, the managing owner of the said vessel, is responsible for her having been sent to sea in that state. The Court accordingly orders him to pay to the solicitor to the Board of Trade the sum of two hundred pounds on account of the expenses of this inquiry.’

Crew June 1881;

Bell, John, stoker, 26, West Hartlepool

Chalker, William, engineer, 28, North Shields

Crusoe, Charles, able seaman, 36, Hannover, Norden

Maynard, Hirenum, steward, 25, Shoreham, Sussex

Newton, Isaac, mate, 40, Whitby

Parrin, John, 2nd engineer, 39, Stockton-on-Tees

Short, John, able seaman, 37, Cottingham, Yorkshire

Smith, Thomas, chief engineer, 47, Pickering, Yorkshire

Thurston, Robert, stoker, 32, Whitby

Walker, William, master, 54, Islington, Middlesex

Wilson, William, able seaman, 26, Hartlepool

First crew 1882;

Bell, Robinson, boatswain, Hartlepool

Cambell, John, fireman, South Shields

Gray, James, seaman

Irvine, John, Liverpool

Moore, George Charles, seaman

Roberts, mate, Liverpool

Walton, Thomas, seaman, South Shields

Lives lost October 1882;

Cheers, Frank George, master, 25, b. 1857 Liverpool

Thompson, William, steward, Dale St. South Shields

Walker, William, chief mate (previous master of the Secret)

Survivor October 1882;

McCarthy, Patrich Joseph, fireman, Peel St. South Shields