Shipwrecks
 

Found
reference to SS Amble Dec 21 1925 "Stranded"off Alnmouth ! crew rescued by Boulmer Rocket Brigade!

Here it is:

Hartlepool Mail, 21 Dec 1925: "Steamer on Rocks. Crew Saved by Rocket Apparatus"

"Exciting scenes were witnessed on the Northumbrian coast at Alnmouth in the early hours of yesterday morning. The steamship Amble, owned by the Broomhill Collieries Co., went ashore, and the crew of 17 were rescued by the Board of Trade life-saving apparatus.
The Amble was lying at anchor off Amble (Warkworth) at three o'clock yesterday morning. The weather was very stormy, a heavy sea was running, and there was a stiff wind. Without warning the vessel dragged her anchors, and she drifted at the mercy of the wind and tide. She was carried northward, and when off Alnmouth the coastguards noticed flares from the ship, showing that she was in distress.
The Alnmouth and Boulmer lifeboat immediately put off, but before she reached the Amble the latter had gone ashore on the rocks. The lifeboat stood by while the coastguards brought out their life-saving apparatus and fired a shot over the stranded vessel.
The end was made fast, and by means of breeches buoys the crew were all hauled ashore. They were all in a more or less distressed condition, due to their immersion in the water, but after receiving attention from the residents at Alnmouth, they were able to proceed later in the day to their homes, which are mostly in the Shields district.
It is expected that the Amble which was badly battered, will break up on the rocks. She is a vessel of 1,600 gross tonnage."

Also same source 26th Dec 1925 Gifts by public subscription presented to J Straker & R.M.Stephenson of Boulmer for saving lives of five ladies at Alnmouth the previous july .

on 26th Feb 1926 an award presented by Duke Of Northumberland to 35 heroic Boulmer women! Vague stirring in back of my mind about pulling lifeboat for access to rescue people1 can anyone shed light!

It seems that it was to do with the Amble again.

Berwickshire News, 2 Feb 1926:

"The Royal National Lifeboat Institution has decided to present its thanks inscribed on vellum to 35 women of Boulmer who helped to bring out the Boulmer lifeboat for launching during the December gales. They were called out early in the morning of Dec 20. A severe blizzard was blowing with rain, snow and hail. So severe was it that the horse with the cart containing stores, refused to face it, and a motor had to be used. But the launchers, of whom more than half were woman, struggled in the teeth of the blizzard, and dragged the lifeboat, weighing 3 1/2 tons, for a mile and a quarter. Meanwhile Alnmouth lifeboat had been launched, and Boulmer stood by until she had returned in safety, the launchers being on duty from three in the morning until 9."

And the Hartlepool Mail of 15 April reported the presentation at Caxton Hall, Westminster, saying, "The village of Boulmer has 150 population....provided a launching party of 61; and a life saving crew of 27....Thus four fifths of the entire population were engaged in the effort to rescue the crew of the stranded Newcastle ship Amble..."

Picture of Heros from 1927 Alnwick and County Gazette & Guardian Almanac!

I noted a James Straker on the 1917 WW1 casualty page. Almost certainly the son of the chap shown above. You can see the family resemblance in the two photos.

In 1911 the family were living in the Herring Yard, Boulmer. James Snr was an inshore fisherman with only two children, James Jr, born about 1896 and a daughter, Rhoda, born 1905. All the family were born in Boulmer.

It is likely that WB Stephenson on the casualty list for the same year is the son of the other man in the photograph. Robert Stephenson was an inshore fisherman, widowed, with 3 children still at home. Two sons, Robert (born 1892) and William (born 1896) both whinstone stonebreakers, and a daughter, Nellie (born 1898). I wonder if they were stonebreakers in the quarry on the road into Longhoughton from Alnwick, or the whinstone quarry at Craster?

The 1927 picture
 

Did I read it right,they rescued five ladies who were swimming on BOXING DAY?!!!!

no in the previous July as says in text! The gifts were presented to them by the Duke on 26th of December!

I know we northumbrians are a hardy lot but .....!Glad you put me right!