This stone relates to a Coquet tragedy but is a difficult one to read, has a nice thick coat of lichen to keep off prying eyes! Anyway, it starts:
In affectionate remembrance of William Simpson, fisherman ………… ………… who was accidentally drowned in the river Coquet ………
but....... the Kentish Gazette, 22 November 1864 refers:
"SINGULAR DEATH OF THREE MEN- On Saturday the bodies of George Watson and Charles Milmore, itinerant vendors of fruit, were brought to North Shields, they, with a fisherman named William Simpson, having perished in the river Coquet on Thursday night under very singular circumstances. Watson and Milmore had been to Warkworth fair and hiring, selling fruit, and were on the road between Warkworth and Amble in their cart when they overtook Simpson, whom they gave a lift in their cart. They had also a little boy with them. Thursday night was extremely stormy and dark, and the Coquet was a good deal swollen with freshets, and the high tide was increased in volume by the heavy sea which prevailed outside. From some cause or other not explained, in approaching Amble the horse got off the road and plunged the cart and its living freight into the swollen waters of the Coquet. Their cries attracted the attention of the people who were upon the road returning from the fair, and the crew of Her Majesty's gunboat Surly, hearing the noise, manned two boats and put off to the exciting scene. The men appeared to have got out of the cart and were swept away and drowned. But the little boy clung to it, and the horse swimming with it, kept it afloat, and he was rescued. The bodies of the three lost men were recovered on Thursday night."
Poor old Simpson shouldn't have accepted the lift that night.
Her Majesty's gunboat "Surly" 232 tons- this appears to be in the service of HM Coastguard: "
Became a tender to the Coast Guard in 1861" according to the wiki page on these
Albacore class gunboats.
She would look like this:
They must have been very close to Amble for the boats of the gunboat to get involved?