Travelling Through Time in Newcastle & The Hunter

The Cape Horn Breed, by William Jones, who arrived at Newcastle in 1906 in the ship British Isles,
contains some other descriptive passages:
More than 60 sailing ships were in the harbour when we arrived. The ships gave the impression of a forest
of masts and spars and rigging, in a confused tangle against the skyline, as they were moored three abreast
at all jetties on the Stockton side. Every crane berth at the Dyke was occupied, and loaded vessels were
moored two abreast to each of the three Farewell Buoys at the harbour mouth near the Nobbys.
The scene was one of intense activity, as ships were constantly being moved across the basin by paddlewheel
tugs, from waiting berths to the crane berths, and thence to the Farewell Buoys to be cleared
outwards. These operations were complicated by the fact that almost every sailing ship arrived at Newcastle
in ballast. Some coal had to be taken in under the cranes as stiffening before the ballast could be safely
discharged. The ship had then to be moved to a place appointed to discharge her ballast, at some point on
the foreshore, and had then to return to a waiting-berth, to await her turn again to go under the cranes for a
full loading.
While they waited – sometimes for months – for their ships to load at the cranes, the sailors spent their
time and money in Newcastle:
On evenings when there was nothing else to do, dozens of apprentices in uniform, with their badge-caps
askew at jaunty angles, would parade up and down Hunter Street in Newcastle, past the famous Black
Diamond Hotel – the scene of many sailorman’s brawls – and back to the vicinity of Scotts, the busy drapers,
whose windows attracted the attention of the miners’ daughters, out taking the evening air, strolling arm in
arm in bevies of beauty and charm.
“Many friendships were made, some of them sentimental, but the young ladies of Newcastle were
experienced in temporary affairs of the heart, and, when writing notes to their new-found friends in ships,
sometimes ended with the sad but realistic words, “Yours to the Nobbys”, i.e., The lighthouse at the
harbour’s exit.
Many a time, bevies of Newcastle girls have strolled out along the breakwater to the Nobbys, to wave
farewell to ships bearing temporary boyfriends away, never to return.
When it was time to load:
Long rakes of coal wagons, each containing ten tons, stood on the railway sidings with a shunting engine to
move them into position. The crane lifted a ten-ton box wagon off its bogie, and swung it over the rail of the
ship until it plumbed the open hatchway. There, the pin boss knocked out the staple and allowed the hinged
bottom of the wagon to fall open with a crash as the coal cascaded into the bowels of the ship.
Seamen had to stand by to warp the ship ahead or astern as the loading went on. The maze of rigging,
and the lengthy yards projecting high over the wharf, made it necessary for the crane to be very carefully
plumbed if its swinging jib, with its heavy load hanging from it, was not to foul the gear. So around and
around we trudged, first on one capstan then on another, to take up a little slack here, and another there,
under the second mate’s bellowed orders.
It took British Isles three days to load, and then the ship was moved to the Farewell Buoys to prepare for
its voyage to South America:
The boarding house masters in Watt Street got busy and provided us with a full crew at the Farewell Buoys
several days before our departure. In the hustle and bustle of getting ready for sea our only consolation was
when the captain returned from business trips ashore bringing letters from our girl-friends, ending “with
love and kisses, yours to the Nobbys”.
Many boarding house masters were in cahoots with “crimps” who – along with unscrupulous ships’
masters – preyed on sailors. Crimps lured sailors away from one ship, and were paid by the head to put them
on another.
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