A report in
the ‘Express’ on September 23rd of the death of Mr. William Hargrave,
of Knottingley, has prompted a letter from Mrs Edna Mowbray, of Racca
Avenue, Knottingley.
She says that
although she read the report with great interest, Mr. Hargrave was not, as
stated, "probably the last living link" with Knottingley’s
seafaring past.
"I can
assure the ‘Express’ that there are still a number of people with
actual experiences of sailing ships, still living in the town, several of
them members of my own family," she writes.
"My
father, the late Mr. Richard Cawthorne, and his brother Chris, were, like
many of their forebears, master mariners who took their families to sea
with them. Every spring, we would lock up house, board my father’s ship
at Goole, and spend the rest of the summer months voyaging from one port
to another. Mostly, however, we took coal from the Humber to the Channel
ports and returned with china clay for the local potteries. Each time we
arrived back at Hull or Goole, we would entrain for Knottingley and for a
week or two, home and school life would be resumed, but as soon as my
father’s ship was re-loaded we would be off again, until summer was
finally over."
"I have
a host of memories of those sea-faring days, and the sad thing to me is
that today there are so few people with whom I can share those memories.
The name ‘Yarmouth’ may conjure up for most people the picture of a
popular holiday resort; but I never hear it without recalling three
terrifying nights and days spent riding out on a howling gale in
‘Yarmouth Roads’ on board our small ketch ‘Panther’. I also
remember how we children were often put to bed fully dressed except for
our boots-just in case! Those sailors of long ago loved their ships, and I
remember the great grief of my father when his ship, the schooner
‘Demaris’ was sunk by a German submarine in the English Channel in
1916."
"One of
my most treasured possessions is an oil painting of my late
grandfather’s ship the schooner ‘Nancy’ which he captained in 1906.
So long as it hangs on my kitchen wall, I shall be reminded of
Knottingley’s seafaring days and of a childhood that was just a little
different."
