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Foreword

The story of the steam ship Pegasus is probably not one well known to many people. It was built in the 1830s for the coastal sea route from Leith to Hull, at a time when steamships were seen as an improvement on the speed and reliability of sailing ships. For many it was preferable to a long uncomfortable journey by coach, assuming it wasn’t a stormy sea!

I first became aware of the ship and its sinking off Holy Island in the 1990s, when a couple of people visited the Berwick Record Office looking for information. I knew the name of the ship but not the story behind it and could only provide access to the local newspaper, Berwick Advertiser. Over the years, I have picked up more bits of information-entries in the Bamburgh and Holy Island burial registers; the badly worn gravestone dedicated to Field Flowers in Holy Island Churchyard and the programme on comedian, Sarah Millican in ‘Who Do You Think You Are’, where it was revealed that one of her ancestors had worked on the wreck as a diver. However, these were only bits and pieces, only part of the story.

When Jane asked me to read her book, I was very keen to do this as I wanted to know what she had found out. As Jane is an avid and meticulous researcher, I knew she would leave no nook or cranny unturned in her quest for information. The book hasn’t disappointed and I have been amazed about what is revealed not only about the boat, the company who ran it and its sad fate on what was really a clear night but in very dangerous waters. However, this is only half the picture, as what really brings this book to life is the previously untold stories of those on board, most of whom were lost and many whose bodies were never recovered. I was fascinated to read about their diverse backgrounds and this book is really a testament and legacy for them and what local and family history is all about – ordinary people and places and how their lives become intertwined with events which shaped the future of shipping.

Who would have thought that a chance discovery of some information in an archive would lead to such detailed and varied research on a little-known disaster off the Northumberland coast, which deserves to be properly recorded and remembered, a fitting memorial to those involved with it.

Linda Bankier, Berwick Archivist