tend greatly to the benefit of the trade and navigation of the said town, and to the security and safety, not only of ships and vessels trading to the said port of Stockton, but also of ships and vessels passing along the coasts, to have lights and beacons so constructed as to shew the proper course over the bar of the said river as a place of refuge from tempestuous weather, or by reason of masters and mariners not daring to make for that harbour. Be it therefore further enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the said company of proprietors, if they shall think proper, to erect, or cause to be erected, the requisite lighthouses and beacons for directing the course of vessels over the bar of the said river Tees, and to keep the said lighthouses lighted during the periods of the tide in which vessels may safely pass over the said bar, and to discontinue such lighthouses and beacons at their will and pleasure."* Having resided many years within sight of this dan gerous coast and expansive estuary, I am very sensible of the incredible advantages and safety both of lives and * The duties appointed by the Act are these: For all British coasting vessels entering or going out of the river Tees with goods chargeable to the aforesaid tonnage duties at the rate of 6d. p. ton; for each lower mast the sum of For all British vessels from or to foreign ports, chargeable with the aforesaid tonnage duties at the rate of 8d. and 9d. ; for each lower mast r For all foreign vessels chargeable to the aforesaid tonnage duties at the rate of 1s. and 1s. 6d. p. ton, for each lower mast 10 For all British vessels entering only for anchorage, for each lower mast for passing inwards and outwards For all foreign vessels entering only for anchorage, for each lower mast for passing inwards and outwards S. d. 5 0 7 6 7 0 6 15 0 I property, that would accrue from turther attention to the subject. There is an admission in the Act that would seem to recommend it strongly to the consideration of the proprietors; namely, that "several vessels are annually lost, either in attempting to enter the river as a place of refuge, or in not daring to make for the harbour.' have scen, at one time, upwards of an hundred vessels preserved by providentially getting within the harbour, during a storm; or in expectation of it, though the knowledge they possessed respecting the passage was hardly equal to the exigency of the case. It is to be remarked that though pilots may be procured from Hartlepool and Seaton-Carew on one side, and Redcar on the other, the suddenness of a storm, aggravated by the darkness of the night, frequently renders such assistance impracticable. I cannot with greater propriety introduce the acknowledged utility of life-boats, than in this place. Soon after the introduction of the life boat by Mr. Greathead, of South Shields, A. D. 1804, the Rev. Benjamin Lumley, then curate of Hartlepool, assisted by his neighbours, and under the patronage of the Bishop of Durham, proposed and procured the establishment of a life boat at Hartlepool. The last published report is a sufficient evidence of its great success, from Nov. 13, 1813, to June 1, 1823.* "Since the accounts were printed and submitted to the public in 1813, the life-boat has nobly fulfilled the wishes and intentions of the Subscribers. It has saved eighty-eight valuable lives. On February 4, 1815, the crew of the Betsey, of Monkwearmouth, consisting of nine persons. November 4, 1821, the crew of the Cossack, of Hull, consisting of nine persons. October 24, 1822, the crew of the schooner Hawk, consisting of five persons. January 16, 1823, the crews of the Another life-boat was established at Redcar about the saine period, which has been equally fortunate in rescuing the shipwrecked mariner from the horrors of the deep. Both continue to be supported by subscriptions. As Seaton-Carew is situated upon a dangerous strand, and nearest to a point where assistance is much wanted, and much valuable time is necessarily lost in transmitting the Hartlepool boat along the shore, or in sailing the Redcar boat from the opposite quarter, the late Thomas Backhouse, Esq., of Darlington, a man of kind and benevolent habits, one of the Society of Friends, and a frequent visitor of the sea-side at Seaton-Carew, procured another life-boat to be constructed at his sole expense, and built a boat-house for its reception at that place. A meeting was holden at Stockton in January, 182.5, for the purpose of proposing a general system of relief to shipwrecked mariners on the adjacent coast. The subscription was considerable, and the plan is about to be carried into effect [1827.] Magdalene, of London; the Levant, of London; the Starling, the Shannon, and the Expedition of North Shields. February 2, 1823, the crews of the sloop Tees, the Margaret and Jane, and the Whiting, (the latter a complete wreck.) In all, on these two days, the life-boat saved 65 men. The crews of the above vessels, consisting of eightyeight persons, were thus providentially restored to their families and to their country." In 1824, several other lives were saved. CHAPTER XV. Of the Navigation of the River Tees-Fisheries- AMDEN says, in the words of his first translator, Philemon Holland, Doctour in Physick. "The river that boundeth the south part of this country is called by Latin writers, Teisis and Teisa, commonly Tees; by Polydore Virgill Athesis, and by Ptolomee Tuesis." "Tees springeth out of that stony country called Stanemore, and carrying with him away in his channell along many brookes and beckes on each side, and running through rocks (out of which at Egleston, where there is a remarkable quarroy, and where Conan, Earle of Britaine and Richmond, founded a small abbay) first beateth upon Bernardcastle, &c." In following the course of the river, our celebrated antiquary passes entirely over the object of our present inquiry,, not only without notice, but without the knowledge of its. former state of existence; for he says, Beyond Darlington, Tees hath no townes of any great account standing upon it, but gliding along the skirtes of green fields,, and by country villages, winding in and out as he passeth, at length dischargeth himself at a large mouth into the ocean, whence the base and botham of the triangle towards the sea beginneth." 66 As I cannot accuse the writer of this very pretty, though quaint, paragraph of a want of observation, I fear we must look in vain, during the reign of Elizabeth, for any flourishing appearances at Stockton. We know, indeed, at that period, the town was (if I may so say) in a state of abeisance; I may add of total declension (though the succession of municipal officers never ceased) and our beautiful river glided past it without interruption. At the same time it is worthy of remark, that the castle, or manorhouse, of the bishop at Stockton, was still a place of his occasional residence, although "in 1633, Mr. Phineas Pette, master shipwright to his Majesty, found mean entertainment at Stockton, though lodged in the maior's house, which was a mean thatched cottage."* As the rude hand of time, however, has shifted the pastoral scene for different appendages of the landscape, we must change with it, and extract such delights as the new view of things is capable of affording. "Towered cities please me then, The poetic dream must pass away, and the eye open on the multiplying concerns of society. The navigation of the river is of considerable importance; not only on account of the traffic conveyed upon its bosom, but for the riches confined within its shores. The river Tees produces great abundance of excellent fish; such as salmon, flounders, eels, smelts or spar * Archeol. vol. xii. p. 279. Surtees. |