Wooden fishing smack Emblematic, built Sunderland 1873.
Owned James Eccles and family, Hoylake, from 1877
In NW gale, 26 January 1883, driven from mooring at Hoylake onto seawall west of Leasowe Lighthouse.
No crew lost, gear recovered but vessel abandoned where it lay - and covered over.
November 1976 rediscovered in seawall rebuilding and refloated.
Sank again near Meols and could not be refloated, so abandoned again.
Crew aboard the Hoylake fishing smack Emblematic
From Shipping and Mercantile Gazette - Friday 26 January 1883
EMBLEMATIC. Hoylake, Jan. 26, 10 5 a.m. -- The fishing smack Emblematic, of
Liverpool, parted her moorings, with no crew on board, and drove on to
the Leasowe embankment. The smack is strained. The crew are now
employed in preparing to get her off, and probably may succeed should the
weather moderate. A strong northerly gale is now blowing.
A very prescient report:
from Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser - Wednesday 07 February 1883
(though name is in error).
BURYING A SHIP. SINGULAR SCENE AT LEASOWE, NEAR BIRKENHEAD. During the
recent severe gale, the fishing smack Enterprise[sic], of Hoylake, broke
from her moorings at that place, and was carried out to sea. Tossed to
and fro by the violence of the waves, she was at length driven on the
embankment at Leasowe. This embankment, which to an ordinary observer
appears capable of the most violent shocks of the sea, now presents the
most extraordinary spectacle, for, strange to say, instead of the
Enterprise being demolished by the embankment, it is the latter which has
succumbed. At a point about half a mile beyond the lighthouse, a chasm in the
sea face of the embankment is visible, measuring some 60ft. square by
about 20ft. deep, and at the bottom lies the hull of the Enterprise.
A large staff of men are now engaged filling in the huge gap, and, as the
vessel remains in situ, they are employed in the novel task of burying a
ship. Some ten centuries hence, when the antiquary of that period
is exploring in the neighbourhood of the ancient seaport of Liverpool, he
may, perhaps, discover this fishing smack, and may arrive at the conclusion that the
sea chiefs of the 19th century were entombed thus in their barques, and
that the embankment at Leasowe was simply a burial mound to commemorate the
sepulture of a hero, whose bones, he will conclude, have been stolen, as
he is unable discover any - a conclusion to which contemporary antiquaries have
arrived with respect to the Viking's ship discovered some three years
ago in Norway.
The Hoylake fishing smack Emblematic entombed in the sea-wall, photo circa 1976.
From Liverpool Echo - Monday 04 July 1977
BID TO LIFT BOAT. A NEW bid is to be made to-day to recover the century
old Hoylake fishing smack Emblematic from the shore at Meols and place
her in the safe-keeping of the Merseyside County Museum. The wooden
hulk has lain like a stranded whale in the sand and mud for the past
seven months after a previous unsuccessful attempt to lift her ashore.
This followed her removal last November from the Wallasey Embankment,
where she had been entombed since 1883, having foundered during a
gale.
From Liverpool Echo - Tuesday 05 July 1977
AN OLD STICK IN THE MUD ... DESPITE a gallery of interested spectators
on the nearby promenade, the century-old Hoylake fishing smack
Emblematic failed to rise to the occasion when a fresh attempt was
made to bring her ashore. Conditions were ideal for the rescue
operation yesterday. At low water, the salvage team led by Mr. Henry
Pemberton had fixed six steel flotation tanks to the hull of the
Emblematic as she lay on the sands 500 yards offshore. But when the
tide flooded in the Emblematic refused to float.
The remains of Hoylake fishing smack Emblematic off Meols.
