S S Resolute 1928
Steam tug, b 1891 A W Robertson, Canning Town, ON 99022, 51 gt, 9 nt, 65x15x8ft,
30HP, 1 screw.
Owned J H Lamey & Co. of Liverpool, registered Manchester.
Aground East Hoyle Bank 22 December 1928.
Voyage North Wales (Mostyn) to Mersey.
Captain Bloor and 2 crew walked ashore.
Unsuccessful attempts to refloat tug, then abandoned.
Wreck location 53°25.14' N, 3°12.46' W [eastern side of Hilbre Swash].
In 1954 wreckage was 9 ft above CD but by 1974 none was visible.
After being requisitioned for war service in WWI, the tug Resolute was acquired by Lamey of Liverpool in 1919.
Contemporary newspaper report:
Attracted on Saturday night by what appeared to be a ship ablaze on the East Hoyle
Bank, about mile and a half from Hoylake, on the Cheshire side of the Mersey
Estuary, the coastguard raised the alarm, and the Hoylake and New Brighton lifeboats
were promptly launched. The lifeboatmen found that the vessel - the Mersey
tugboat Resolute - was not on fire, but that the crew were burning blankets
soaked in paraffin as distress signals. The tug, when returning to port after a
tow to North Wales, had grounded on the Hoyle Bank in the low water. The
Hoylake lifeboat had to make detour of nearly five miles to reach the Resolute
which was then high and dry on the bank. Meanwhile, the crew, consisting of
the Master, Captain R. Bloor, of the Dingle district of Liverpool, and two
hands, set out to walk ashore, a distance of about three miles, through the
mud; and, upon their arrival at Hoylake, they were provided with hot drinks and
beds. The New Brighton lifeboat could not get near the Resolute, because of
the low water, and returned her station; while the Hoylake lifeboat stood by the
grounded tug, so as to be able to give any assistance possible. It is hoped
that, with a continuance of the calm weather which prevailed at the time, the tug
will be refloated this morning.
Postscript:
Attempts to refloat the tug were abandoned and by 1929 it had
been destroyed [reduced in height using explosives] by the MHDB. Some wreckage
was still visible at LW in 1954, but by 1974 there was none visible.