It was exactly 1 month and 1 week of me being a teenager when the Gaul left St Andrews fish dock for the last time on January 22nd 1974. It was exactly 1 week shy of the 2nd month of me being a teenager when she was lost with all 36 aboard, on the 8th February 1974. This poem is my dedication to those brave souls and all that have been lost to the sea. Rest in peace lads… The Gaul. A last Hull night memory. Midnight bells at holly trinity signal a beginning of next day hours but upon these barren streets there are no heart nor flowers. From North Sea into Estuary Humber charts her ebb and flow those tides are waited high but will always run out slow. Over in St. Andrews fish dock Gaul waits under a winter moon January here in Hull high water will arrive soon. Shadow blankets lay upon rail lines, shed and shacks wrapping around every square no exceptions for any cracks. Rolling slow and silent salt sea laps her waterline stretching out mooring ropes then releasing back in perfect time. Just a sound of metals creaking as howling winds cut like a sword in moving mirrors a reflection but no one is yet onboard. Our lady’s line are there for all to see in this moon light oh for a crowd to watch this hour she’s quite a sight. What were you thinking? gently swaying here alone I watched you from a roadside freezing air was biting bone. When Dawn finally breaks this shadowy unearthly time those thirty six will step aboard and release the thick rope line. Gaul’s bow will move away from the safety of the dock bound for the Barents Sea first steer through Andrews Locke. Heading up the Humber waterway passing ships there tied aside out into open sea you’ll sail through waves no one could hide. A last look back the crew take to remember Hull’s smell and sound then cutting through wave and swell and into history crew and Gaul are bound. Thank you for reading.
I remember that well. That happened 4 months before I finished school and started work. One of my classmates said his Uncle was on that ship. It really hit him hard but we all helped him through it. Don't know what become of him but if you are out there Pete all the best mate
There have been so many terrible losses - several (like the St. Finbarr at Christmas 1966 for example) seemed to pass almost unnoticed by the media. However the three coming so close together really made a national impact.
I knew two lads who were lost of The Gaul. Bri Dudding and Johnny Hayworth. Both Ex Endike, North Hull lads. John was a good footballer and only about 21 when he was lost at sea and the story goes, (and it could be a total myth) that he wasn't supposed to be on this trip but went out his mate Bri for a drink before they set sail and he ended up on board and sobered up a couple of miles off Spurn Point. The old memory goes a bit but I also remember City playing at home a few weeks after the Gaul went down and of course no-one knew where she was. We were playing a club who brought a good following to BP, I always had it down as Man U, but it cannot of been, maybe one of the Sheffield clubs ? Their fans were the other side of the fence to us in Kempton and they were saying we all smelt of fish and should have gone down with The Gaul. January/February 1974 was a sad time in Hull. RIP lads.
Remember it well. Probably the first time since WW2 that Hull got a mention on the main BBC news. Harold Needler, City's chairman at the time hastily arranged a fund raising match between Motherwell for the families of those lost at sea. I went to it and have the programme somewhere.
I've got the programme but I doubt I was there; it must just be one I picked up from my Dad. I think I've said on here before that in January '68, me, my sister and my Mum where homeless and staying for a while somewhere on Hessle Road, with a friend of my Mum's. I don't really have any concrete memories and what I do have are probably false; the result of family conversations over the years, but I have a recollection of sharing a bed with several other kids, it being incredibly cold and a mood of sadness and despondency about the place.
Me too. I was living on Hessle Road, family in the fish business and had worked on dock a bit so it hit home hard. The Gaul took with it a lad I was at school with but I was living down south by then and the lad was never a particular friend so it didn't have the same impact as the earlier tragedy.
That was how we lived in a 3 bed terrace, 6 kids and 2 adults, we didn’t know any better it was the norm for a lot of families on Hessle road in those days…
I also remember this all too well, I was working for one of the trawler owners, so it was very close to home. Harry Eddom was the only survivor, and I got to know him quite well as he came to work for the company I was with. He got, IMO a lot of unfair criticism afterward, but this was mainly fuelled by our good friend the media at the time, many newspapers pushed him for his story, and when he finally agree to do it, to stop the harassment, he got a lot of flack for it.
I think we were playing a match up at Woodmansey on (or very near) to the date of the Ross Cleveland sinking - terrible day even here with an ice cold wind and I seem to recall 3 of our team having to go off because of the cold. We were losing at the time but it ended up a 3-3 draw. I'm pretty sure that you were one of the hardy 8.
I was indeed, I remember that well, the snow was blowing horizontally across the pitch which was very exposed, and I can remember getting back in the car absolutely frozen and getting the heater going to warm up.
I post it every year, on the 45th anniversary a ceremony was held in Rayners. I red it out in front of over 100 people, the place was deadly quite as I red. When I finished it was still quiet for about a minute, then they all started clapping and cheering. Was one of the best days of my life after grandkids and children born…I still get emotional thinking about that day…
