Several people died on the Quayside on May 6th 1867 when boarding a ferry after watching a boat race on the Tyne.
The race was between London oarsman Henry Kelley and local lad Robert Chambers for a prize of £200, which Kelley won. These were two of the best oarsmen in the world and the sport was followed as passionately in Newcastle as football is today, with over a hundred thousand people lining both sides of the river along the route of the race.
The tragedy occurred after the race when spectators were trying to board the Tyne General Ferry from the landing stage opposite the bottom of Broad Chare. The stage was connected to the Quay by a gangway and around a hundred people were crowded onto it when a girder broke, throwing most of them into the water.
Several journalists were in town to cover the race and they telegraphed news of the accident back to their newspapers in London, which initially reported that hundreds had drowned. Their interest soon waned when that number proved to be an exaggeration.
An inquest was opened immediately afterwards, the Coroner’s initial report said that six people had drowned and a similar number were unaccounted for. The landing stage drifted several hundred yards downriver to the Swirle, and it was suspected that some bodies could have been swept further by the tide and out to sea.
The report is a harrowing read. Two young boys were playing on a boat next to the gangway and were killed when it collapsed, and a mother had her baby swept away from her arms when both were in the water. There is nothing on the Quayside to commemorate the deaths, which wouldn’t be the case today if half a dozen people died at a sporting event.
The Tyne ferries were an important part of Tyneside’s transport infrastructure, serving the communities, factories and shipyards on both banks of the river. The black and white photo shows the replacement landing stage in 1895, the colour one shows the same scene today.