Whitby Sights

 Old Port, New Port

The happiest story of modern times along the North Yorkshire coast is the revival of Whitby as a port. In the early nineteenth century the town was seventh among the ports of the United Kingdom. With whaling in full swing there was also considerable trade in the export of alum and the import of coal, used in firing the alum shale. The bustle of those days is recalled by one or two wooden capstans surviving on the west pier. They were used for warping-in the sailing ships when there was insufficient wind.

The advent of iron ships and the development of estuaries such as the Tees led to the decline of small harbours such as Whitby. The last wooden ship built in the port, the Monks-haven, sailed in 1871, and the following year the harbour was so silted that boys played quoits on gravel in the middle. A few cargo boats trickled in up to the start of World War II, but throughout the first half of this century the work of Whitby as a port was confined mainly to its fishing fleet.

The return of the cargo vessels, the comings and goings of which have brought extra vitality and interest to the town, happened by chance. During a dock strike at Hull in 1955 an importer asked whether Whitby could handle half a dozen potato boats from Belgium. Despite doubts by many people, harbour-master Frank Graves thought the experiment worth a try, and when the six ships successfully unloaded their 2,500 tons of potatoes on Whitby fish quay in June 1955, the rebirth of the old port had begun.

The first outgoing cargo was 545 tons of lime from the Vale of Pickering, despatched to Perth on 11 July 1958. Since then the port has never looked back. In 1964 the local council opened the aptly-named Endeavour wharf, near the railway station, and 5 years later a private wharf on the opposite side of the harbour received its first cargo boat since 1939. Altogether the number of vessels using the port increased from 64 in 1964 to 291 only 8 years later. Today, anyone travelling almost anywhere in North Yorkshire is likely to see evidence of Whitby as a port, for the granite setts bordering most main roads were imported through Whitby from Portugal, over several years beginning in 1971. Other major imports have been timber, paper and chemicals, while exports have included steel, furnace-bricks, doors, and caravans. In 1973 a special shuttle service of vehicles ran between Whitby and a Helmsley sawmill, moving a special import of 600 tons of tree trunks from the Black Forest, the unforeseen harvest of two severe European storms.

The struggle to establish the port was not without its problems and curiosities. Before a radio link was obtained, shore-to-ship signalling was done by the harbour-master flashing his car lights from the seafront. The town's venerable dredger the Esk, commissioned in 1936, worked flat out creating a main channel 90ft wide. Her efforts were appreciated on 9 December 1969 when the 1,800 ton Russian ship Spartak, the largest vessel yet to use the port, sailed in with timber from the White Sea. She drew 16ft with the high tide obligingly providing just 16ft2in.

Among those delighted to see this ship berth was Mr Brian Whitaker, a Whitby bus driver. In 1958 he began photographing the cargo boats in the port. By 1973 his pictures filled thirteen large albums, a unique and valuable record. In his eagerness to get a good shot he once fell off the quayside on to the deck of a fishing boat, and it was not unusual to see him sprinting along the harbourside to reach a favoured vantage point. The appeal of the ships is not hard to appreciate, for they make a fine sight riding high among the harbourside buildings, or breasting the waves at the harbourmouth as they embark on their voyages across the North Sea.

In 1977 work began on a scheme to enlarge the harbour, enabling it to handle about 600 ships a year. The scheme involves dredging mudflats in the upper harbour and reclaiming about 7 1/2 acres of land. The upper harbour channel will be widened and the Endeavour Wharf extended, with a much needed layby berth. Extra space will also be created for the 300 yachts that regularly use the harbour, and there is talk of building a new quay for the fishing fleet, usually numbering about 15 keel boats and between 25 and 30 cobles. Altogether, the harbour activity that gives so much pleasure to visitors to the ancient port will not be reduced.