A Middlesbro Steamer Ashore at Marsden
On Friday evening, about half-past seven o'clock, the screw-steamer James Renforth, of Middlesbro', went ashore at Marsden Bay. She had just left the Tyne and was laden with wheat and oats for Stockton. The vessel was lying last evening high and dry, some fifty yards from the quay in front of Miss Allan's well-known hostelry, and it was hoped that at high water she would got off. All the cargo had been discharged, the spacious ball room at Miss Allan's establishment affording convenient warehouse room. The weather being thick and hazy at the time, it is stated the captain of the vessel, not knowing his exact position, saw Marsden Rock in the distance, but mistook it for a steamer, and so ran his vessel ashore. It is also stated that a fire broke out among her cargo after stranding, but the damage has not been ascertained.
Source: Shields Daily Gazette 19 December 1870