Captain Samuel Wright of Goole
Goole History > Goole People & Families > Capt. Samuel Wright
From the Goole Times, 21st May 1897:
DEATH OF CAPTAIN SAMUEL WRIGHT
A well-known and greatly respected townsman, Captain Samuel Wright, died at his residence, Carlisle Terrace, on Sunday, after a protracted and painful illness, at the age of 75. The late Captain had had a long connection with Goole and its trade. In the early fifties he was the captain of one of the old class of passenger steamers which ran between Thorne Quay - or Thorne Waterside - and Hull, calling at Goole. Later, when the Goole and Hull Steam Packet Company was formed, Captain Wright was selected to take charge of the steamer Empress.
While connected with the Thorne boat, and also while with the
Goole and Hull Co., the deceased gentleman was always noted for
his extreme courtesy to all with whom he came in contact, and
for his devotion and faithfulness to the cause of his employers.
In fact the sterling integrity of his character, both in private
and business life, were among the main features of his career.
The qualities which he exhibited as a captain were further displayed
when, out of a large number of applicants, he was appointed harbour
master and pilot master at the port of Goole. This was some thirty
years ago when the trade of the port had not assumed its present
proportions, and during the twenty years or so in which he held
the post he saw a large development in the steam carrying trade
of the port, as well as physical increases in the docks.
Some six or seven years ago he retired on a superannuation allowance
from the Aire and Calder Navigation Company, by whom he was regarded
as a conscientious and trusted servant who had applied all his
energies in the best interests and to the success of the port.
The deceased had not taken any prominent part in public affairs,
the nature of his calling rendering that impossible, but he was
a much esteemed member of the local Wesleyan body, having been
a regular attendant at the North Street Wesleyan Church for many
years. The late Captain Wright was twice married and leaves a
widow and five children.
An account of the career of the late Captain Wright, so far as
his connection with the port of Goole is concerned, must be largely
a narration of the history of the port and the navigation of the
river. Long before there was any railway communication with Goole
from Hull or Doncaster, a line of steam boats ran from Thorne
Waterside to Hull, calling at Goole on the way.
It was in the early fifties that Captain Wright took charge of
one of those boats, the Don, a packet still remembered
by many of the older inhabitants of Goole. A coach ran from Doncaster
to Thorne Quay with passengers for Hull, the approach of which
was heralded by a blast upon the coach horn when the vehicle was
about a mile off, this signal being answered by a similar horn
blown by the engineer of the Don, who evidently combined
with the duties of an engineer those of a performer on the horn.
The boat then called at Goole, pulling up in the Dutch River opposite
the Ferry Boat Inn on Vermuyden Terrace, where the passengers
for Hull embarked.
At this period the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, having been
extended to Goole in 1848, ensured that all passengers from Wakefield
and the surrounding district for Hull travelled via Goole. There
was always a good number of passengers who availed themselves
of this route, and the Don and the other boats seem to have found
the trade profitable.
This state of affairs continued till the year 1856 when the Goole
and Hull Steam Packet Company (incorporated 1st December 1855)
commenced on the 28th May of that year to run two steam boats
from Goole to Hull. Captain John Moody was the chairman of the
company, and one of its directors was the late Mr Jeremiah Bentley,
to whom was offered the post of master to the new boat, the S.S.
Empress. Mr Bentley declined the appointment, however, and
it was then offered to the late Captain Wright, who accepted the
mastership and commenced to run the vessel. Shortly after this
the service from Thorne was stopped, and it is interesting to
note that negotiations were commenced with a view to Mr Daykin,
who had previously run the coach to Thorne, commencing a daily
coach service from Doncaster to Goole to meet the Empress.
An agreement was never, however, entered into, the parties not
being able to arrange terms, and apparently the project of coach
service was abandoned.
Captain Wright held the appointment of senior captain to the Packet
Company till February 1868, and had charge of each new vessel
as it was built for the company. In this connection it may be
stated that owing to the shallowness of the River Ouse at low
water prior to any alteration or improvement in the channel, navigation
was extremely difficult, a circumstance of which Captain Wright
had large and frequent experience while master of the Don
and also later when in charge of the boats of the Packet Company.
In fact, of such slight depth was the channel between Goole and
the bottom end of Goole Reach that the steamer Her Majesty,
which only drew from two to three feet, could not negotiate the
channel at low water on the neap tides, and she had to leave early
in the morning and go light to the end of the reach and wait there
for the passengers who were conveyed thither in a 'bus. And even
then it was no infrequent occurrence for the boats to be aground
for a long spell.
During the whole of the time that Captain Wright was employed
in the service of the Goole and Hull Steam Packet Company he discharged
his duties to the thorough satisfaction of his employers, and
gained the esteem of the passengers and all with whom he came
in contact. It may be of interest to note in connection with the
late Captain's service with the Packet Company that one of their
boats, of which he had been in charge, the Her Majesty,
was sold in 1860 and went to Portugal, while a later boat, the
Princess, was sold in 1878 and taken by Captain Wright's
son, Mr Sam Wright, to the West Indies.
With one exception the late Captain Wright's boats were free from
casualty while he was in command and the only occasion on which
there was any serious accident was in no way due to the master
of the Empress. It happened soon after the Goole and
Hull Steam Packet Company had been formed, and before the construction
of any jetty at Whitgift. Passengers who desired to join the steamer
there were ferried from the shore in a small boat. On the particular
occasion of which we write, the time of the year being winter,
the ferry had put off with six occupants, including the ferryman.
Directly after starting, one of the men remembered he had left
some tobacco on shore and the boat put back in order that he might
obtain it. Once again started, two drovers who formed some of
the passengers commenced to quarrel regardless of the fact that
they were in an open boat. It was quite dark at the time and in
their struggles the boat ran against the bows of the Empress,
capsized and passed under her keel. With extreme difficulty two
of the men were rescued. The other four were drowned. As an instance
of the important part which trivial incidents play on great occasions
it may be remarked that immediately on one of the men, a rat catcher,
being rescued he began to lament the loss of his ferrets without
any expression of gratitude for his own escape.
In February 1868, Captain Wright was selected from numerous applicants
as dock master and pilot master at Goole, in succession to the
late Mr Snowden. He remained in the service of the Aire and Calder
Navigation Company till 31st March 1890, when he retired on a
pension after a total service with the dock company of twenty-two
years and one month.
During that long term Goole witnessed greater developments in
her trade and made more rapid strides than at any other period
of her existence. Both the Aldam Dock and the Railway Extension
or Stanhope Dock were constructed to meet the growing demands
of the trade of the port, and to accommodate the numerous steamships
which were added to the local fleets, and also to make provision
for the expanding logwood trade.
During the same years, however, the trade with which the late
Captain Wright had been intimately connected decreased very much
in importance owing to the opening of the Doncaster to Staddlethorpe
branch of the N.E.R. with their station at Goole, which caused
an immediate decline in the passenger traffic of the steam boats.
Incidentally it may be mentioned that it was the opposition of
the then Packet Company that led to the North-Eastern Railway
withdrawing the clauses in the Bill by which they undertook to
provide a foot and carriage way to the Hook bridge.
During the many years which Captain Wright spent as harbour master
at Goole he won the respect of his employers and also succeeded
by his genial manner and tact in maintaining the friendliest of
terms with those with whom he had business relations. He was essentially
a strong man, and a person of great personal integrity and worth.
During the whole of his life he had had practical experience of
the Ouse and Humber, and the peculiarities of the channel were
so well known to him that his knowledge was almost unique. In
fact, his acquaintance with the river under all conditions was
so wide and varied that whenever new schemes were promoted in
Parliament affecting the river, he was invariably called upon
to give evidence to the Committee. Thus, when the Hull and Lincolnshire
Railway Bill was before Parliament, by which it was sought to
bridge the Humber near Hessle, and which would have affected Goole
as a seaport very seriously, Captain Wright was one of the strongest
witnesses against the Bill, which was ultimately abandoned.
On the occasion, too, of the Ouse Lower Improvement Act 1884,
by which the Aire and Calder Navigation Company, as conservators
of the Lower Ouse, obtained authority to carry out certain improvements
which have only lately been completed. Captain Wright gave evidence
before the Select Committee and the value of his local knowledge
and experience was of the utmost advantage to his employers.
It may be said of the deceased gentleman, finally, that he saw
the beginning of Goole as a port of importance, used his best
endeavours in his own sphere for its advancement during its probationary
term, so to speak, and lived to see that success assured.
VOTE OF CONDOLENCE
The late Captain Wright had been a member of the Goole P.S.A.
[Pleasant Sunday Afternoon] since its inception, and
at the meeting on Sunday afternoon a unanimous vote of condolence
with the widow and relatives was passed by the members.
THE FUNERAL
The funeral took place on Tuesday afternoon at the Goole Cemetery.
The mourners were Mrs Wright, widow; Mr R. Watson Wright (goods
department N.E. Railway, Newcastle), son; Mr S. Wright (Batley),
son; Mr and Mrs J. Huntingdon, daughter and son-in-law; Mrs Fowler,
daughter, and Mr Alec Fowler (resident engineer, Ribble Improvement,
Preston); Masters Thomas and Richard Duckels, and Misses Annie
and Nellie Duckels (Rawcliffe), grandchildren; Mr Fred Sanderson
(Beverley), grandson; Mr Charles Fisher (Willoughby); Mrs Baxter
(Thorne); Mr Wm Anson (Reedness); Mrs David Wright, Miss Reed
and Mrs Newton. The Aire and Calder Navigation were represented
by Mr W.E. Grayburn, Capt Bowman, Capt Ingleby, Messrs Beaumont,
Young, Brown and Pratt. Mr J. Sutcliffe represented the Goole
Towing Company, and there were also present Capt Bradley, Capt
Robinson, Messrs Greenfield, Greenwood, Bentley, Pilot Jackson,
Pilot Garner, etc. The officiating clergyman was the Rev. J. Caley.
Several handsome wreaths from the relatives of the deceased were
placed on the coffin.
Memorial Inscription: In loving memory of / Eliza / the beloved
wife of Samuel Wright / of Harbour House, Goole / who died November
23rd 1885 / aged 65 years / Also of the above named / Samuel Wright
/ late dock master / who died May 16th 1897 / aged 75 years