Zanetta

13th November 1901

The fine weather, which had held for the previous few weeks, ended abruptly with a great storm that would cost many lives and cause much loss of property along the coast.

On Wednesday morning the Zanetta a 1334 ton iron hulled steamer ran aground near Peak Steel, Ravenscar. She had been sheltering in the Bay, but due to the gale force winds her anchors dragged, and she came on to the shore. Captain J. Gibson and the crew of fifteen made the shore and were rescued by the use of a cliff ladder. The Robin Hood’s Bay Rocket Brigade stood by with their apparatus. The vessel, traveling north in ballast at the time, was a regular trader between London and the Tyne. Built at Messers Palmers Yard at Yarrow in 1878 and owned by Messers John Fenwick & Sons of London the Zanetta had become another victim of the storm. The vessel broke up and some remains can be seen to this day in the shallow waters of Peak Hole.

"At Robin Hood’s Bay much damage to roofs &c. some houses being partly unroofed. One house on the high cliff owned by Mrs. J Mennell collapsed and fell into the sea. Fortunately it was unoccupied otherwise the consequences could have been most serious." Whitby Gazzette

The next week a large portion of wreckage believed to be the hull of a fishing vessel washed ashore at Stoupe Beck. It was supposed to be another victim of the gales, a vessel that had not made a harbour. "There is nothing to lead us to its identification and it is therefore chronicled as one of the mysteries of the sea." Whitby Gazzette