In September 1789, a ship called the Adventure ran aground on the Herd Sands, the treacherous banks where the Tyne meets the North Sea. The wreck sat close enough to shore that the South Shields town folk watched helplessly as it happened. The sea was too rough for the boats they had to be of any use. Everyone on board the vessel was lost.
Though grief-stricken, the town would not accept that outcome twice. A local committee formed and offered a prize for anyone who could design a rescue craft built to survive those elements. William Wouldhave, a parish clerk, entered the contest. So did Henry Greathead, a local boatbuilder. Neither design won outright. The committee took the best of both and asked Greathead to build it. Simply called the Original, the first purpose-built lifeboat launched within the year. Its successor, called the Tyne, is credited with saving over a thousand lives. Greathead went on to build roughly thirty more.
“Always Ready” made for good seafaring advice long before it was made an official motto. When South Shields became a municipal borough in 1850, the new coat of arms included the phrase, along with a lifeboat, oar, sailor, and anchor. The “new” town hall opened in 1910, making Nurse Aird and her loved ones present in a time of prosperity just before the Great War.
A resilient spirt has been evident throughout our time in the Teeside region. We first visited Redcar more than a year ago, then another pair of cards had us admiring the old seaside mining town again. Sorting further turned up an unexpected glimpse of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra when they opened Kingsway.
Reading Nurse Aird’s own cards gave us her voice directly—work, faith, family, and the small pleasures of an independent life. Last week, we heard from fellow nurses, patients, and friends writing back to her between cases.
No doubt Liz knew of her hometown’s historic tragedy and the innovative response that followed. It remains a matter of pride in South Shields today. She seems to have applied the principle in her own life, too, as much as one can tell from a stack of old postcards.
We find the same heartbreak at a smaller scale, and an accompanying readiness formed into habit. Not sorrowfully bracing for each impending disaster, but rather cheerfully building up the ordinary qualities that come before whatever might be next: caring for people, going where connections take you, keeping faith and family in good repair, and staying generous and attentive toward others. More than a century later, Nurse Aird is still prepared.
To Read More
RNLI, “1785: The First Lifeboats” — Account of the Adventure wreck, the Lawe House design competition, and the rivalry between Wouldhave and Greathead.
Fabulous North, “South Shields Lifeboat Memorial” — The 1889 Golden Jubilee memorial built to honor them both, and a picture of the lifeboat.