The Sunderland Coal Trade

The coal trade peaked in summer, a mark of how dangerous it was during the rest of the year to navigate the east coast and the mouth of the Wear, ‘narrow and shallow, called a dry harbour as at low tide craft lie on the ground’. When conditions allowed, extraordinary effort was made to load and despatch ships, day or night, inside the port or out at sea. During the 17th century, before there were concerted moves to improve the river, when the tide was out ‘keelmen [were] often forced to haul their keels by a line… and so to draw and tug them by mere strength, up and down the … river’ and manually beach the vessels on the shore. When ships had been delayed ‘through adverse winds and other causes’, the Sunderland trade did not stop. Coal fitters despatched keels upriver for more loads, hoping that ships might be in port when the keels returned, so that the coal could be sent out without delay.