Storms wash up all sorts along this stretch of coast. Driftwood. Old rope. The odd sad welly. Coal—see my previous post. In October 1992 they washed up a different windfall.
A forty foot shipping container broke loose from its vessel during a gale and settled below these cliffs at Hole Wyke, three miles from Staithes. Inside sat crate upon crate of children’s clothes and T-shirts, still wrapped in plastic, still waiting for a shop that would never see them.
Word travels fast in a small place. By the time Customs and Excise arrived the next day, the container stood as empty as a church on a Sunday in August. One man in Skinningrove is said to have carried off three hundred T-shirts. Bright green wellingtons turned up on fishing boats for weeks after. The car boot sales that weekend did a roaring trade.
The Whitby Gazette likened it all to Whisky Galore, and fair enough. Same plot, different coast, cheaper whisky. Under the Merchant Shipping Act of 1894, washed up cargo belongs to its owner, not to whoever gets there first with a bin bag. That did not trouble anyone at Hole Wyke that week.
Rumour had it a second container was still out there, bobbing about in the North Sea. Nobody in Staithes seemed in any rush to find it. They already had wardrobes full.
It seems Vin Garbutt got there first with a guitar instead of a bin bag. His social commentary about the spillage of cargo from a container ship off the North Yorkshire coast is hilarious, and the song sits on his 1995 live album Plugged!, recorded at the Red Lion Folk Club in Birmingham. Whether he had this very container in mind or another one entirely is not something I can confirm, but the coincidence is a good one. Thanks to Steve for the YouTube link:
Source: Lumley, Steve. “Clothing Galore…” Whitby Gazette, 16 Oct. 1992.
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