Christ Church bells will ring tonight - Capt George Knott

[River Tyne Lass]

Christ Church, North Shields, will commemorate a former bell ringer tonight.  He is Capt. George Knott master mariner whose ship SS Spennymoor was sunk on May 24 1915 on her maiden voyage.    He was also a member of the choir as well as a bell ringer.

[TriciaK]

That's strange. River Tyne Lass.
My maiden name was Knott, and a few of my ancestors on my father's side were master mariners. I've got paintings of 2 of the boats they sailed out of Blyth. All called John Knott, as was my father.
I always thought there were no more Knotts on Tyneside, as there didn't seem to be any male descendents from our branch.

[barryd]

Not much on the Internet about SS Spennymoor. Scroll down until you find it.

http://www.mariners-list.com/site_pages.php?section=Shipping+Companies&category=British&page_name=Walter+Runciman++%2F++Moor+Line

[barryd]

I looked again and it is the second Spennymoor. Scroll down to the first one and  then George Knotts' Spennymoor comes up soon afterwards.

[TriciaK]

Interesting - one of my ancestor's ships was the Blyth, but this couldn't have been it as it would have been built much earlier than 1922.
"Blythmoor         1922    10.4.1940 sunk at Narvik probably by British destroyers."
He did sail the Scandinavian route though, even as far as the Baltic  and St. Petersburg.
And why Spennymoor? Which is an old coalmining town. I worked there for a year back in the late '50s.

[River Tyne Lass]

I read about Capt. George Knott being commemorated in a small article in my local newspaper which is called the 'News Guardian'.  The article also shows a photo of George in a headshot.  He is wearing what may be his captain's hat and he has a moustache

The article related his ship was sunk by a German submarine.   Thank you for your posts and link giving more background information - barryd and TriciaK.  I wonder if it might be that George may be linked to some of your ancestors TriciaK?  It sounds possible.

[River Tyne Lass]

https://www.newsguardian.co.uk/news/bells-to-ring-in-honour-of-church-s-war-hero-1-9328242

Just noticed - the article is on-line already.

[River Tyne Lass]

http://www.newmp.org.uk/article.php?categoryid=99&articleid=1627&displayorder=77

There is also a write up on the NEWMP website on the 'Every Name A Story' part.

[barryd]

TriciaK

Every ship in that line had a name that ended with …..moor. Someone must have come up with Spennymoor as a bit of a joke