RESEARCH by Arthur Watts, of Saunders Close, Walney, has shown that two of his relatives died in a shipping accident 88 years ago.

His uncle Frank W. Watts, aged 45 and his son, also called Frank, aged 17, died with fellow crew member John Jago, 62, when the Hercules paddle tug sank on January 7 in 1931.

It was in a collision with the cargo liner Napier Star on the Tyne, near Jarrow.

The tug skipper Peter Newton, Fred Amess, George Brown and Robert Black were all rescued.

Mr Watts said: “Uncle Frank had seven sons, six of whom would serve in the Second World War — serving in the RAF, Marines and the Merchant Navy — and all survived."

He said: “What Frank did not know was that at the time of his drowning his wife Marie who was pregnant at the time would go on to have a baby girl Francis.”

The Napier Star went on to have another collision in the Irish Sea on August 19 in 1935, badly damaging the passenger liner Laurentic and leaving six of its passengers dead.

On December 18 in 1940, the Napier Star sunk by torpedo.

It was fired by the German submarine U-100 with the loss of 84 of the 99 people on board the ship.

Napier Star had sailed from Liverpool for New Zealand on December 15 with in a general cargo.