All at Sea (for 5 days)

The tale of a stoic Ukranian bobbing about in the North Sea

I’m still wading my way through the boxes of negatives which make up the Photo Centre in Berwick. So far I’ve made it as far as 1955, making a detailed index of each of the plates as I go - that’s about 12,000 images! As you might imagine from a business operating in a small town, the same family names crop up again and again. Because of this, my interest is always piqued by a name that’s even the slightest bit unusual.

Today I found a box with the caption ‘s/c Wladimir Podoprihora - (Russian adrift for 5 days)’ - (s/c stands for single column - basically a portrait). When I opened the box and looked at the four glass quarter plates inside, they showed a middle aged man in a tweed suit. The first plate showed him lounging in an armchair, the second, drinking a cup of tea, the third, eating a bowl of soup and the fourth, a half length portrait. The photographs were all taken in the comfortable surroundings of a sitting room in what appeared to be a family home.

The look of the images and the caption on the box did not exactly match. This man didn’t look as if he might have been adrift at sea for five days, so to the newspapers I went. The story which emerged was an interesting one and certainly not one I’d come across before. It also goes to show that there’s often an amazing story behind even the most mundane of images.

's/c - Wladimir Podoprihora - (Russian adrift for five days)' - (BRO 1944/1/1037/1-4)

Note: I found a second box a few numbers along in the index which visually fills in some of the story.

Vladimir Nicholai Podoprihora was born in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, a small coastal village close to Odesa in Ukraine in 1908. During the Second World War this area was under German Occupation and at the end of the war became part of the USSR. We do not know what Podoprihora did during the war years, but by 13th June 1946 he was in Passau in Germany where he stayed until 23rd November 1948. He then made his way to the UK as a displaced person and settled in Lancashire. In 1953 he married Bertha Healey at Bury Registry Office.

In June 1955, he was living in Tottington near Manchester and working as a scrap metal dealer, which makes what happened next quite a strange series of events.

In mid-October 1955 he travelled to Sunderland where he bought a 50ft fishing boat named the “Gracie” for £250. His plan was to sail singlehandedly from Sunderland on the northeast coast to Fleetwood in Lancashire on the west coast. The route which he had planned would have taken him up the North Sea coast, around the top of Scotland and down into the Irish Sea.

He left Sunderland as planned on 18th October but 10 hours into his voyage, the engine failed and the boat started to drift. He spent the next five days drifting wherever the tides took him. He survived on biscuits and a bucket of fresh water which he strictly rationed. It was later discovered that in the rough seas a box of soap powder had fallen into his drinking water, so he had actually survived on biscuits and soapy water!

The swell took the “Gracie” north and despite seeing boats around, Vladimir had been unable to attract their attention. On the fifth day his boat crashed into rocks on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland Coast. He was eventually spotted by the keeper of the Longstone Lighthouse at about 9.30am on 22nd October. The keeper sent for the lifeboat from nearby Seahouses. Longstone lighthouse had been made famous in 1838 by Grace Darling’s heroic rescue. Vladmir became the first person to be rescued by Seahouses’ new lifeboat named after the local heroine.

When Vladimir was brought ashore he appeared to be relatively unscathed by the incident. He was taken to Seahouses Police Station where he was given dry clothes and a cup of tea. He then returned to the harbour to see if his boat could be saved. As it had not yet been recovered, he retired to a guesthouse run by Mrs Isabella Milliken. His leaking boat was brought into the harbour while he slept.

The ‘Gracie’ in Seahouses Harbour - (BRO 1944/1/1043/6)

We can assume that these photographs were taken at Mrs Milliken’s house when Dave Smith of the Photo Centre went down to Seahouses to report on the incident. Any interview would have been brief as Vladimir apparently spoke little English.

Totally unperturbed by the incident, the following day Vladimir planned to have the “Gracie” repaired so he could try again. In the coming days the boat was made sea worthy but the maritime authorities forbade him from attempting the voyage again without a companion. On 27th October, his wife Bertha arrived in Seahouses but she was not planning to sail with him.

Vladimir aboard the ‘Gracie’ - The lady in the background with the child could be his wife Bertha - (BRO 1944/1/1043/8)

Reading of the incident in the press and hearing that Vladmir had been forbidden from sailing his vessel alone, a local lad named John Roberts travelled the short distance from his home in Belford to Seahouses and offered his services. Roberts worked on a local farm and had not been to sea before but saw it as an opportunity for adventure.

The pair left Seahouses on the morning of 8th November, but soon returned when it was found that the boat had sprung a leak in its stern two miles out. With the hole repaired they left the following morning with a sail, pumps (in case another leak appeared) and rockets (in case of an emergency). By noon the vessel had been spotted by the Coastguard off Berwick making good progress. The new route took the boat through the Forth and Clyde Canal.

Mr Robert Rutter one of the doubting local fishermen! (BRO 1944/1/1043/9)

Despite local fishermen being doubtful that they would arrive safely in Fleetwood, it would appear that the rest of the journey went without a hitch as there is no mention of Vladimir Podoprihora and his boat in any newspapers again!

All images © Berwick Record Office - Photo Centre Collection