The wreck of the Bradda wrecked in January 1936

the remains now lie on Formby beach.



The Bradda a steam powered coaster converted to carry general cargo was wrecked off Formy Point on the 9th of January 1936. She was outward bound from Liverpool bound for Rogerstown in the Irish Free State with a cargo of coal having left Liverpool in what was described as a gale.

As the Bradda proceeded down the river it became obvious that the weather was worsening and the Captain Cregeen decided he would have to turn the vessel around and head back to Liverpool.

By this time they were by the Crosby light and the only survivor Samuel Edward Ball described the events of that evening.

Ball said the captain of the ship told him that the vessel would not answer the helm when he tried to turn back after passing the Crosby lightship.

Ball described how, when the ship grounded, the captain told the crew ( of which there were 6 members ) to put on their life jackets. They sent up flares and rockets , but although ships passed them less than half a mile away they seemed to take no notice of the distress signals.

When the supply of distress signals ran out they soaked towels and rags in paraffin and used these to attract attention.

The ship began to list badly and Ball hung onto the Port side and saw three of the crew washed overboard, when he himself was in the water he found one of the crew also swimming close by.

Ball said: I pushed a piece of timber towards him and told him to hang onto it as I thought I was the better swimmer than he, a heavy sea parted us and I did not see any member of the crew again.

After swimming floating and drifting for more than an hour he reached land and lay exhausted on the tideline before recovering some strength and struggled up the through the sandhills at Formby to the boathouse keepers cottage on Lifeboat Road.

John Aindow, tide gauge attendant, employed by the Mersey Docks and Harbour board, was at this time living at the Boathouse cottage, said that at 7.45 pm on Januay the 9th he was in the lookout tower of his cottage, and saw a white distress rocket in the direction of Hoylake. He attempted to telephone to the dock board offices but found the gale had put his telephone out of order.

Some time later he saw a light flashing in the sandhills and went outside and met Ball in his back garden.

Balls clothing was saturated, and Ball was in a distressed condition, he told him he had swum ashore, and that he had been swimming with another boy to within half a mile of the shore when the boy disappeared.

After Ball had recovered , they walked to the Formby Railway Station and telephoned the police. Ball told them of the wreck and insisted on returning to the shore to point out the position where he had landed.

The Bradda was Dutch built in Rotterdam in 1918, she was 107 feet long and 21 feet in the beam, she had several owners prior to Messrs J B Lee of Ramsey purchasing her, and she was managed by the Ramsey Steamer Co, and used for carrying general cargo around the Irish sea.

She was steam powered with a 2 cylinder vertical engine, and this forms the major part of what is left of her today.

She had previously been named Feducia and the Jolly Frank, these Dutch built coastal vessels were lighter build than a typical English built vessel, and it was thought the construction was wooden beams with a steel hull, this would account for the remains of the cargo hold still showing her upright wooden beams but there is no sign of her plating which could have been removed during the salvaging of her.

The Manx papers cover the disaster in great detail and a relief fund was set up for the families of the 5 men lost when she sank.

Her remains are clearly visible on Formby beach although they only uncover on the larger tides, she is about 300 yrds North from the Ionic Star, the Blue Star Line ship although slightly closer inland than the Ionic Star which was lost three years later in 1939.

After reading coverage of the disaster in a number of local and Manx papers I wonder if the vessel breached the Mersey training walls and ended up in the area where the Formby channel was, this may account for the lack of other vessels response to their distress flares as it would be almost impossible for anything larger than the Bradda to follow her over the training walls without grounding themselves, this is only my personal theory.

The Formby Channel had started silting up by 1936 although today I wonder if changes in the coastline may see a return of the channel which was used by quite large ship to gain access to Preston in former times.

A photograph taken in the 1980's showing the Bradda Engine. Photo credit Peter Kenrick.
A photo taken in poor light as the sun was rising on the 29th Sept 2007, here tall the ribs are fully covered with sand.
Sept 2007.
Sept 2007.
1990's.
1990's.
August 2014
August 2014
August 2014
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August 2014
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August 2014
Here you can see the port of the low pressure cylinder, August 2014
Anoth view of the port of the low pressure cylinder, August 2014
August 2014
August 2014
A photo taken in April 2014, if you compare the photo on the right takne in August 2014, you will see that the mussels that had grown across the top of the high pressure cylinder have disapeared between these two dates.
August 2014
This is a Gresswell photo taken in the late 40's or early 50's and shows the tide attendents lookout tower where John Aindow spotted the distress rocket from the Bradda
A slightly different view of the lookout tower used by the tide attendent John Aindow.


If you have any information on the wrecks off the Southport beach please e-mail me

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