My late cousin Robert Nicholson was born about 1940 ish in old Cuthbert St & he spent all his working life at sea.
He told me this interesting tale about 20 years ago .
One year, as Captain of a Sea Going Tug he was towing a large Barge from Africa across the Atlantic to Florida in the USA and hit real bad hurricane type weather.
On the ships radio he received a message from a lady on a private yacht called the ‘London Lady’ ahead of them and having problems finding their Locations so she asked Robert if he could give them their position. Robert worked it out and when he got back to the Yacht her husband replied with a Geordie accent. Robert recognised Geordie so asked him where abouts was he from & the man said ‘A little town called Hebburn’. Robert said he was born in Cuthbert St and still lives in the Town. He asked the man where abouts in Hebburn did he live and I’m pretty sure the man said he was brought up in Tennant St in the Newtown and he had either 5 or was it 6 sisters. Robert had forgot the mans surname when he told me the story but he always wondered if the Yacht got to the USA safely.
I’ve tried a few times to find out what the man’s surname was but no luck .
A good clue is he had 5 sisters, ran his own Company in the USA and had went back and forth across the Atlantic on his yacht a few times on Business. I’ve had this story on previous Hebburn message boards over the years but so far no luck .