Given the seafaring history of our region, it was almost inevitable that many ships would run into trouble off our shores in the rough North Sea.
If we take the stretch of water between Whitby and Berwick, there were around 380 recorded shipwrecks between 1740 and 2000. One of the vessels that came to grief was the Betsy Cairns which was destroyed on the notorious Black Midden rocks at the mouth of the River Tyne in 1827.
This dramatic photographic interpretation of the incident has been created by Mick Ray, a local historian and photographer who runs the popular Facebook group Old Photos of South Shields and the North East. You can find many more of his examples of his work there.
