THE ABANA SHIPWRECK CIRCA 1894

On 22nd December 1894, the Norwegian ship, Abana was sailing from Liverpool to Florida but was caught up in a storm and mistook the then recently built Blackpool Tower for a lighthouse. The Abana was first seen off North Pier but by the time the lifeboat, which had to be towed by horse from Blackpool to Bispham, had been launched it had drifted to Little Bispham where it was wrecked. The ship's bell still hangs in St Andrews Church in Cleveleys.The remains of the Abana are still visible at low tide on the beach at Little Bispham. On the same day as the Abana hit the pier, a fishing boat from Fleetwood, the Petrel was also driven ashore by the same storm close to Uncle Tom's Cabin at North Shore.
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