diff --git a/components/esm/loadtes3.cpp b/components/esm/loadtes3.cpp
index 87a8d1d57e..262d4f6faa 100644
--- a/components/esm/loadtes3.cpp
+++ b/components/esm/loadtes3.cpp
@@ -19,7 +19,15 @@ void ESM::Header::blank()
 
 void ESM::Header::load (ESMReader &esm)
 {
-    esm.getHNT (mData, "HEDR", 300);
+    if (esm.isNextSub("HEDR"))
+    {
+      esm.getSubHeader();
+      esm.getT(mData.version);
+      esm.getT(mData.type);
+      mData.author.assign(esm.getString(sizeof(mData.author.name)));
+      mData.desc.assign(esm.getString(sizeof(mData.desc.name)));
+      esm.getT(mData.records);
+    }
 
     if (esm.isNextSub ("FORM"))
     {
@@ -52,4 +60,4 @@ void ESM::Header::save (ESMWriter &esm)
         esm.writeHNCString ("MAST", iter->name);
         esm.writeHNT ("DATA", iter->size);
     }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}