Penlee Lifeboat Disaster
(Courtesy of Penlee Lifeboat Station website which in itself is a great summary of much of the highly acclaimed text from E.C. Bowcott referenced below)
The Penlee lifeboat disaster occurred on 19 December 1981 off the coast of Cornwall. The lifeboat Solomon Browne, based at the Penlee lifeboat station near Mousehole, went to the aid of the vessel Union Star after its engines failed in heavy seas. After the lifeboat had rescued four people, both vessels were lost with all hands; in all, sixteen people died including eight volunteer lifeboatmen.
MV Union Star
The MV Union Star was launched in Ringkøbing in Denmark just a few days before it was wrecked on the Cornish coast. A mini-bulk carrier registered in Dublin, Ireland, it sailed to IJmuiden in the Netherlands to collect a cargo of fertiliser for its maiden voyage to Arklow in Ireland. It was carrying a crew of five: Captain Henry Morton; Mate James Whittaker, Engineer George Sedgwick, Crewman Anghostino Verressimo, and Crewman Manuel Lopes. Also on board was the captain's family (his wife Dawn with teenage stepdaughters Sharon and Deanne) who had been picked up at an unauthorised stop on the east coast of England.
Near the south coast of Cornwall, 8 miles (13 km) east of the Wolf Rock, the new ship's engines failed. It was unable to restart them but did not make a mayday call. Assistance was offered by a tug, the Noord Holland, under the Lloyd's Open Form salvage contract but Morton initially refused the offer, later accepting after consulting his owners. Winds were gusting at up to 90 knots (100 mph; 170 km/h) – hurricane, force 12 on the Beaufort scale – with waves up to 60 feet (18 m) high. The powerless ship was blown across Mount's Bay towards the rocks of Boscawen Cove, near Lamorna.
Rescue attempts
FAA Sea King helicopter
As the ship was close to shore, the Coastguard at Falmouth summoned a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter from 820 Naval Air Squadron (who were providing cover for 771 Naval Air Squadron), RNAS Culdrose. It used the call sign "Rescue 80" during the mission.
The aircraft (airframe XZ574) was flown that night by United States Navy exchange-pilot Lt Cdr Russell Smith, assisted by Lt Steve Marlow, S/Lt Kenneth Doherty and Leading Aircrewman Martin Kennie of the Royal Navy. They were unable to winch anyone off the ship as the waves were too violent.
RNLB Solomon Browne
The original Penlee Lifeboat Station, from which Solomon Browne was launched
The Coastguard had difficulties contacting the secretary of the nearest lifeboat station, Penlee Lifeboat Station at Mousehole on the west side of the bay. They eventually contacted Coxswain Trevelyan Richards and asked him to put the lifeboat on standby in case the helicopter rescue failed. He summoned the lifeboat's volunteer crew and picked seven men to accompany him in the lifeboat.They were Second Coxswain/Mechanic Stephen Madron, Assistant Mechanic Nigel Brockman, Emergency Mechanic John Blewett, and crewmembers Charlie Greenhaugh, Kevin Smith, Barrie Torrie and Gary Wallis. Neil Brockman, the son of Nigel Brockman, got to the lifeboat station on time, but was turned down for the trip by Trevelyan Richards, who was reluctant to take out two members of the same family that night.
The lifeboat launched at 8:12 pm and headed out through the storm to the drifting coaster. The lifeboat was the Solomon Browne, a wooden 47-foot (14 m) Watson-class boat built in 1960 and capable of 9 knots (17 km/h). After it had made several attempts to get alongside, four people managed to jump across: the captain's family and one of the men were apparently safe. The lifeboat radioed that 'we’ve got four off', but that was the last heard from either vessel. Lt Cdr Smith USN, the pilot of the rescue helicopter, later reported that:
The greatest act of courage that I have ever seen, and am ever likely to see, was the penultimate courage and dedication shown by the Penlee [crew] when it manoeuvred back alongside the casualty in over 60 ft breakers and rescued four people shortly after the Penlee had been bashed on top of the casualty's hatch covers. They were truly the bravest eight men I've ever seen, who were also totally dedicated to upholding the highest standards of the RNLI.
Other lifeboats
Lifeboats were summoned from Sennen Cove, The Lizard and St Mary's to try to help their colleagues from Penlee. The Sennen Cove Lifeboat found it impossible to make headway round Land's End. The Lizard Lifeboat found a serious hole in its hull when it finally returned to its slipway after a fruitless search.
Aftermath
In the aftermath of the disaster, wreckage from the Solomon Browne was found along the shore, and the Union Star lay capsized onto the rocks, west of Tater Du Lighthouse. Some, but not all, of the 16 bodies were eventually recovered. The inquiry into the disaster determined that the loss of the Union Star and its crew was because of:
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the irreparable failure of the ship's engines due to contamination of fuel by sea water while off a dangerous lee shore;
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the extreme severity of the weather, wind and sea; and
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the capsize of the vessel on or shortly after stranding.
The loss of the Solomon Browne was:
in consequence of the persistent and heroic endeavours by the coxswain and his crew to save the lives of all from the Union Star. Such heroism enhances the highest traditions of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in whose service they gave their lives.
Coxswain Trevelyan Richards was posthumously awarded the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's gold medal, while the remainder of the crew were all posthumously awarded bronze medals. The station itself was awarded a gold medal service plaque. The disaster prompted a massive public appeal for the benefit of the village of Mousehole which raised over £3 million (equivalent to £10.6 million in 2016), although there was an outcry when the government tried to tax the donations.
Two nights before the disaster, Charlie Greenhaugh, who in civilian life was the landlord of the Ship Inn on the quayside in Mousehole, had turned on the village's Christmas lights. After the storm the lights were left off but three days later his widow Mary asked for them to be repaired and lit again.The village has been lit up each December since then, but on the anniversary of the disaster they are turned off at 8:00 pm for an hour as an act of remembrance. A plaque was also erected on the Ship Inn on behalf of the tenants, managers, directors and employees of the St Austell Brewery, the pub's owner.
Within a day of the disaster enough people from Mousehole had volunteered to form a new lifeboat crew. In 1983 a new lifeboat station (still known as 'Penlee') was opened nearby at Newlyn where a faster, larger boat could be kept moored afloat in the harbour. Neil Brockman later became the coxswain of the station's Severn-classlifeboat. The old boathouse at Penlee Point with its slipway is empty but has been maintained and a memorial garden was created beside it in 1985 to commemorate the crew of the Solomon Browne.
Cultural references
The disaster has been the subject of several songs. The English folk singer / songwriter Seth Lakeman wrote the song "Solomon Browne", which appears on his 2008 album Poor Man's Heaven. The CD reissue of the Anthony Phillips' album Invisible Men includes "The Ballad of Penlee" about the incident. Paul Sirman, a Kentish folk artist who specialises in songs of the sea recorded the incident in his song "Solomon Browne" which appears on his album One For All. Kimber's Men, a sea shanty group, recorded "Don't Take The Heroes" on their CD of the same name. Local band Bates Motel based in Hayle included a song "The Last Wave", about the disaster on their album Anorak. In 2015, Cornish-American bard Jim Wearne's album Half Alive in Wallaroo featured the track "The Boys of Penlee", written by fellow Cornish bard Craig Weatherhill, and featuring Weatherhill playing mellotron whose haunting choir sound ends the song with the line "For those in peril on the sea", from the popular sailors' hymn. Simon Dobson wrote a test piece for brass band entitled "Penlee" about the incident.In 2017 The Wareham Whalers Shanty Crew from Wareham in Dorset presented their new tribute song "The Shout" at the Falmouth Shanty Festival.
Further and highly recommended reading
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Bowcott, E.C. (1982). The Penlee Lifeboat Disaster. ISBN 0-907622-03-8.
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