Penlee lifeboat disaster
Encyclopedia
The Penlee lifeboat disaster occurred on 19 December 1981 off the coast of Cornwall
, in England
, UK
. The Penlee Lifeboat
went to the aid of the coaster
Union Star after its engines failed in heavy seas. After the lifeboat had managed to rescue four people both vessels were lost with all hands; sixteen people died including eight volunteer lifeboatmen.
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 carried 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 who had been picked up at an unauthorized stop on the east coast of England, wife Dawn and teenage stepdaughters Sharon and Deanne.
Near the south coast of Cornwall, 8 miles (12.9 km) east of the Wolf Rock
, the new ship's engines failed. She was unable to restart them but did not issue a mayday
. 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 kn (109.6 mph; 176.4 km/h) – hurricane force 12 on the Beaufort scale
– with waves up to 60 feet (18.3 m) high. The powerless ship was blown across Mount's Bay
towards the rocks of Boscawen Cove, near Lamorna
. The Coastguard
at Falmouth
summoned a Royal Navy
Sea King
helicopter from RNAS Culdrose
but they were unable to winch anyone off the ship.
, 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, crewmembers Charlie Greenhaugh, Kevin Smith, Barrie Torrie and Gary Wallis.
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 feet (14.3 m) boat built in 1960 and capable of 9 knots (17.6 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 ever heard from anyone on either vessel.
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 rescuing 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
.
Lifeboats were summoned from , and 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. 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:
The loss of the Solomon Browne was:
3 million (£ as of ), although there was an outcry when the government tried to tax the donations.
Two nights before the disaster, Charlie Greenhaugh had turned on the Christmas lights
in Mousehole. 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.
Within a day of the disaster enough people from Mousehole had volunteered to form a new lifeboat crew. In 1983 a new lifeboat station was opened nearby at Newlyn
where a faster, larger boat could be kept moored afloat in the harbour. 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. Despite the station now being at Newlyn it is still known as 'Penlee'.
The disaster has been the subject of several songs. Seth Lakeman
, an English
folk
singer, songwriter
, and musician
wrote a song called "Solomon Browne" about the Penlee lifeboat disaster. This 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 Kent
ish 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. The song was written by Neil Kimber and Rodger Hepworth.
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The Penlee Lifeboat
Penlee Lifeboat Station
Penlee Lifeboat Station is the base for Royal National Lifeboat Institution search and rescue operations for Mount's Bay in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The lifeboat station was opened at Penlee Point in Mousehole in 1913 but was moved to Newlyn in 1983...
went to the aid of the coaster
Coastal trading vessel
Coastal trading vessels, also known as coasters, are shallow-hulled ships used for trade between locations on the same island or continent. Their shallow hulls mean that they can get through reefs where deeper-hulled sea-going ships usually cannot....
Union Star after its engines failed in heavy seas. After the lifeboat had managed to rescue four people both vessels were lost with all hands; sixteen people died including eight volunteer lifeboatmen.
MV Union Star
The MV Union Star launched in Ringkobing in DenmarkDenmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
just a few days before it was wrecked on the Cornish coast. A mini-bulk carrier registered in Dublin, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, it sailed to IJmuiden in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
to collect a cargo of fertiliser for its maiden voyage to Arklow
Arklow
Arklow , also known as Inbhear Dé from the Avonmore river's older name Abhainn Dé, is a historic town located in County Wicklow on the east coast of Ireland. Founded by the Vikings in the ninth century, Arklow was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the 1798 rebellion...
in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
.
It carried a crew of five: Captain
Captain (naval)
Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The NATO rank code is OF-5, equivalent to an army full colonel....
Henry Morton; Mate
Chief Mate
A Chief Mate or Chief Officer, usually also synonymous with the First Mate or First Officer , is a licensed member and head of the deck department of a merchant ship...
James Whittaker, Engineer George Sedgwick, Crewman Anghostino Verressimo, and Crewman Manuel Lopes. Also on board was the captain's family who had been picked up at an unauthorized stop on the east coast of England, wife Dawn and teenage stepdaughters Sharon and Deanne.
Near the south coast of Cornwall, 8 miles (12.9 km) east of the Wolf Rock
Wolf Rock, Cornwall
Wolf Rock is a treacherous rock located east of St Mary's, Isles of Scilly and southwest of Land's End, in Cornwall, United Kingdom. A lighthouse, known as the Wolf Rock Lighthouse, was built on the rock by James Walker from 1861 to 1869; it entered service in January 1870.The lighthouse is in...
, the new ship's engines failed. She was unable to restart them but did not issue a mayday
Mayday (distress signal)
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice procedure radio communications. It derives from the French venez m'aider, meaning "come help me"....
. Assistance was offered by a tug
Tug
Tuğ is a village in the Khojavend Rayon of Azerbaijan....
, the Noord Holland, under the Lloyd's Open Form
Lloyd's Open Form
A Lloyd's Open Form, formally Lloyd's Standard Form of Salvage Agreement, but more commonly referred to as LOF, is a standard legal document for a proposed marine salvage operation. The two-page contract is published by the famous Lloyd's of London...
salvage
Marine salvage
Marine salvage is the process of rescuing a ship, its cargo, or other property from peril. Salvage encompasses rescue towing, refloating a sunken or grounded vessel, or patching or repairing a ship...
contract but Morton initially refused the offer, later accepting after consulting his owners.
Winds were gusting at up to 90 kn (109.6 mph; 176.4 km/h) – hurricane force 12 on the Beaufort scale
Beaufort scale
The Beaufort Scale is an empirical measure that relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land. Its full name is the Beaufort Wind Force Scale.-History:...
– with waves up to 60 feet (18.3 m) high. The powerless ship was blown across Mount's Bay
Mount's Bay
Mount's Bay is a large, sweeping bay on the English Channel coast of Cornwall in the United Kingdom, stretching from the Lizard Point to Gwennap Head on the eastern side of the Land's End peninsula. Towards the middle of the bay is St Michael's Mount...
towards the rocks of Boscawen Cove, near Lamorna
Lamorna
Lamorna is a fishing village and cove in west Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated on the Penwith peninsula approximately four miles south of Penzance.-Newlyn School of Art and the Lamorna Colony:...
. The Coastguard
Her Majesty's Coastguard
Her Majesty's Coastguard is the service of the government of the United Kingdom concerned with co-ordinating air-sea rescue.HM Coastguard is a section of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency responsible for the initiation and co-ordination of all civilian maritime Search and Rescue within the UK...
at Falmouth
Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....
summoned a Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
Sea King
Westland Sea King
The Westland WS-61 Sea King is a British licence-built version of the American Sikorsky S-61 helicopter of the same name, built by Westland Helicopters. The aircraft differs considerably from the American version, with Rolls-Royce Gnome engines , British made anti-submarine warfare systems and a...
helicopter from RNAS Culdrose
RNAS Culdrose
Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose , based in Cornwall, near Helston, on the Lizard Peninsula, has three major roles: serving the Fleet Air Arm's front line Sea King and Merlin helicopter squadrons; providing search and rescue for the South West region; and training specialists for the Royal Navy...
but they were unable to winch anyone off the ship.
RNLB Solomon Browne
The Coastguard had difficulties contacting the secretary of the nearest lifeboatLifeboat (rescue)
A rescue lifeboat is a boat rescue craft which is used to attend a vessel in distress, or its survivors, to rescue crewmen and passengers. It can be hand pulled, sail powered or powered by an engine...
, Penlee Lifeboat Station
Penlee Lifeboat Station
Penlee Lifeboat Station is the base for Royal National Lifeboat Institution search and rescue operations for Mount's Bay in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The lifeboat station was opened at Penlee Point in Mousehole in 1913 but was moved to Newlyn in 1983...
at Mousehole
Mousehole
Mousehole is a village and fishing port in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated approximately 2½ miles south of Penzance on the shore of Mount's Bay.The village is in the civil parish of Penzance...
on the west side of the bay. They eventually contacted Coxswain
Coxswain
The coxswain is the person in charge of a boat, particularly its navigation and steering. The etymology of the word gives us a literal meaning of "boat servant" since it comes from cox, a coxboat or other small vessel kept aboard a ship, and swain, which can be rendered as boy, in authority. ...
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, crewmembers Charlie Greenhaugh, Kevin Smith, Barrie Torrie and Gary Wallis.
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 feet (14.3 m) boat built in 1960 and capable of 9 knots (17.6 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 ever heard from anyone on either vessel.
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 rescuing 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
Royal National Lifeboat Institution
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is a charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of Great Britain, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, as well as on selected inland waterways....
.
Lifeboats were summoned from , and to try to help their colleagues from Penlee. The Sennen Cove Lifeboat found it impossible to make headway round Land's End
Land's End
Land's End is a headland and small settlement in west Cornwall, England, within the United Kingdom. It is located on the Penwith peninsula approximately eight miles west-southwest of Penzance....
. The Lizard Lifeboat found a serious hole in its hull when it finally returned to its slipway after a fruitless search. Wreckage from the Solomon Browne was found along the shore, and the Union Star lay capsized onto the rocks west of Tater Du Lighthouse
Tater Du Lighthouse
Tater Du Lighthouse is Cornwall's most recently built lighthouse. The construction of the lighthouse came out of the tragedy of losing a small Spanish coaster called the Juan Ferrer on the 23rd of October 1963, on the nearby Boscawen Point, the vessel capsized with the loss of 11 lives...
. 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:
- the irreparable failure of the ship's engines due to contamination of fuel by sea water while off a dangerous lee shoreLee shoreThe terms lee shore and windweather or ward shore are nautical terms used to describe a stretch of shoreline. A lee shore is one that is to the lee side of a vessel - meaning the wind is blowing towards it. A weather shore has the wind blowing from inland over it out to sea...
; - the extreme severity of the weather, wind and sea; and
- 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.
Aftermath
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 £Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
3 million (£ as of ), although there was an outcry when the government tried to tax the donations.
Two nights before the disaster, Charlie Greenhaugh had turned on the Christmas lights
Illuminations (festival)
Illuminations are secular Autumn festivals of electric light held in several English cities, towns and villages, in particular:*Blackpool *Matlock Bath*Mousehole*Walsall.-Blackpool Illuminations:...
in Mousehole. 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.
Within a day of the disaster enough people from Mousehole had volunteered to form a new lifeboat crew. In 1983 a new lifeboat station was opened nearby at Newlyn
Newlyn
Newlyn is a town and fishing port in southwest Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.Newlyn forms a conurbation with the neighbouring town of Penzance and is part of Penzance civil parish...
where a faster, larger boat could be kept moored afloat in the harbour. 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. Despite the station now being at Newlyn it is still known as 'Penlee'.
The disaster has been the subject of several songs. Seth Lakeman
Seth Lakeman
Seth Bernard Lakeman is an English folk singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, who is most often associated with the fiddle and tenor guitar, but has also mastered the viola and banjo...
, an English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
singer, songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
, and musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
wrote a song called "Solomon Browne" about the Penlee lifeboat disaster. This appears on his 2008 album 'Poor Man's Heaven'. The CD reissue of the Anthony Phillips
Anthony Phillips
Anthony Edwin "Ant" Phillips is an English multi instrumentalist, best known as a founding member of the band Genesis. He played guitar and sang backing vocals until leaving in 1970, following the recording of their second album, Trespass...
' album Invisible Men
Invisible Men
Invisible Men is an album by Anthony Phillips released in March, 1984. It was originally packaged not as a solo album but as a duo project. The other member of the duo was Richard Scott who co-wrote most songs, sang a few of the lead vocals and programmed a drum machine.This album features a...
includes "The Ballad of Penlee" about the incident. Paul Sirman, a Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
ish 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. The song was written by Neil Kimber and Rodger Hepworth.