THE LIFE-BOAT FLEET Motor Life-boats, 120 :: Pulling & Sailing Life-boats, 54 LIVES RESCUED from the foundation of the Institution in 1824 to February 15th, 1934 - ... 63,615 An East Coast Gale.

ON 13th December an easterly gale swept without warning across England, bringing with it bitter cold weather and very heavy seas. Seven life-boats on the East Coast were launched during the day, and two British vessels, caught suddenly by the gale, foundered oft the East Coast with the loss of their whole crews. The s.s. Culmore, of London- derry, with nine men on board, was seen from Aldeburgh, Suffolk, to have a heavy list and to be in danger of foundering. The life-boat put out at once, but the steamer had disappeared, leaving no trace. The Broomfleet, of Goole, which was on her way from Goole to Ipswich, with thirteen men on board, left the Humber in the after- noon. She was never seen again, and nothing was known of her fate until the bodies of her crew were washed ashore on the Norfolk coast.

There was loss of life also in other seas. In the Baltic twelve sailors were lost when the Finnish barque Plus sank as she was making the port of Mariehamn. Off Dunkirk the Dyck light-vessel sank, and four lives were lost.

Of the seven life-boats to be launched five were from the Norfolk coast—the two Cromer life-boats, Blakeney, Sheringham and Great Yarmouth and Gorleston; one from the Suffolk coast, Aldeburgh ; and one from the York- shire coast, Bridlington. The calls for their help all came during the morning and forenoon.

The first reached Cromer at four in the morning. A vessel was burning flares two miles south of Haisborough coastguard station, about eleven miles along the coast from Cromer. A strong; gale was blowing. The sea was very heavy and increasing. The weather was very cold. The motor life-boat H. F. Bailey was launched at 4.30 A.M., and, fighting against the gale, reached the vessel two hours later. She was the barge Glenway, with three men on board. She had been driven ashore, and was lying in such shallow water that it was impossible for the life-boat to get alongside. Two attempts were made, and the life-boat herself grounded. The coxswain then hauled off and stood by until, with the ebbing tide, the vessel was lying dry and there was no further danger to her crew. It was then eight o'clock in the morning. As it was impossible, with the gale blowing, to rehouse the life-boat at Cromer, the coxswain went on down the coast to Gorleston, another seventeen miles. The life-boat was continually swept by heavy seas.

Her crew were wet through and very cold. As she passed the coastguard station at Palling the coxswain sig- nalled to find out if there was any other call for the life-boat at Cromer, but the weather was so bad that signals could not be read, and the life- boat continued on her way down the coast.

A Second Wreck.

Meanwhile, just before eight o'clock, another barge, the Sepoy, of Dover, with two men aboard, had been driven ashore at Cromer. She had been at anchor, and had been kept under observation all night by the Cromer coastguard. Her anchor light had been burning clearly, but no signal of distress had been seen during the night. She was a mile and a half east of Cromer pier; her anchors were dragging; and she came ashore a quarter of a mile from the pier. The life-saving apparatus and the pulling and sailing life-boat Alexandra were both called out. The life-boat was in charge of a former mechanic of the motor life-boat, who had been forced to retire on account of bad eyesight.

With the help of about a hundred people—many volunteers coming for- ward—she was launched into the heavy surf, but was immediately washed back broadside on to the beach. She was got on to her carriage and launched for the second time. This time her crew at the oars kept her afloat in the surf for twenty minutes, but they could make no headway, and she was again driven back on to the beach.

The two men on the barge had now been compelled to take to the rigging, as the seas were sweeping over her.

The life-boat was remounted on her carriage, dragged along the beach for half a mile, in order to get farther to windward of the wreck, and launched for the third time. Her crew were still unable to pull her alongside the wreck. She was swept past it and again driven ashore. It was then about two o'clock in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, the life-saving apparatus liad fired four lines to the wreck, and the fourth fell across the barge. The mate climbed down and crawled along the deck. He succeeded in getting hold of the rope and dragging it up into the rigging. Unfortunately, be- fore anything more could be done, the life-boat, as she drifted past the barge in her third attempt, fouled the line and cut it in two. These attempts had now been going on for six hours. The tide was rising, and the men on the barge were driven higher up the rigging.

Efforts had already been made to recall the motor life-boat, which it was known would make for Gorleston.

As the coastguards at Cromer and Palling could not get into touch with her, a telephone message was sent about ten o'clock to the Gorleston coastguard, which was passed on to the life-boat station. At 10.20 A.M. the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston motor life-boat, John and Mary Meiklam of GladsiKood, was launched to meet the Cromer boat with the message before she arrived, and to go herself to the rescue if the Cromer boat should be unable to return. The two boats met near the Cockle lightship, eight miles away from Gorleston, at 11.30, and the Cromer life-boat at once put about and set out on her return journey of twenty miles. The gale was now at its height and very heavy seas were running.

The Rescue.

Just before three o'clock the hundreds of people waiting anxiously on shore, saw the motor life-boat approaching. The barge was then 200 yards from the shore, in very heavy, broken water. Her decks were under water and she was continually swept fore and aft by the seas. It was impossible, owing to the position of her anchors and cables, for the life- boat to anchor to windward and drop down to her. The only possible way of approach was to come round the barge's stern and try to get alongside her on the lee side, through the heavy surf, between the barge and the shore.

This meant that the life-boat came broadside on to the seas as she approached the barge. This manoeuvre the coxswain attempted several times, but each time the heavy run of the seas and the sweep of the tide carried the life-boat past the wreck. At the last of these attempts the life-boat got near enough for a grapnel to be thrown into the rigging, but a big sea flung her against the wreck, her side was holed, and the grapnel-line parted.

The coxswain knew that the two men had been clinging in the rigging for many hours. They must be very near the point of complete exhaustion.

At any moment they might drop out of the rigging. He must act quickly.

He made no further attempt to get alongside the wreck. Instead he boldly drove the life-boat on top of the wreck, close by the rigging where the two men were clinging, and stove in her bulwarks with his bows. The bows held in the bulwarks just long enough for three of the crew to seize one of the men from the rigging and drag him aboard. Then the life-boat was swept away again. Again the coxswain brought her up and drove her a second time against the wreck.

In the few moments during which he was able to hold her there the second man was seized and dragged aboard.

The life-boat had now before her a four hours' journey in the teeth of the gale, if she were to make for Gorles- ton, twenty-eight miles away. But both the rescued men were chilled to the bone and exhausted by their long exposure. One was in a state of extreme exhaustion. The life- boat's crew had been out for twelve hours. They too were chilled, wet through, worn out. The coxswain decided to beach the boat, and he ran her straight on to the shore. It was then 3.30 in the afternoon. The helpers were ready. They waded out into the surf to steady the boat, while the two rescued men were brought ashore. One was able to walk. The other was carried on a stretcher.

The Story of the Skipper of the " Sepoy " Such was this arduous and gallant service, from the point of view of those in the life-boats and those on shore.

There follows now the story of the men on the barge itself, as told by the skipper, Captain Joseph Hemstead.1 " This is ' Old Joe ' speaking, skipper of the Sepoy. Our trouble started by us blowing a joint off the Humber on Monday afternoon, which put the 1 This account was broadcast by Captain Hemstead three days later, and is given here by his kind permission and that of the B.B.C.

engine out of action. There was a thick haze about, and a nor'-west wind, not no gale then. There was only two of us aboard—myself and mate, a young chap of twenty—and we were carrying 144 tons of tiles. We sailed along and anchored, on Tuesday after- noon, off Cromer, when the tide stopped coming with us ; four hours later, at about nine o'clock, the wind sprang up from the eastward and increased quickly to a gale. We gave her 30 fathoms chain on the bow anchor, let go the second anchor, and paid away on both chains, as we were driving a bit.

" The gale gradually got worse, and I saw it was time to do something, so I flared several times. But there was no response to our appeal.2 By this time the wind had driven us well in to the shore—it was bitterly cold, and the sea was very rough. When day- light came we hoisted a distress signal.

The sea was increasing, and we were now about a quarter of a mile off the shore, and getting low in the water.

At about eleven o'clock she was almost sunk, and struck the ground. Up to about daylight we had been up and down on deck, seeing that things were secure, but after this time the seas began to come right over and we had to take to the rigging and stay there.

We could see on the shore that they were now trying to launch the life-boat.

" At about this time they fired the first rocket-line over the ship. My mate pluckily got down from the rigging and crawled along the foredeck to the stern and got hold of this. This sounds easier in the telling than the doing. The barge was rolling very badly, and I shouted to him : ' Look out, Jack. Hold tight.' He laid flat and held on while the sea went right over him. Then he scrambled up and got aloft, and I nipped down the rigging too, and got the line from him.

We went back up the rigging with it, and hauled aboard. By this time the life-boat was afloat and was drifting down past us. Unfortunately, it fouled the rocket-line which we'd just secured, and broke it, cutting off all connexion.

The main hatch-cloth had just washed out of the battens and, of course, the 2 As has already been mentioned, the barge had been kept under observation all night, but no flares had been barge was soon full of water. She now began to bump, heaving up and down on the ground, which made it much more difficult for us to hang on to the rigging. The life-boat had been washed up again on to the beach, and our chances didn't look too rosy.

" My mate was getting exhausted by the strain and cold, and when he said : ' Here's a life-boat coming—it's all right,' I said : ' Stick it, Jack,' because I couldn't see anything. But he was higher up the rigging than I and could see better. He was right. This was the motor life-boat of Cromer, returning from Haisborough, where it had been to another wreck, and was now coming to our assistance. We came down the rigging, ready to jump into the life-boat, which made several attempts to get us off. The sea was so heavy that it kept flinging the life-boat up right on the barge and knocked two holes in her. But at last she came close to the rigging and I said : ' Jump, Jack.' He was just about done up, and he seemed inclined to hold on to the back- stay, but just as the life-boat came up on the swell he reached out and they grabbed his arm and pulled him aboard. Next time the boat came I jumped and grabbed a stanchion with my left hand and some one got hold of my right arm and pulled me aboard.

" Well, that was that. And I'd like to thank all the kind friends who've sent me letters of sympathy, and also Commander Harrison, of the Ship- wrecked Mariners Society, which does so much good all round our coast, and last but not least, Coxswain Blogg of the Cromer life-boat and his gallant crew. And what I'm doing here, I don't know. My pals'll think me a fool; but I'm not the first who's been shipwrecked, nor the last." The Damaged Life-boat.

An assistant surveyor was sent down at once to carry out temporary repairs to the life-boat. Her stem had been broken away and there were two holes in her side. Patches were put on at once, but the work of getting her afloat again was long and difficult. She had come ashore at high tide. Attempts were made to float her at each suc- ceeding high tide, but it was not until the sixth, in the afternoon of 16th December, that she was got off the beach. Her crew and helpers were at work almost continuously for nearly seventy hours. The life-boat was then taken to a building yard at Lowestoft.

There a new piece was put in the stem.

Chocks were fitted inside the holes and brass plates fastened on outside. She left the yard three days later, travelling by night, and was back at her station on the morning of 20th December.

It was a dangerous and arduous service, carried out in the worst con- ditions of weather, close in on a lee shore in a very heavy surf, where there was continual risk that the life-boat herself would be washed up on the beach. That the two men were rescued and the life-boat herself was not wrecked was due to the perfect seaman- ship of the coxswain.

The Awards.

The Committee of Management have made the following awards : To COXSWAIN HENRY G. BLOGG, a second-service clasp to his silver medal, accompanied by the thanks of the Institution on vellum signed by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, K.G., President of the Institution.

To each of the other twelve members of the crew the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum : George Balls (second coxswain), John J. Davies, Senr. (bowman), Henry W. Davies (motor mechanic), William T. Davies (assistant motor mechanic), James W.

Davies, William H. Davies, John J. Davies, Junr., Charles P. Cox, Robert Cox, Edward W. Allen, Louis Harrison and Sidney Harrison.

Coxswain and crew also received money awards of £5 16s. Qd. each.

To Mr. R. DAVIES, acting coxswain of the pulling and sailing life-boat, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum.

To him and to each member of his crew money awards, amounting to £64 3s.

With the awards paid for the work of salving the life-boat, the total awards made for this service to the Cromer crews and launchers were £220 Is. 4-d.

To Mr. F. H. Barclay, J.P., the honorary secretary of the Cromer branch, a letter of appreciation.

Aldeburgb, Suffolk.

Farther down the coast another bitter struggle with the gale was going on, at Aldeburgh, where the motor life-boat Abdy Beauclerk was launched to the help of the s.s. Culmore of London- derry, a coasting steamer of 469 tons.

A strong and increasing gale was blowing, with a very heavy sea which was breaking five miles out. Shortly after ten in the morning some of the life-boat men saw a vessel labouring badly. She had a heavy list and was in danger of foundering. At 10.40 the life-boat was run down the beach, seventy-three helpers taking part in the launch. For thirty minutes she hung in the breakers before she got clear. Then, before she reached deep water, she bumped heavily three times on the inner shoal. The driven spray made it very difficult to see and the coxswain had the whole crew on the look out. He cruised about for over an hour, but could find no trace of the Culmore, nor any wreckage. He then spoke another steamer, but the weather was so bad that he could not read the reply to his signals. After further search he ran for Harwich, as it was impossible to return to Aide- burgh. Harwich was reached at 4.30 in the afternoon. It was said, on good authority, that within living memory no boat had been launched off Aldeburgh beach in such a sea, and that it would have been impossible to launch a pulling and sailing life-boat.

The Committee of Management have made the following awards in recog- nition of a very prompt and gallant attempt to save life in exceptionally bad weather : To COXSWAIN J. H. PEAD, the thanks of the Institution inscribed on vellum.

To LIEUTENANT D. DAY, R.N., the assistant honorary secretary, who went out in the life-boat, a binocular glass.

To each member of the crew a framed letter of thanks.

To the coxswain and crew money awards of £l 14s. each.

The total payments for the service were £55 15s. 4d.

Blakeney and Sheringham.

The pulling and sailing life-boat Caroline, of Blakeney, and the pulling and sailing life-boat J. C. Madge, of Sheringham, had both been launched earlier in the morning to the help of the barge Fred Everard, of London, which was dragging her anchors and showing signals of distress off Cley.

The Blakeney boat was launched at 8.30 A.M., but the tide was at the last quarter of ebb, and there was not enough water for her to get out of the harbour.

The Sheringham station, meanwhile, had been informed and the life-boat was launched there at 9.10. She reached the barge at ten o'clock and found her bumping on the sands and driving towards Blakeney harbour. In en- deavouring to get alongside the barge, the life-boat herself was carried ashore by the wind and tide, but the coxswain managed to refloat her. She then stood by till the barge was carried into the channel of Blakeney harbour. Mean- while the Blakeney life-boat had come to the harbour mouth and stood by.

Both life-boats returned to Blakeney about five o'clock in the afternoon, as the barge was no longer in danger.

The awards to the Blakeney crew and helpers amounted to £26 17s. 6d., and to the Sheringham crew and helpers to £78 15s. 9d.

Bridlington.

Farther up the coast the motor life-boat Stanhope Smart, at Bridlington, Yorkshire, went out to the help of the fishing boats. Several had left Bridlington the evening before in fine weather. As the gale came up all had returned except two, the Gloamin and Premier II. They were seen making for harbour about 10.15. A.M. A moderate gale from E.S.E. was blowing, with sleet. It was bitterly cold, and a very heavy sea was running.

The life-boat put out at 10.45 and escorted the two boats into harbour, both life-boats and fishing boats being constantly covered by the heavy seas.

The life-boat was back at her station by 12.30 in the afternoon. The awards amounted to £9 18s.

Total Awards for the Gale.

The total payments made by the Institution to crews and helpers for the launch of these seven life-boats on the East Coast during this gale were £406 Os. lid.

Tributes to the Life-boat Service.

The Press of the country published long accounts of these services and many photographs of the life-boats in action. A number of papers also paid special tribute to the crews, and reminded the public inland of their share in the work of the service. The Morning Post, in a leading article, said : " For many ships the struggle has been touch and go; some unhappy crews are lost, others have been rescued when death stood waiting, and from eastern stations the messages have fol- lowed each other that ' the life-boat is out.' To those who have seen a launch in a storm the phrase brings a wild and momentous picture, but to millions who know the sea only in holiday temper the words are a common newspaper form, in use each winter. The hardi- hood and courage behind the brief news does not catch the mind. Yet, if one roaring and bitter night the townsman could fight his way through the wind to the life-boat slip, glimpse far out in the devilish commotion of air and water the star of distress hang for a moment and wane, bear a hand in the lantern-lit spray to bring the boat into the surge, see the waves boil about her timbers before she lurched forward and was gone ; and next, if he were to wait, straining his eyes, for an hour, two hours, perhaps till dawn, for the crew to return, downcast or triumphantly showing passengers—then the towns- man would be moved and excited with each gale, and put his hand deeply into his pocket for one of the finest services this country boasts. To maintain the service there must first be bravery, and next money—to be precise, a sum of £250,000 a year. When the December wind is hoarse in the chimney, and the sudden gust sends a tremor through substantial inland houses, those who sit close by the hearth may perchance see £250,000 among the faces and figures in the fire." That there were those who did see it was evident from the letters and contributions received by the Institu- tion. There was a big increase in the amount in the collecting box at head- quarters. A number of subscribers renewed their subscriptions. New sub- scribers came forward. Several special donations were received. We will quote from three letters received just after the gale : " After the news of the last week I feel constrained to send my humble offering of ten shillings. I shall be pleased to be enrolled as an annual subscriber." " I am very ill in bed with severe bronchitis, five weeks, but must en- close a trifle towards our life-boatmen, being the daughter of an admiral. It has been an awful night, north-easter blowing continually." " Enclosed five shillings from an old age pensioner." Photographs of the life-boats in action in this gale will be found on page 217..