The Robsons of North Sunderland.

By Mr. M. R. Norris, Honorary Secretary of the North Sunderland Station.

THERE have been Robsons in the life- boats at North Sunderland for at least ninety-seven years, and probably for well over a century. Four genera- tions of them have served in it, and for seventy-seven of those ninety- seven years a Robson has been cox- swain of the boat.

North Sunderland and Seahouses have had a life-boat station since 1827, but it is only since 1852, when the Institution took over the station, that a complete record has been kept. It is probable that Robsons were in the crew from the beginning, but all we know for certain is that three were members of it in 1838, William Robson, the coxswain. James and Michael, for they played a gallant part, soon forgot- ten except at Seahouses, in the most famous of all rescues from shipwreck on the British coast.

The Wreck of the Forfarshire.

In the early morning of 8th Sep- tember, 1838, when Grace Darling saw the wreck of the Forfarshire from her window on the Longstone Lighthouse, the wreck was seen also from Bam- burgh Castle on the mainland, and a horseman took the news three miles down the coast to Seahouses. There the three Robsons, with four other men, launched not the life-boat, but their own fishing boat. They reached the wreck to find only the dead. The survivors had already been rescued by.

Grace Darling and her father. I am not going to tell the story of that rescue again, but will say only one thing. It is that Grace Darling's feat has not been magnified. My first reason for saying this is that it was not possible for the Robsons to return to Seahouses (and they had to take refuge at the lighthouse), although the harbour can be taken in a fairly heavy sea.

The second reason is that the position of the Forfarshire was most dangerous.

The wreck was on the end of the island called Big Harker. where a dangerous gut, known locally as Piper's Gut, separates Big Harker from the Wamses.

It is, perhaps, twenty yards wide, and through this narrow channel the tide races. For a fishing boat caught on the north of the islands in a northerly gale it is the only road into smoother waters, but it is only Seahouses fishermen who could make safety through such a narrow and rough passage. Many a thrilling passage have they made, under full sail, with only inches to spare on either side ! This proves, 1 think, the really great thing that Grace Darling and her father did that day, and the three Robsons also.

The Second Generation.

Of that first generation of Robsons, William, James and Michael, little more is known, but William, who served as coxswain until 1867, is remembered as a man with no fear of the sea. It is from Michael that all the later generations of life-boat Rob- sons are descended. The second generation in the life-boat were his sons. There was Michael No. 2, who was coxswain from 1887 until 1907, William No. 2, who was bowman from 1887 until 1907, and Robert, who was a member of the crew.

Of those years there is one story that I should like to tell, the story of a great feat, in which tremendous risk was run. It happened on 4th April, 1891, and is still fresh in the minds of those who took part. A sailing ship, the Omen, of Frederickstadt, came ashore in a heavy gale on Greenhill Rocks, near Bamburgh. There she lay with heavy seas breaking right over her and her crew in the rigging. After tre- mendous efforts the North Sunderland life-boat Thomas Bewick was got afloat at Monk's House. Many women of Seahouses who helped to launch her were carried right off their feet in their efforts and were floating in the sea.

The local banker was in up.to his neck.

So was a gentleman on holiday from l Previous articles In this series appeared in The Life-boat for May and November, 1925, November, 1926.

and August and November, 1927. Scotland—with £60 in Scottish bank- notes in his pocket. They had to be dried separately next day.

The life-boat was rowed close up to the wreck, which was right in the first break of the sea, but every time she got near enough to throw a line she was swept away again. One sea almost upset her. Her port oars could be seen sticking straight up in the air, her starboard oars were straight down in the water. Another sea knocked the crew almost senseless and wedged some of them beneath the thwarts.

The awful cries of the crew of eleven in the rigging of the ship each time a wave washed over them, and each time the life-boat was swept away, could be clearly heard on shore. For over four hours the life-boat, under Coxswain Michael Robson, made repeated efforts to get alongside. She went on until her crew were so ex- hausted that they were forced to come ashore for hot food and a rest before making another attempt.

Meanwhile the Bamburgh life-boat, also manned by fishermen from Sea- houses, had put out under Coxswain George Nelson, who is still alive at nearly ninety years old. She too made repeated efforts. Once she got her grappling iron fast in the Ornen, but a huge sea caught her and broke the rope. Then nearly all her oars on one side were broken and her coxswain was forced to let her drift ashore.

The Sea Helps the Rescuers.

The North Sunderland life-boat was launched again. It was now dark. To cheer the crews of the wreck and the life-boat, and to light up the scene, the knot-grass was set afire right along the coast. By this light the life-boat again and again attempted to pull alongside the wreck, until at last the sea itself came to her help. It had been pounding over the wreck for hours and finally broke her in such a way that her bottom was left on the rocks and the rest of her, with the eleven men in the rigging, was swept inside the heaviest of the surf. There, about 2.30 the next morning, the North Sunderland life-boat succeeded in rescuing the whole crew. That was one of the finest feats of the second genera- tion of Robsons ; and such was a life- boat rescue in the days of oars.

Michael, after twenty years as cox- swain, became harbour-master at North Sunderland until his death.

William died, as he would have wished, in the stern of his own coble, steering it out to shoot his fishing gear. So we come to the third generation.

The Third Generation.

Serving in the life-boat with Cox- swain Michael and Bowman William, when they both retired in 1907, was a' son of each, James, son of the coxswain, and Charles, son of the bowman. I will start this generation with Charles.

He was a well respected and a very quiet man. All Robsons have been respected, but Charles more so than any. When his Uncle Michael retired from the coxswainship Charles should have become coxswain, but he pre- ferred that his cousin James should have the honour of succeeding his father in command of the boat, so he became second coxswain under him.

As second-coxswain he served for twenty years, from 1907 to 1927, but during the war, when James was away serving with the mine-sweepers, he acted as coxswain. It was a busy time for the life-boat. She saved 86 lives during the war.

Of those four years while Charles was acting coxswain, I will tell one story, the story of a very cold night.

The fit, and indeed most of the fisher- men, were away with the mine-sweepers, and the youths who still remained, and the landsmen who were helping, were loth to take the water with a very low tide to launch the life- boat. Seeing this, Charles jumped out of her, and called on them in such a masterly way, and set them such an example himself, going into the sea up to his neck, that he succeeded in getting them to follow him, and the boat was launched. Then he climbed aboard again, and, soaked to the skin, was out in her as coxswain for the greater part of that bitter night.

Later in life, perhaps as a result of such nights as these, he became an invalid, but though he needed sticks sometimes to help him in walking, that did not keep him from acting as second coxswain after he had retired when, one day, most of the fishing fleet had been caught in a heavy sea. Right up to his death, in 1932, he was one of the most unselfish men I ever met, and if any life was in danger, his thoughts turned to the life-boat.

His cousin James, who succeeded his own father, Coxswain Michael, as coxswain in 1907, is still our coxswain, twenty-eight years later. He won the silver medal of the Institution, and a medal from the King of Norway, for his bravery at the wreck of the Nor- wegian steamer Geir, of Bergen, on 18th February, 1908. That was the year after he became coxswain, and he was only twenty-eight. A northerly gale was blowing with a very heavy sea, and the steamer stranded on the Knavestone Rock, three- quarters of a mile east of the Longstone Lighthouse.

A Terrible Rock.

The Knavestone is a small rock, uncovered at half-tide and with eleven feet of water over it at high-tide, and it has probably seen more wrecks than any other rock of its size round our coasts. What makes it so dangerous is that round it is deep water ranging to twenty-one fathoms. The sea dur- ing a gale rises and curls over it, and breaks with such force that during one gale a three-masted ship, the Nina, was struck near it with one sea and knocked to pieces in a moment.

A shad, or reef, runs out from it, and is a great danger to shipping during heavy south-easterly gales. Divers who have attempted to go down near the Knave- stone have found it unsafe, for there is such a heap of old shipping lying at the foot of it. The fishermen, who in fine weather fish round it for lobsters, find them the colour of copper through lying among old ships. Not one ship has been known to go ashore there and live. In fact it can only be approached at all by those who have worked round it for years. Even in fine weather it is dangerous, and differ- ent ways of approach must be made at different times of tide and weather.

In bad weather, there is a time when you' can get inside it, and then find yourself locked in with seas break- ing all round. But Seahouses fishermen hold the key to this rock. They know just when the tides are suitable and when they are impossible. Many of them have risked their lives for a lobster at this dreaded spot. Their knowledge so far has always brought them through, but the risks run are at all times very great, even in fine summer weather. It was on this rock that the Geir stranded.

The Coxswain's Gallantry.

The life-boat was launched just after seven in the evening. She found the Geir with only her bridge above water and the fourteen men of her crew huddled on it. In that weather it was impossible for the life-boat to go along- side. So the coxswain went overboard with a line and a life-buoy round him and swam to a small rock inside the main rock. There he got a line from the steamer's bridge ; made it fast to his own line from the life-boat,' got the fourteen men down to the rock, one by one. and passed each one on in the life-buoy to the life-boat. When the last had been rescued he was hauled back to the life-boat himself.

It was low water at the time. An hour later, supposing the wreck had not broken up in the meantime, the tide would have risen over her and her crew been drowned.

Coxswain James's second-coxswain is his cousin, another Michael, brother of Second-Coxswain Charles whom he succeeded. He was bowman from 1919-1928, and has been second- coxswain since then. He is perhaps the most daring of the Robson line.

While the others would use caution and bravery together, this Michael would walk into anything with his eyes open. Two summers ago; while he was returning from the fishing grounds, he saw a bather in difficulties in a gut about five yards wide, with a fair amount of sea. The gut was so narrow that it was impossible to turn his boat in it, but he never stopped to think that he might lose her. He made straight up the gut, got the bather aboard, and rushed him into Seahouses harbour. This Michael would go to the rescue no matter what risk he took.

There are still two more of the third generation serving in the life-boat to-day, as members of the crew. One of them is George, a brother of Second- Coxswain Charles and Second-Cox- swain Michael. The other is Michael William, a brother of the coxswain.

Until a few years ago, there was yet another Michael in the crew. He also was of the third generation, son of Robert and a cousin of the present coxswain and second-coxswain.

The Fourth Generation.

So we come to the fourth generation, still young, but already following in the footsteps of their fathers, grandfathers and great - grandfather. Coxswain James has a son in the crew, yet another Michael, a chip of the old block; so, too, has Second-Coxswain Michael, and there are two sons of Second-Coxswain Charles serving.

Among so many (and so many with the name of Michael) it is easy to be confused, but this is how the record stands. Four generations, starting at least a hundred years ago, have served or are serving to-day in the1 North Sunderland life-boat, three of the first generation, three of the second, six of the third and, up to the present, four of the fourth. Altogether of these four generations sixteen have served in the boat, three of them as coxswain, two as second-coxswain and one as bowman. At one time, 1919- 1928, coxswain, second-coxswain and bowman were all Robsons. To-day there are eight Robsons in the boat, the coxswain, the second-coxswain, and six life-boatmen, eight Robson's in a crew of thirteen. But we are by no means exhausted of Robsons, and hope to have them for another century or four generations.

I have tried to give an accourit of the services of those who have held appointments as coxswain and second- coxswain and bowman, but the type of man is the same in one Robson and another; all men who go into a life- boat to save life and not for any reward from the Institution ; all quiet men. In fact, to get these few details of their service I have had to go to other life- boatmen who have served with them..