THE LIFE-BOAT FLEET 154 Motor Life-boats 1 Harbour Pulling Life-boat LIVES RESCUED from the foundation of the Life-boat Service in 1824 to May 31st, 1953 - 78,220 Disaster at Fraserburgh MONDAY the 9th of February, 1953, was a fine sunny day at Fraserburgh, on the coast of Aberdeenshire. A light easterly breeze was blowing, but there was a very heavy swell.

Fraserburgh harbour faces a little south of east. The swell was from the north-east and was breaking across the harbour mouth.

A number of fishing boats were returning to harbour at midday. In that swell the entrance might be dangerous, and it was decided to send out the life-boat to escort them in.

The maroon was fired at 12.48. A few minutes later the boat was launched and the coxswain, who had just returned in his own boat from fishing, took her out into the bay.

Coxswain Andrew Ritchie, a fisher- man, had served in the life-boat for twenty years and for seven years had been coxswain. The motor mechanic, G. F. Duthie, had served as the motor mechanic of life-boats at Fraserburgh.

for thirty years. The other five members of the crew were experienced fishermen. The life-boat herself, the John and Charles Kennedy, was a 46-feet Watson cabin boat with two 40 h.p. diesel engines, built in 1937.

Two Fishing Boats Escorted In Though the swell was very heavy there was a considerable interval between the waves, and several small fishing boats, by waiting for the "smooths" in the swell, were able to enter harbour without difficulty. The life-boat escorted in the Evangeline.

She went out again and escorted in the Good Way. It was then reported to the coxswain that the Harvest Reaper was waiting off Kinnaird Head, a little way up the coast. He went out for the third time to find that the Harvest Reaper had decided to make for Macduff and was steaming away.

He put about, and when he reached the north pier, standing out eastwards into the sea, he made a half circle to come round the end of it. The life-boat now had the heavy swell right astern.

What happened next was told by a man watching from the pier-head and by Second-coxswain C. G. Tait, the only man, of the seven on board, who came ashore alive.

The life-boat was travelling at full speed just off the end of the north pier, and two to three boat's lengths away from it, when a very heavy swell lifted her stern, and as it passed under the life-boat it broke alongside her amidships. She ran on this swell for two or three boat's lengths. The cox- swain was at the wheel; the assistant motor mechanic was under the canopy at the engine controls; the second- coxswain had just gone under the canopy; the other four men were stand- ing in the cockpit with the coxswain.

A Big Swell Rears Up The life-boat had now passed the end of the north pier and it is probable that the coxswain was just turning her to starboard to enter the harbour when a second, and even bigger, swell ;reared up astern. It broke right aboard her, not over the stern but over the starboard quarter. It filled the cockpit. It flung all the men except the coxswain, who was holding the wheel, right under the canopy and against the engine-controls. It filled the canopy. It flung the life- boat's stern round, so that she was now broadside to the swell, and turned her right over.

The coxswain was thrown clear of the boat. He could be seen swimming strongly towards the harbour. Then a piece of wreckage struck him on the head, and he could swim no more.

Trapped Under the Canopy

The other six men were trapped under the canopy with the life-boat on top of them. Only the second- coxswain escaped. He managed to force himself down in the water suffi- ciently to get out from under the life-boat and the guard-rails, and rose to the surface. He was then ten yards to seaward of the boat. He tried to swim to the harbour-entrance but could not make it. The swell carried him southwards across it. A rope was flung to him from the south Pier. He caught it, but could not old it. He was carried on south- wards and was washed up alive on the rocks to the south of the harbour.

The capsized boat was also carried southwards, and from twenty to thirty minutes after she capsized she went ashore on the rocks, about a hundred yards south of the south pier.

As soon as the disaster was known the fishing boat Golden Harvest put out, but in the shallow water, close to the rocks, where the capsized life-boat had drifted, she could do nothing.

Rescuers Waiting As soon as the life-boat grounded, the bodies of the five men floated out from under the canopy on a receding sea. Men were waiting on the rocks.

They went into the sea and brought four bodies ashore. Two doctors were waiting on the rocks. Ambulances were waiting. From the time when the bodies were recovered until they reached hospital a few minutes later, and again at the hospital, every effort was made to revive them, but they were dead.

These four men were wearing their life-belts. The fifth man, John Craw- ford, was washed out with the others, but his life-belt was seen to float off his body, and he was not recovered for two days. The belt too was recovered, undamaged, but with the waist-belt unbuckled. It is possible that he had tried to free himself of it in his desperate attempt to escape from under the canopy when the life- boat was on top of him.

The News Reaches the Institution It was about 2.30 in the afternoon that the news of the disaster reached the Institution, and at once the district inspector (general), Comman- der E. W. Middleton, V.R.D., R.N. V.R., was sent from London to carry out an inquiry, and Mr. S. E. Bartholomew, of the Operations Department, with money to supply any immediate needs of the families. The northern district inspector, Lieutenant E. D. Stogdon, R.N.V.R., the northern district engin- eer and the northern assistant surveyor of life-boats were told to go at once to Fraserburgh. All arrived that night or early next morning. Mr. R. A. Oakley, the surveyor of life-boats, left next day to take charge of the work of salving the boat.

Salving the Life-boat For the next three days an on-shore gale made any work impossible.

Through those days the boat lay on the rocks battered by the seas. On the 13th of February the gale moder-ated and it was possible to examine her. The seas and rocks between them had by then torn away or damaged beyond repair all her super- structure and upper deck. On the same day the difficult work was begun of getting the boat off the rocks. She was jacked up; launching ways laid; the tops of rocks split off; and on the morning of Sunday the 15th she was refloated on the rising tide. Still bot- tom up she was towed into harbour.

There she was turned right way up, and the fire brigade pumped the water out of her.

She was carefully examined. The engine-controls were set at full-speed ahead. There was nothing to show any failure of the engines themselves. Nor was there sign of any other failure of material in the boat. To have re- paired her would have cost over £10,000. The engines, propellers, propeller-shafts, engine-coolers and radio telephone were taken out. What was left was handed over to a local shipbreaker who undertook to break it up within a week.

In her sixteen years the John and Charles Kennedy went out on service 98 times and rescued 199 lives.

An Earlier Disaster Thirty-four years ago, on the 28th of April, 1919, the first motor life-boat to be stationed at Fraserburgh, the Lady Rothe.s, left the harbour in a full gale from the north-north-east. In the middle of the bay a heavy sea struck her on her port bow, followed by another, which threw her on her beam ends. All but three of her crew were washed out of her. The life-boat was a self-righter, and righted herself at once. Four of the men climbed aboard again, two hung on to the life- lines. The boat and the nine men were thrown up on the beach. Neither the coxswain nor second coxswain had been able to regain the boat. They too were thrown up on the beach.

They were still alive, but so injured and exhausted that they died at once.

The Six Men and Their Families The six men who lost their lives on the 9th of February were: COXSWAIN ANDREW NOBLE RITCHIE (39), who left a wife and four children.

GEORGE FLETT DUTHIE (55), the motor mechanic, who left a wife and six children.

CHARLES TAIT, senior (61), the bowman, who left a wife and three children, one of them Charles Tait, junior, the second-coxswain, the only man to come ashore alive.

JAMES NOBLE (32), the assistant motor mechanic, who left a wife and two children.

JOHN CRAWFORD (52), who left a wife and three children.

JOHN RALPH BUCHAN (23), who left a wife and two sons, one born seven weeks after his death.

The Pensions The Institution pensioned the six widows, as if the men had been sailors, soldiers or airmen, killed in action, with allowance for six children under the age of sixteen. It gave £500 to the Provost of Fraserburgh's fund for the dependents, made an allowance to Second-coxswain Charles Tait for as long as he was incapacitated by his injuries, and paid all funeral expenses.

The Institution also sent a letter of thanks to the skipper and crew of the Golden Harvest.

Messages of Sympathy The Duchess of Kent telegraphed to Fraserburgh: "Deeply distressed to learn of tragic disaster. Please convey to relatives of those who lost their lives my profound sympathy. Marina, President, R.N.L.I." Among the many others who sent messages of sympathy were the Royal North and South Holland Life-saving Society, the French Society for Rescu- ing the Shipwrecked, the Danish Life- boat Institution and a number of the Institution's life-boat stations and branches. The crew of the Port Erin station, which had assembled to launch ten days before, sent to the Provost's fund the rewards which they had received from the Institution, and Mrs.

Helen Brunton, of Inveresk gave £1,000 of shares in Bruntons (Mussel- burgh) Ltd. The gift will be used for the life-boats in Scotland.The Funerals The funeral service of five of the six men was held on the 12th of February in the Old Parish Church.

The church, which holds a thousand people, was full. Thousands more stood outside. When the coffins, each covered with the Institution's house- flag, were taken from the church to the cemetery, each for separate burial, the procession which followed was over a mile long. The whole town was in mourning. Lord Aberdeen, the Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire, and the Provost and full council of Fraser- burgh and the Provost and councillors of Peterhead attended the funeral.

The Institution was represented by Commodore the Right Hon the Earl Howe, C.B.E., V.R.D., R.N.V.R., the deputy chairman of the Institution, Lord Saltoun, M.C., a member of the Committee of Management and a vice-chairman of the Scottish Life- boat Council, Commander S. W. F. Bennetts, D.S.O., D.S.C., R.N., de- puty chief inspector of life-boats, Com- mander E. W. Middleton, V.R.D., R.N.V.R., inspector (general) of life- boats, Lieutenant E. D. Stogdon, R.N.V.R., northern inspector of life- boats, and Mrs. Jan Paton, organising secretary for Scotland. The sixth man, John Crawford, was buried next day by the Salvation Army, of which he was a member. The Institution's wreath for each of the six coffins bore the words "in proud and grateful memory from the Committee of Management, officers and staff." The New Crew and the New Life-boat By the 21st of February, twelve days after the disaster, a new crew had been enrolled. It included Second coxswain Charles Tait, the only sur- vivor of the old crew. He will serve again as second-coxswain- His younger brother joined the crew. The new coxswain is the brother of the old.

On the 25th a reserve life-boat—of the same type as the last boat— arrived at the station. She will be there until a new life-boat can be built and sent to Fraserburgh.

A Public Inquiry On the 30th of March a public inquiry into the deaths of the six men was held, under the Fatal Accident Inquiry Act, in the Sheriff's Court at Aberdeen. The Sheriff said that it was clear that there had been no mechanical fault. Neither had there been any negligence. It was one of those unfortunate risks which men called upon to serve in life-boats had to undergo. He paid a tribute to the experience and self-sacrifice of the men who were lost, and of the one man who had been saved. "He has." the sheriff said, ''joined up again, in spite of all that has taken place. Such devotion to the call of the sea is some- thing to be proud of." The jury brought in a formal verdict that the cause of death was asphyxia by drowning.