SEVEN LIFE-BOATMEN LOST AT ST. IVES JAN. 23RD. - ST. IVES, CORNWALL.

Three minutes before two in the morning, the honorary secretary was rung up by the district officer of coastguard, who told him that a vessel was in a dangerous position two miles north-north-east of Cape Cornwall.

Cape Cornwall is eleven miles along the coast from St. Ives in the direction of Land’s End. A west-north-west gale of exceptional violence was blowing, with a very heavy sea. The life-boat would have to travel the eleven miles against the gale.

Five minutes later the district officerAt 4.20 the coastguard at Clodgy Point saw red flares a mile out at sea.

They meant, “ More help needed.” The coastguard life-saving apparatus at St. Ives was ordered out and sent right round St. Ives Bay to Godrevy Point, on the leeward side of the bay.

The Portreath apparatus, from the other side of Godrevy Head, was also summoned. At the same time a message was sent to the Penlee life-boat station, on the south coast of Cornwall, nearly thirty miles away, calling out the motor life-boat W and S. She was launched at five o’clock.

The people of St. Ives waited for nearly three hours more, and then, just after seven o’clock in the morning, came the message that the life-boat had been wrecked on the rocks near Godrevy lighthouse and that, of her crew of eight men, only one was alive.

What had happened during those four hours since the life-boat had put out we know from the survivor, William Freeman.

THE FIRST CAPSIZE As she left the shelter of St. Ives Head she met a very heavy sea. She kept well clear of the headland to avoid the heavier seas and strong flood tide closer in, and turned westward. She was then running almost in the teeth of the gale. When about one and a half miles north-north-east of ClodgyPoint, the boat sheered as she came down a sea. The next struck her on her starboard bow, and she capsized.

She was a self-righting boat, and she righted herself in a few seconds. When she righted herself, four of the eight men on board were missing, Coxswain Thomas Cocking, the acting bowman, William Barber, the signalman, John Thomas, and one of the crew, Edgar Bassett. William Freeman, who was forward, was in the water before he knew what had happened, but he kept hold of the gunwale and two of the other men dragged him on board again.

PROPELLER FOULED The engine had shut off when the life-boat capsized, as it was designed to do. Before the motor mechanic restarted it and any attempt could be made to pick up the missing men, some of the boat’s gear, which had been washed partly out of her, was cut away for fear that it would foul the propeller.

The mechanic then restarted the engine without difficulty, but when he put in the gear, the engine stalled.

He restarted it again. Again it stalled.

The engine was working, but the propeller must have been fouled. The astern gear was then put in ; attempts were made to clear the propeller ; and the ahead gear was once more put in.

Again the engine stalled.

The four men dropped the anchor and veered out all the cable. They then attempted to step the mizzen mast and, with the help of the mizzen sail, to keep the life-boat head to wind and sea, but with half the crew gone it was beyond their power.

While they were at anchor they burned the red flares, “ More help needed,” which were seen by the coastguard.

They also switched on the searchlight, and burned a white flare.

They saw the coastguard’s answering rocket.

Meanwhile, the life-boat was sheering about. A great strain was put on the cable. It was a new one ; it had not previously been used ; but the strain was so great that it parted, and the life-boat drifted to leeward across the mouth of the bay.THE SECOND CAPSIZE As she drifted, the mechanic again started the engine. It stalled again.

Again he started it, but again it stalled.

The boat continued to drift. When she was two-thirds of the way across the bay, a great sea struck her as she was beam on to it, and capsized her a second time. When she righted herself, the motor-mechanic, Richard Stevens, who was forward, was missing.

William Freeman, who was under the canopy above the engine controls, had jammed one hand in the railing below the canopy. With the other he had grasped the starting handle.

When the boat capsized, the pressure of the air trapped under the canopy was sufficient to keep the water out.

Even when he was upside down, with the keel of the boat above him, his face was not under water.

THE THIRD CAPSIZE There were now only three men aboard, and the life-boat continued to drift towards Godrevy. The men were all aft. As she came close to the rocks, Matthew Barber, the bowman, who was acting as second coxswain, shouted, “ Look out, a big sea coming.” For the third time she was capsized. When she righted herself only William Freeman was on board.

Matthew Barber and the assistant mechanic, John Cocking, had gone.

He felt them go past him, but he never saw them again.

Three minutes later the life-boat struck the rocks near Godrevy. She was thrown on a fairly level ledge, her stern towards the shore. As the sea receded, William Freeman crawled out and made his way on all fours along the rocks. A sea overtook him, but it did not knock him over. He scrambled up a gap in the cliff, took off his water-logged boots, and made his way to Godrevy Farm. There he was taken in by Mr. and Mrs. Delbridge and put to bed. He was cut and much bruised. Mr. Delbridge then cycled to Hayle. From there he telephoned to Camborne for a doctor, and then telephoned the news of the disaster to the coastguard at St. Ives. It was from the coastguard that the life-boat station learned, at five minutes past seven, four and a quarter hours after the boat had put out, that she was smashed on the Godrevy rocks with only one of her crew alive.

As soon as the coastguard received the news they started to search the coast for the bodies of the seven other men. The Penlee life-boat was off Land’s End, twelve miles from her station at 7.20. There she was signalled by the coastguard to return as her services were no longer needed.

AT THE SCENE OF THE DISASTER Immediately the news of the disaster reached the headquarters of the Institution, Captain R. L. Hamer, R.N., the deputy chief inspector of life-boats, went down to St. Ives with the inspector of machinery and the chief draftsman (hull), and there met the southern district inspector, Lieut.- Commander H. L. Wheeler, R.N.

Lieut.-Col. C. R. Satterthwaite, O.B.E., secretary of the Institution, went down the same day, provided with funds to relieve any immediate necessities among the families of the men who had lost their lives.

PENSIONS The seven men were all married, and besides the seven widows there were eight children, and one of the widows was expecting a child. On the day of the disaster it was announced that, as from that day, the Institution would give pensions, and allowances for the children, on the same scale as if the men had been sailors, soldiers or airmen killed in action. It also gave pensions and allowances to other dependent relatives who would not, under the pension scheme for the armed forces of the Crown, be entitled to receive them.

The pensions amounted to over £600 a year.

BRONZE MEDALS The Institution also awarded its bronze medal for gallantry to William Freeman, and bronze medals post-humously to the seven other men.

Freeman’s medal was accompanied by a copy of the vote inscribed on vellum, and special certificates were awarded to the widows, recording that their husbands had died on service. The vellum and certificates were signed by H.R.H. the Duke of Kent, K.G., President of the Institution.

Special letters of thanks were sent to Mr. E. Leigh Guppy, the honorary secrectary of the station, to the coastguard, the police, the St. John Ambulance Association, Mr. and Mrs.

Delbridge, who took in William Freeman, and others who helped.

The Institution paid all funeral expenses, and gave the widows the money awards for the launch. The sea mounted to £414s. a man. I n addition to this reward on the standard scale, the Institution gave a special reward of £10 to William Freeman.

The total rewards to the St. Ives crew and launchers amounted to £88 2s.

The rewards to the Penlee crew and launchers were £21 15s.

THE MYSTERY OF THE SHIP IN DISTRESS What ship it was that was in distress off Cape Cornwall will never be certainly known. It is possible that she got out of danger and went on her way.

Or she may have been the 3,000-ton Glasgow steamer Wilston, with a crew of over 30 men. The Wilston had left Newport, Monmouthshire, on the evening of the 21st of January, bound for the Mediterranean. Two days after the wreck of the life-boat, wreckage began to come ashore at Wicca Cove, some six miles to the east of Cape Cornwall, a life-buoy with the Wilston’s name on it, and bodies of men who were identified as members of her crew.

The wrecked life-boat was at once placed under guard and was examined the next day. S he was on one of the reefs of rock immediately to the south of Godrevy Island. She had been driven through a narrow gulley and left well above high - watermark.

From the marks on the rocks and the damage to the boat it was evident that she had, at one time, been keel up on the rocks. From the place where shelay it was impossible to remove her by land or by sea, and she had been so severely damaged that she was beyond economical repair.

The engine was not damaged. It was started with out difficulty. The propeller was dented, but nothing was foul of it. The engine was removed, and later the remains of the hull were burned.

THE INQUEST Four of the bodies came ashore, almost at once: Coxswain Thomas Cocking  his son, John Bassett Cocking; Matthew Barber; and William Barber. The inquest on them was held on 25th January and was attended by the secretary, the deputy chief inspector of life-boats and the district inspector of life-boats. The verdict was “Death by misadventure. ”The funerals were held next day, the secretary, the deputy chief inspector of lifeboats and the district inspector of lifeboats, representing the Institution.

Nearly all the men of St. Ives were present, and life-boatmen and fishermen from all round the Cornish coast.

In the end all the bodies were given up by the sea, the last of the seven on the 10th of February.

The seven men who lost their lives were : THOMAS COCKING, aged 65, the coxswain.

MATTHEW STEVENS BARBER, aged 32, bowman and acting second cox-swain.

WILLIAM BRYANT BARBER, aged 37, acting bowman, the brother of Matthew.

RICHARD QUICK STEVENS, aged 36, the motor-mechanic.

JOHN BASSETT COCKING, aged 38, assistant motor-mechanic, son of the coxswain.

JOHN THOMAS, aged 42, signalman.

EDGAR BASSETT, aged 29.