The lifeboat that wouldn't giv e up

Transcription

1 Yesterday'sness Group 1 The lifeboat that ouldn't giv e up By regulation every lifeboat in Brain is called out on exercise once every 6 eeks. The Cromer boat is no exception. There has never been a shortage of men for this volunteer service. In fact competion for a place in the cre is fierce. When the maroons go off, the rush don to the boathouse alays leaves some cre men behind, deprived of the chance to set their lives at risk in order to save others. Being a lifeboatman is often something of a family tradion. The main lifeboat family at Cromer for several generations has been the Davies. They still are. Richard Davies There s young Billy there and Arthur, Billy, another Billy here, Henry, Shrimp, myself, yeah I suppose there s about nine of us no hat go to sea. The present Coxsain is Henry Davies, knon to everyone as. We really had to go in lifeboats, you kno, because father had been in lifeboats, and all the family had been in lifeboats. My grandfather had been in lifeboats, great grandfather had been in lifeboats, this is the thing you ere brought up h. In a place like Cromer, and there must have been many places around the Brish Isles, you naturally go to sea, fishing, you see. And I am sure that these are the people ho make the best lifeboat cres, those that live in the place, kno this particular area, kno their harbour or their beach, and these are the things that matter I think all around the coasts of Brain. Photo: RNLI And over the years volunteer lifeboatmen have saved thousands of lives. In the Second World War alone, Cromer lifeboatmen rescued over 400 men. Whatever the eather, hatever the risk, they never gave up. The much-decorated Coxsain of Cromer s No. 1 lifeboat as the legendary Henry Blogg. He too as a fisherman, like all Cromer lifeboatmen. There ere times during the ar hen they ere called out almost daily to rescue men from torpedoed ships, from dched aircraft, and from ships in the treacherous sandbanks. There are many stories of their courage this is just one of them. The Lifeboat That Wouldn t Give Up One day late in October 1941 a convoy of about 20 ships, escorted by destroyers, as steaming through the North Sea. One of them as an armed freighter of 3,000 tons, the English Trader, bound for Photo: Andres Series Mombasa h a million pounds orth of cargo aboard. During the day bad engine trouble forced her to drop back from the convoy, and in the early hours of October 26th, in the grip of a strong ebb tide and in a freshening ind, she ran foul of a sandbank. In her cre, hen happened, as naval gunner. And my golly there as a grinding sound and the engine stopped, a terrific clang underneath. Half of us ent sailing across the deck, picked ourselves up, dead silence. So I said to one of the chaps, you kno, I don t kno, sounds as if e have run across one of these sandbanks; there s plenty up here. Then there as shouting, 2 or 3 minutes seemed to me that there as anybody doing any shouting, then there as running feet. So I said to one of the other chaps, hy you kno, let s shunt all of this lot and let s get off. But there as no strength left in her engines. The English Trader as stuck fast some 20 miles out to sea. And then a sudden storm ble in from the north east. Script reproduced by kind permission of the BBC. Henry Davies

2 The lifeboat that ouldn't giv e up Group 2 It must have been just getting light and I could see these he crested things rolling in toards me, looked a long ay off to me. It as probably hting the edge of the sandbank. I sat don and I sa my sea boots. All right, I ll take them h me, get back to the bridge. As I picked them up, there as a ro like blooming thunder. Everything ent a dark green, I kne hat as, as the sea had h the ship, and had gone right over the blooming gun deck. The storm as getting orse. A destroyer had dropped back from the convoy and as no standing by in case of enemy attack. But the real enemy as the raging sea. Unable to help in those condions, the destroyer could only radio ashore and a for the lifeboat. And in Cromer, Coxsain Henry Blogg called out his cre, among them the young. Everybody, they drop everything, no matter hether they re having their breakfast, hether they ere in bed, hatever they are doing, at ork, everybody drops everything and chased don to the pier. And on this morning in particular, you onder, the thought comes, ell hat is this time? You kno, is aircraft don, is a ship on the sands, has a ship been torpedoed? This is artime. These are the sort of thoughts you have. But you chase off, hatever you re doing, you see, some in their pyjamas, perhaps just their trousers over the top of their pyjamas and things like this. Everybody hares don to the pier, everybody ants to be there. And the lifeboatmen ho got there first that day ere Walter Allen, nine members of the Davies family and. I as called out 5 and 20 past 7 on the Sunday morning, so I just slipped my trousers on the top of my pyjamas and ent. Mrs and Mrs Jack Davies We just sa the lifeboat going over the slipay and saying ell they re going, I don t kno hen e shall see them back. But e just had to hope and pray they did come back. You don t mind if s not rough but hen s rough, ell naturally you orry. The ives of Shrimp and Jack Davies kno that lifeboatmen are reticent at the best of times. In artime, even more so. Mrs and Mrs Jack Davies They did say they ere going out to the sands, didn t they? Yes. We thought as the sands but of course as the Leman Banks... But really as rough that day, asn t? Terrible. There as a 3-hour battle through heavy seas and squalls of rain and sleet. One of the youngest of Henry Blogg s cre that day as. Jack Davies We got the roughest, just before e got to Haisborough Sands, hich is about halfay. We took a ltle b of a risk going from the south est, or the Middle Buoy to the East Buoy... hich is about more than a b. And there ere some big rolls, hen e didn t kno hat to do h her. Our Second Coxsain Jack Davies did in fact say: Henry, are e doing the rong thing? We must bo these seas, the further e go this ay the more dangerous ill be. And so Henry turned around and then boed these seas so e crossed this heap of sand and then got into deep ater again and then carried on to Hammond s Knoll.

3 The lifeboat that ouldn't giv e up Group 3 Things ere getting really serious for the English Trader, lashed by sea and storm on Hammond s Knoll. There ere nearly 50 men onboard and the Captain ordered them all up to the comparative safety of the bridge. As the bosun and a seaman ent off to try and secure the only ship s boat, hich hadn t been sept aay, sa a huge ave about to h them. Henry had described later as the most appalling sight he d ever seen. The ship as grounded on Hammond s Knoll and the only things e could see ere her mast, her funnel and her bridge. Everything else as underater. And great seas ere breaking on her starboard side and running across her and round her, round her stern and round her bo, and meeting on her port side and throing up into the air, oh 60 or 70 feet. It as absolutely impossible to get near her. And e can see the seas going from right over the bridge and I ve never seen a ship in a orse predicament in my life. No e kne that this ship as breaking up fast her hatches ere already off e even sa her boilers come out. Her cargo And they turned round and they sa hat as coming. The sea as as stren all over the sea, and looked as if in another hour coming right over the boat there this time and that as a monster. that she ould be a total reck. And so Henry thought that e It as a great green thing h a ltle he top to, I mean there must make an attempt, but e couldn t, as impossible to get as nothing very big about, but as all sea and no foam on the nearer, to hin about a quarter of a mile. But he approached top, or no crest. They both turned e could see one holding onto her on her port bo, this is on the lee side of course, and then the other and ran, and they spotted this funnel stay. e tried to fire lines across her. The bosun must have grabbed and held on tight but the other fello missed, and the sea h him then and buried him underneath. In fact buried the bosun underneath but took the other fello clean over the side. As he ent aay e could see him on the back of one of these things like the side of a slate quarry, tearing aay from us, and he s floating on his back on the top of this thing and he aved his arm. No this fello s name as Joe Biss and he had a, oh hat ould you say, a thing he d yell out instead of baling out good morning to you, he d say Taxi! to you hen he sa you up on the gun deck. Hey gunners, Taxi! That kind of thing. Where he got that from, I don t kno. No hat they had to avoid, not only as there the sea but there as our cargo as ell, and that entirely ltered the ocean. We had boxes, hat, big enough to carry a motor car in, I should think, some of them. Some of them ere small, ltle old margarine box size you see, but tougher than that. On the side of each of these ere great big stencilled letters because they could make them, Brain Delivers the Goods ell e ere delivering them. No. 1 hatch contained a tractor, farm tractor, that came out of the hold, and ent clean through the side tore a great jagged hole in the side and disappeared. You could tell the force of the sea, lift a thing like that up. But he raised his arm and e heard him, ell e took to be just Taxi! Taxi! he said, and on top of this massive great ave there as nothing e could do about. And the bosun still hanging to this stay... ciated Press Photo: Asso They got the bosun back to the safety of the bridge but to more men ere to be sept aay before Henry Blogg and the Cromer boat got near.

4 The lifeboat that ouldn't giv e up Group 4 So of course the Cromer boat, not only as I say did they have the sea, but they also had all this debris floating about. They make their run in, as very good, as they came in toards us you could see all the chaps in their great lifejackets and so forth ploughing through this lot, half-hidden most of the time. Somebody raised their Photo: HH Tansley arm, a ltle puff of smoke, and e sa this steel shaft they fire on a line come straight toards us, straight toards us, but they had to get to the bridge. It as no use getting anyhere else because e couldn t get hold of you see. It had to come across the bridge. It got about halfay beteen the boat and us, hen suddenly shot straight in the air, curled over, back to them. No Cromer lifeboat had never failed ever to rescue a cre and e began to think that this time e ould fail. And so some of the younger ones, myself included, Jack, Kelly, Dick, Bob, said: Well let s have another try. But I kne I as eager to have a go, because as really nerve racking to s there and atch them. And Henry said, and the Second Coxsain Jack Davies said: If e try e shall do more harm than good. And e said: Well ho can e do any harm; e ve, you kno, e thought e had the best. Well e kne e had the best Coxsain in the orld, e definely thought e had the best cre, and e kne e had the best lifeboat in the orld. So hat harm can e do? Anyay he said: Right, e ll have another try. We got to hin about 60 or 70 yards of her, hen the biggest sea I have ever seen in my life thre up And raced past us, just, some of scooped across our forepart of the ship, across the forecastle, and hurled on and then broke. Script reproduced by kind permission of the BBC. Henry tried to turn the heel to port, to bo, I mean steam up of fast, you see. Someone shouted the lifeboat s over and the lifeboat as over and everybody abaft of midships ent overboard. Shrimp s father said: Hang on! Well I grabbed the ireless mast, that s hat I grabbed. As I ent over I sa the safety chains, they ere horizontal, and I thought the boat as turning over so I struck out aay from her. If I d been the other side, I d stood a better chance of keeping in the boat, hich some of the other cre ere, and of course hen this ave h me, I just ent. Well I thought she as going over, I ould have been underater hen she came up right, I then realised there as half the cre gone. I sa Blogg and my father, not too far aay, I sa to more members of the cre, Shrimp and Kelly together...

5 The lifeboat that ouldn't giv e up Group 5 But seems like hours, as probably minutes, and you don t see anything and the seas are breaking over and you are gasping for breath, and then a sou ester, and an oily and to arms doing a backstroke coming toards me and turns out to be. Oh I come out of the ater alongside of Shrimp. He said: Keep your mouth shut and dive under the aves, and I thought I can t get in there h all of this lot, so I kicked my sea boots off, hich ere, you kno, course e never, e couldn t buy any during the ar, so you had to get hat you could so I had a pair of 9s, hich come off right easy... And then he said: Well I m looking this ay, and he as still don on his back and he starts to sim to leeard again and I m saying: Look the boat is there, you mustn t go this ay. When I kicked my sea boots off, I as flat on the ater and I ent like an old duck. I ent everyhere the aves took me. But he told me afterards that he got on top of and as carrying him along at a terrific rate and he said: Oh please God let carry me right to shore sort of thing you kno. Shrimp Davies So I just ent h the aves and there as all these crates going past and I couldn t get hold of one of them to get on. I have heard people say that death by droning is a pleasant death but s not. It s a terrible agony and you re sort of gasping for breath and, oh ell, I ll finish. It as in fact armer and more pleasant in the ater, the farther you ere in the ater the armer you ere because the ind as cold and... you kno. And I did in fact stick my head in the ater and I thought ell I might as ell finish as quick as possible, you kno, and then I couldn t stand this pain any longer and I thought I must have another gasp of breath and opened my eyes and there s the lifeboat! And there they all are excepting Kelly and I can t see Walter Allen. I could see Henry Blogg being helped along the deck; he d then been picked up. I could see him being helped along the deck h my father, I could see them disappear under the canopy, I can hear somebody shout something, and I m shouting to them. I tried to shout to them: c mon! You kno, and I had a feeling of pride that, you kno, this thing is still upright and they re still there sort of thing. And then I see my father and Henry disappear under the canopy and I seen my brother, my eldest brother, come out from the canopy and come along the deck and take the rope from somebody else that they ere preparing to thro to me. And I could see him coiling in his hand and I kne in my on mind that seems that if I d been a mile aay, that he ould have reached me h this rope. I sa the boat go up on the sea and roll aay from me a b and then I kne that he as aing for that. When he got the maximum height that he ould get, the rope ould come, and dropped right on my chest, four or five lovely big coils, you kno. And I rapped a turn round this hand and a turn round that one, and in my teeth as ell, and they ere pulling me in. Then another sea broke on her side and I thought she ould come toards me and push me under again, and I stuck my feet out as they pulled and they h the side and they kept pulling and I as onboard. I don t kno ho as pulled me in but anyho they got me in and then they give me a drop of rum, hich I don t take as a rule, in case I got a lot of ater inside of me. Then they took us to Yarmouth after they picked the other chap up hat died. I as the last one picked up alive., Weekly Illustrated

6 The lifeboat that ouldn't giv e up Group 6 as safe, and, and his uncle Jack The only man ho had the telephone as the Coxsain, so he Davies, the Second Coxsain, and the 65-year-old Coxsain Henry Blogg. But the last man to be pulled back into the lifeboat, just rang, I suppose the coastguards, to say he as there, and his ife to say ill you no find somebody to bring us and Walter Allen, had been in the ater too long. gather up and see all the ives, hich Annie as e called her ould have to do. She ould have to go around and see everybody and say, ell, you get dry clothes together and We got him, e tried to revive him on the deck, he did make an everything and spare boots if they got them and things and effort, but he actually came round and he tried to put his err, get them together and e ll have a taxi or van or lorry or hat e call mtens on s a glove and he as on his hands something to take them through. and knees, e carried him aft, he then sort of collapsed again. Mrs Davies And the fishmonger next door to us took them through in This as of course the orst thing that had ever happened to his ltle fish van and brought the et things back. But e the Cromer lifeboat cre you see, people had been ashed didn t kno till then that Mr Allen had died and five of them overboard before and been retrieved and had been alright, but had been ashed overboard, my husband included. This had this as the first man that had been lost on the Cromer lifeboat, never happened to our lifeboat in all s life. All the years I can so this as a bad thing. remember. I never heard of any accident happening h Cromer boat you hear of up the coast but you never think s going to be the Cromer boat. The destroyer signalled out to us that the Cromer boat must return to s station because they ere in a pretty deplorable state. Well they must have been, the sea asn t all that arm, I mean deep sea s obviously a lot colder than say, something alongside the land. So the lifeboat turned, came in as close as possible to us, somebody aved an arm and e d hear, they had some lusty old voices you kno, these fellos: We ll be back! Waltenr Alle Painting: mickbensley.co m And they headed for Yarmouth to refuel, unable to land back in Cromer in those heavy seas. The Yarmouth lifeboat had come out too, and no made several attempts to get a line onboard the English Trader, but condions ere becoming increasingly dangerous and, as darkness fell, they too had to return. After struggling for more than 3 hours through the storm, the Cromer boat arrived h one of s cre dead and the rest utterly exhausted. But Coxsain Blogg ouldn t give up.

7 The lifeboat that ouldn't giv e up Group 7 The second night of the storm. The cre of the Cromer lifeboat had to rest after their 10 gruelling hours at sea. They intended to make another attempt at dan and on the English Trader the men stayed huddled on the bridge expecting their ship to break up beneath them at any moment. All you could hear as the sea crashing over the ship, then the moon ent don so e kne as getting late, got dark, you could hear great grinding noises underneath, bs coming apart, Photo: Taken hile being rescued by and hen they Ordinary Seaman Robert Aldin came apart as like somebody tearing, say the Forth Bridge don. Suddenly I just didn t remember any more I ent to sleep. Our chart room, I suppose as about hat, feet by 6 feet. It had the big chart table in, ltle cupboards and short settee, and there as 44 men in there for the night. But hile there as still a chance, any chance, of rescuing those men, Henry Blogg couldn t rest. And as gre lighter I heard the third mate call back to the Captain, he said: It s like a millpond this morning Sir. He said as like a millpond, all right as much calmer than as the day before. There ere still these terrific seas running, but there as a hope. I mean the lifeboat could get a line onboard because there as no ind. So the Captain said: If the lifeboats can only come out no, he said, e ll get off. When the Cromer lifeboat did arrive back at 8 that morning, very ltle remained of the English Trader. The only thing left hole as the bridge here the men ere on, and her masts. And hen e sa her e ondered: Were they still there? You kno, had they survived this night, ere they still there? Then you sort of see the bridge and say, ell you kno, but s still hole anyay, you kno. There must be somebody there and then a man s hand came out of the heelhouse and: Oh thank God, they are still there! They d been caged up all night, never knoing hether she as going to break to pieces. I ould say that, to be honest, hat e suffered and hat they suffered as even orse. I kno e nearly turned over, but hat they had to they ere rats in the trap. Our Coxsain, he decided that the best time ould be 4 o clock in the morning so he got permission from the naval authories to come out. 4 o clock in the morning, October of course, s pch dark, you ve got about 3 hours to daylight, sort of thing. And so e, ell Henry, had to find his ay through out of Yarmouth and through the Cockle Gateay, hich as then not lighted. And this as a b of a job. No lights, and I stood there and I thought as a very good b of navigation, h no lights. Script reproduced by kind permission of the BBC. Henry Blogg Photo: RNLI

8 The lifeboat that ouldn't giv e up Group 8 The Cromer boat made a great big sing right alongside the ship, great big hooks came onboard there, one of these old Norfolk voices baled out: Come on lads, let s get out of! And the Captain said: All right lads, abandon ship. And you kno I felt sorry for him hen he said that. Anyay e clattered don these old ladders, fell into the lifeboat, e didn t bother e just fell into, hichever ay you got in you got in, ent in head first, as just the same, they d catch you at the bottom. No, e don t ant to go onboard the destroyer, e ll come h you. You saved us, e ll come h you. So e are getting aay from the old reck by this time, this is all e could call the English Trader no as a reck and I noticed I as looking at him before I ent don, I think as the engine room I ent and sat don in, noticed some great big tears rolling don the sides of his face because he d achieved something that he didn t think he as going to do. There as 44 I think, 44 chaps and one canary. There asn t nothing much said, sort of thing, no one as shouting and cheering for joy, or anything, they probably like us had big lumps in their throat and couldn t say anything anyay. The destroyer signalled over to Coxsain Blogg. Was he going to But as e got on the ay and got the rum bottle out, and then bring the survivors aboard the destroyer? So the old Coxsain of course the cigarettes, and then things came you see. But they looked at us and he said: What do you ant to do lads? did tell us that hen the seas struck us they could actually see Do you people ant to go aboard, he said, the destroyer? the lifeboat s keel and she must have ent right on her beam end, you kno. Ho ever she didn t go over, ell, I don t kno. No e don t ant to go onboard the destroyer. He said: Well, you kno, e ve got everything aing for you ashore. Since 1941 there have been about 9 or 10 lifeboat disasters hen the hole cres or part of the cres have been lost completely and hole lifeboats have been lost. You kno, e think sometimes, that had she gone over, the hole of the Davies family, from the fishing fraterny anyay, ould all have been lost and you onder you kno, hether this could happen again and can can happen anytime. Henry Blogg eir ay h ors making th iv rv su llo fe Photo: Some er t Aldin b o R by taken ome,