There was a very interesting article in the Daily Express on Friday, November 18 1988 written by Keith Clare about the Mary Stanford lifeboat disaster which had taken place on November 15 1928. On that morning, in one of the worst gales Rye Harbour had ever known, the Mary Stanford lifeboat was launched. It took several attempts to get her afloat because of the torrential rain and gale force winds. The crew set out to save lives and ended up losing their own.
In Keith’s version of the story he tells us that Thomas Firrell, who was driving a train at the time, witnessed the boat returning to harbour and watched as a huge wave caused her to capsize. He immediately uncoupled his wagons and drove full steam to tell the villagers what he had seen. When he returned to the scene three minutes later the boat was nowhere to be seen. A few hours later it was washed up on Camber beach with all lives lost.
As their bodies were laid out in the Mission Hall in the village a heart-breaking sign was laid out beside them: “We have done that which was our duty to do”. The whole country was shocked by this disaster and letters of sympathy poured in.
No-one will ever know exactly what happened, but their bravery lives on to this day. On Sunday November 20, 94 years ago to the day when the funeral took place, Rye Harbour Church of the Holy Spirit was packed with family members, villagers, friends and representatives of RNLI Rye Harbour, Hastings and Dungeness. The mayors of Rye and Winchelsea paid their respects and laid wreaths on the memorial after the service as did all the services represented with their standards.
RNLI Rye Harbour presented their standard for the first time at this service. It was donated by Jackie and Dave Rees. It honours the memory of her parents, Eileen and Jack Tatam, whose ashes were scattered by the station earlier this year.
The service is always poignant and the lighting of the individual candles by descendants of each crew member brings tears to people’s eyes. The Round Rye Bay Singers performed the haunting shanty written by Martin Bruce about the lifeboat disaster and Rector Paul White talked about sacrifice and bravery and the devastating loss of so many men and youngsters. This disaster, of course came soon after the first world war, in which the village had already lost many soldiers and the population of this tiny hamlet had been decimated.
It is a sobering and thought-provoking ceremony at which we remember the incredible sacrifice those sailors made, and it reminds us that today around the country at the 238 RNLI stations men and women risk their lives on a daily basis to carry on the tradition of their forebears to save lives at sea.
Image Credits: Kt bruce .
So sad
God bless them bravest of men