More information : Vessel on fishing and return voyage stranded and lost in wind conditions NE force 7. (2)
'Wreck of a Banffshire Boat near Lowestoft:
'Terrible Experiences of the Crew: Rescued Exhausted from a Raft.
'A remarkable tale of the sea, narrating an almost miraculous escape from death, was brought to Yarmouth yesterday morning on the landing by the lifeboat of eight men forming the crew of the Banffshire fishing boat STAR OF BETHLEHEM, of Cullen. The boat has been fishing out of Lowestoft during the present autumn herring season, and left on Monday afternoon for the fishing grounds, when the weather was clear, with a fresh sailing breeze. The crew shot their nets, subsequently hauling them and heading for Lowestoft in the early hours of yesterday morning. The wind by this time had greatly increased, and an ENE gale was now blowing. The weather being very thick with rain falling heavily, and the lights being obscured, the boat went ashore on the Middle Cross Sand. Huge waves then broke over her, and soon after stranding the rudder was carried away, rendering her disabled. She bumped heavily, and in a short time her bottom began to break up. So thick was the weather that the perilous position of the crew could not be seen from the lightship not far distant, and no signals of distress could be shown. The craft was going to pieces with fearful rapidity, when, as a last resource, the crew constructed of spars and oars a small raft. It sank, however, under their weight, but fortunately the net buoys, which had been attached, prevented it being more than a yard below the surface, and standing up to their waists in water, clinging with one hand to each other, and with the other to a buoy, with huge waves continually dashing over them, they drifted away from their doomed craft, which smashed up soon afterwards. The poor fellows soon became benumbed with the bitter cold, and exhausted with their efforts to keep afloat, and it seemed certain that their gallant struggles for life would soon end with their lives. In the meantime, however, a lift in the rain had enabled the boat to be seen from the lightship, and the Gorleston lifeboat was soon on its way to the rescue. After a little while, the raft with its nearly dead occupants, was discovered, and the men were taken aboard, some having to be restored to consciousness by artificial means. On arriving at Yarmouth they were taken to the Sailors' Home. In an interview there that our correspondent had with the crew, the skipper, John Thompson, stated fully two hours elapsed from the time the boat struck till they were rescued by the lifeboat. Of course the crew lost everything. It was a perfectly new boat, being only two years old, but fortunately it was insured. The boat belonged to Mr Benjamin Smith, Seatown, Cullen.' (3)
Source (2) states the vessel as being in ballast, a standard indexation of fishing vessels for this source, regardless of whether they were outward-bound in ballast or homeward-bound with fish; source (3) indicates the latter. (4)
Built: 1893 (2)(3)
Master: J Thomson (2); John Thompson (3)
Crew: 8 (2)(3)
Owner: B Smith, Banffshire (2); Benjamin Smith, Seatown, Cullen (3)
Date of Loss Qualifier: Actual date of loss
Additional sources cited in Shipwreck Index of the British Isles:
BOT Wk Rtn 1895 Appx.C Table 1 p124 |