The book of the lifeboat : with a complete history of the Lifeboat Saturday movement ... / edited and arranged by J.C. Dibdin and John Ayling.

  • Dibdin, James C.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The book of the lifeboat : with a complete history of the Lifeboat Saturday movement ... / edited and arranged by J.C. Dibdin and John Ayling. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    recognised as that of Lytham, was seen making her way to the shore, but before she could touch the land, a horseman rode through the waves to meet her, and it was he who returned to tell the anxious crowd the terrible message she had brought. Then it became known definitely, that of the three boats which had gone out that of Lytham only had returned safely, bringing with her the rescued men, but the boats of Southport and St. Anne’s had both been capsized. Of the former, thirteen men had been lost out of a crew of fifteen, and of the latter, not a man had escaped. Then followed a scene of wailing and lamentation among the widows and orphans of the drowned men which it is need- less to dwell upon here, but which will not soon be forgotten by those who witnessed it. In time the ill-fated Laura Janet was found not far from the wreck and brought back to the boat-house, and one by one the bodies of the drowned men were recovered and laid in the churchyards of St. Anne’s and Lytham. At this time the Institution had been in existence for sixty-two years, but no such catastrophe had ever before occurred; indeed, the record of lives lost when on service is marvellously small considering the terrible risks that have to be faced by these gallant men, who are ever ready at any hour of the day or night to face the perils of the deep in
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