On 19 December 1981, at 6pm, the Falmouth Coastguard received a call from the coaster Union Star on her maiden voyage sailing from Holland to Ireland.
The ship’s engines had failed and would not restart. Hurricane-force winds and rough seas were blowing it towards the rocky Cornish coastline and eight people, including Captain Henry Morton, his crew, his wife and two teenage stepdaughters, were onboard.
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In Mousehole, Penlee’s Solomon Browne lifeboat was put on standby. Over a dozen men answered the call for crew, with eight selected.
Coxswain William Trevelyan Richards chose the following experienced crew for the shout:
- Second Coxswain and Mechanic James Stephen Madron
- Assistant Mechanic Nigel Brockman
- Emergency Mechanic John Blewett
- Crew Member Charles Greenhaugh
- Crew Member Kevin Smith
- Crew Member Barrie Torrie
- Crew Member Gary Wallis
Initial attempts for the rescue to be carried out by helicopter proved impossible, so the Solomon Browne was launched two hours after the first alert.
In winds up to 100mph and waves up to 18m high, the lifeboat battled to come alongside the Union Star for half an hour. From the helicopter, people in life jackets could be seen running across the deck from the wheelhouse of the Union Star to the lifeboat, where the crew stood to catch them as they jumped across.
The Solomon Browne radioed to the Coastguard that they had saved four people and the helicopter turned back to base, assuming that the lifeboat would head back to shore.
But the lifeboat decided to make a final rescue attempt and all radio contact was lost. The helicopter refuelled and relaunched, and lifeboats from Sennen Cove, The Lizard and St Mary’s were also launched, with no success.
In the morning, the Union Star was found capsized on the rocks near the Tater Du Lighthouse and debris from the lifeboat began to wash ashore.
All of the Solomon Browne crew and the Union Star passengers lost their lives, and this disaster was the last time the RNLI lost an entire crew in action.
The disaster inspired a public appeal for Mousehole, which raised over £3 million (the equivalent of £10 million today), and a memorial stands on Tregiffian Cliff, directly above the site of the disaster.
And within a day of the disaster, enough people from Mousehole had volunteered to form a new lifeboat crew.
Every year on 19 December, the Christmas lights in Mousehole (except from the cross, angels and RNLI sign) are switched off at 8pm for the night, in memory of those who lost their lives.
In this year’s Gone Christmas Fishing, Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse head to Mousehole to join local fisherman Neil on his boat. On the way, they pass the Penlee lifeboat station where those men lost their lives at sea in December 1981 – including Neil’s own father.
How are lifeboat crew selected?
At Penlee, in 1981, RNLI Crew Member Neil Brockman responded to the call but Coxswain Trevelyan Richards refused to take him. Neil’s dad, Assistant Mechanic Nigel Brockman, had already been picked and Richards would not take two members of the same family in the rough conditions. It was to be a wise decision.
However, there are no set rules of allowing members of the same family on the same shout. Instead, individual lifeboat stations are left to decide – and there are often other factors to play, such as experience, conditions and specific skills.
