Tag Archives: Christmas Day

Hull’s Quiet Disaster: The Christmas Day Tragedy of St. Finbarr

St Finbarr’s final trip was plagued by bad luck from the start. She took 14 days battling atrocious weather to get to Newfoundland’s Grand Banks, a trip usually done in half that time. Electrical faults reported from previous trips caused three delays before she even set sail from Hull’s St Andrew’s Dock on 16 November 1966. Ironically, it was St Andrew’s Day (the patron saint of fishermen), 30 November, when she reached the Newfoundland fishing grounds on her thirteenth and final trip. She had endured 38 days of foul weather, from Yorkshire’s Spurn Point to the storm-lashed grounds of the Grand Banks. Skipper Tommy Sawyer, a hard taskmaster, pushed his ship and her crew to the limit, 8 Photos, >click to read< 14:22

Arbroath RNLI: The lifeboat heroes who give up their Christmas to save lives

Sam Clow will tuck into his Christmas dinner alongside his young family with his pager beside his festive fayre. Arbroath RNLI full-time coxswain/mechanic and his volunteer crew will drop everything at a moment’s notice if the pager goes off. Giving up their time to help save lives at sea is a tradition which runs through all 238 RNLI stations, whether it be mums and sons, or dads and daughters. Sam said the drill is the same for the crew all year round. “We remain on call 24/7 over Christmas and that’s the reality of the job,” he said. >click to read< 14:46

A Christmas Day disaster

St Finbarr’s final trip was plagued by bad luck from the start. She took 14 days battling atrocious weather to get to Newfoundland’s Grand Banks – a trip usually done in half that time. Electrical faults reported from previous trips caused three delays before she even set sail from Hull’s St Andrew’s Dock on November 16th, 1966. On her maiden voyage in late 1964, St Finbarr, the most expensive Hull trawler ever at £500,000 (£13m in today’s money), smashed the national record hauling in 488 tons and 17 hundredweight, and had continued to do so since. click here to read the story 14:25