The loss of the Solomon Browne Penlee Lifeboat Station

memorial garden , old boathouse @ penlee point

on 19 december 1981 solomon browne launched go aid of mv union star after engines failed 8 miles (13 km) east of wolf rock. winds gusting @ 90 knots (100 mph; 170 km/h) – hurricane force 12 on beaufort scale – , whipping waves 60 feet (18 m) high. on board crew of 5 , 3 members of captain s family. helicopter had been unable rescue them , lifeboat crew of 8 men went alongside. after several attempts 4 people managed jump across; captain s family , 1 of men apparently safe. lifeboat radioed we’ve got 4 off ; last ever heard on either vessel.

lifeboats summoned sennen cove, lizard , st mary s try colleagues penlee. sennen cove lifeboat found impossible make headway round land s end. lizard lifeboat found serious hole in hull when returned slipway after fruitless search. wreckage solomon browne found along shore, , union star lay capsized onto rocks west of tater du lighthouse. some, not all, of 16 bodies recovered.

within day of disaster enough people mousehole had volunteered form new lifeboat crew. coxswain trevelyan richards posthumously awarded royal national lifeboat institution s gold medal, while remainder of crew posthumously awarded bronze medals. station awarded gold medal service plaque. disaster prompted massive public appeal benefit of village of mousehole raised on £3 million (£10.6 million of 2016), although there outcry when government tried tax donations.