by Belinda Brown

Created on: September 10, 2009

The Penlee Lifeboat disaster happened on the 19 December, 1981, near Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. The lifeboat, the Solomon Browne, answered the distress signal of a freighter, the United Star in poor weather conditions and high seas. Both the United Star and the Solomon Browne were lost, killing all those on board each vessel.

The Dublin registered freighter, known as the United Star, was on her maiden voyage from the Netherlands, carrying fertiliser to Arklow, Ireland. On board was the crew of five; the Captain, Henry Moreton, the first mate, James Whittaker, engineer, George Sedgwick and crewmen Anghostino Verressimo and Manuel Lopez. Also on board was Moreton's wife, Dawn Moreton and his two step daughters, Sharon and Deanne. Moreton's family had decided to travel with him, so they could all be together for Christmas.

About eight miles east of Wolf Rock, the Union Star had experienced difficulties with its engine and the crew could not restart the freighter's engines. Help was offered by a near by tug, the Noord Holland, but the captain had refused the help as it was under the Lloyd's Open Salvage contract and Moreton did not know what the cost of salvage would be.

With the weather worsening, and with high seas, the fuel on board the freighter had become contaminated with sea water. The United Star had been battling winds of up to 80mph with gusts of 95mph and was at a high risk of colliding into nearby cliffs at Boscawen Cove. This would be about the time Moreton had put out a distress call to the Falmouth Coast Guard.

The weather conditions had been so severe that a Navy Sea King helicopter which had been sent out from RNAS Culdrose could not attempt a rescue mission to those on board.

Shortly after, the Solomon Browne, a 47 foot Watson class lifeboat had been launched into extremely rough waters at Penlee Point. All of the eight men aboard the Solomon Browne were highly experienced seamen, who were hand picked out of twelve volunteers who had answered the call out.

By then, the United Star had been driven dangerously close to the cliffs, so Coxwain William Trevelyan Richards had made the quick decision to tackle the storm head on. The Solomon Browne had made several attempts at rescue, and was once slammed into the side of the freighter and twice thrown onto the deck.

With the swell well over 50 feet, the Solomon Browne had managed to rescue four out of the eight lives on board the United Star. Trevelyan Richards had decided to make one more attempt at rescue for the four left over, but the shocking weather had proved it to be an impossible task.

The last message that had been intercepted from the Solomon Browne stated, "We've got four men off, hang on, we have got four at the moment. There's two left on board..." The radio had been cut off mid sentence and the Solomon Browne was never heard from again. The lights from the lifeboat is said to have disappeared from view right at the same time the United Star had capsized.

What happened next to the Solomon Browne is speculation as there was no one who had actually witnessed the incident. Few theories had become known, one of them is that the Solomon Browne had been thrown into the cliffs by high seas.

There were no survivors from the disaster and only eight out of the sixteen lives had been found. The Solomon Browne was later found on shore. The United Star had been found capsized onto the rocks near Tater Du Lighthouse.

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