The Lifeboat Family looks at the two Lifeboats of Penwith: Sennen and Penlee. The book focuses on the tradition of sons taking after their fathers and family names continuing though generations of lifeboat crews. These two lifeboats are some of the oldest in the country and come from small close-knit fishing communities, meaning traditions run strong. Even though technology has advanced so much the ethos of the lifeboat has not changed, these volunteers will risk their lives to save others. The ancestors of the men who feature in this work crewed on very different lifeboats from today, but the sea hasn’t changed and people always need rescuing. It shows the immense dedication of the men and the families who have volunteered for decades.
The Sennen Lifeboat
Sennen is a small village located approximately 1 mile from Land’s End; the most south-westerly point in England. Protected by the high cliffs the village is nestled in the southern corner of the bay. Even though the village is in the most sheltered area it is still beaten by the harsh Atlantic storms. A popular location in the summer for tourists but only the hardy locals last the winter months. The lifeboat of Sennen Cove was established in 1853. The lifeboat station was built into the harbour of Sennen where the locals still make there living as fishermen.
Terry George ~
Full Time Coxswain of Sennen Cove Lifeboat
Terry grew up in Penberth, a small cove between Lands End and Mousehole, this was a small community; the sort where the front door was never locked and you knew everyone in the cove. As a child he would “play in boats, on boats and around boats”. Terry’s uncle took him to sea as a young boy, this was the start of his lifelong association to boats and the sea. At one point during the late 1890s the Sennen Lifeboat went out with an entire crew with the surname George. In recent history Terry George’s paternal grandfather was a crew member with generations before him also volunteering on the Sennen lifeboat. Terry has two sons, Oli and Ben, who are both members of the cove’s lifeboat.
click on the image for video interview
“Then I was 9 or 10 I had a shore wave radio for Christmas. a chap called Larry Went he married a cousin to my fathers and he was a radio engineer and he made this thing for me. I can see it now, it was in great big grey wooden box and on that I could hear the search and rescue frequency and licence to the lifeboat and everything and then there was incident going on.”
Ben George ~
Volunteer Crewmember of Sennen Cove Lifeboat
Ben George is the youngest son of Terry George. With is father having such an involvement with the lifeboat Ben grow up on the slipway watching and learning. He joined the lifeboat crew on his 17th birthday and has been an active member for the last 14 years. Ben make his living from the sea, he has a small fishing boat that he launches from Sennen.
click on the image for video interview
Phillip Shannon ~
Retired Second Coxswain of Sennen Cove Lifeboat
Phillip grew up in Sennen and spent his childhood on the beach and around the cove. When Phillip came of age to join the RNLI at seventeen he jumped at the opportunity and spent almost 50 years as a dedicated member of the lifeboat crew. Phillip left the Sennen Cove Lifeboat crew aged sixtyfive because of RNLI retirement rules and became one of the longest volunteer lifeboat crewmembers in Britain. He had been on the lifeboat for hundreds of launches and 150 lives had been saved during his time on the boat. For his services he was awarded an MBE. Phillip is the first of his family name to be a member of the lifeboat crew. His father was a member of the cliff rescue team and the lifeboat committee, but Phillip is the first to represent his family on the lifeboat. His two sons Dan and Jack have followed in his footsteps. His oldest son Dan is Second Coxswain and Jack is a valued member of the crew, a professional seaman and mariner.
“It was my main interest from an early age, probably because of the excitement of hearing the maroons firing and seeing the lifeboat launch as a youngster. When I was old enough I joined and on it went for a few years.�
Dan Shannon ~
Second Coxswain of Sennen Cove Lifeboat
At the age of thirteen or fourteen Dan was asked to go into the lifeboat station and learn some skills. Even though he was officially too young to be a member of the crew he spent a lot of time with them and learnt some of the skills involved in being a lifeboat man. When Dan turned seventeen and was allowed to join the crew he already knew a lot about being a member of the lifeboat crew in Sennen Cove. Since joining Dan has crewed on three different lifeboats and has been on hundreds of callouts. In 1959 Dan’s grandfather built a small cafÊ and car park on the beach in Sennen Cove. Since then the business has grown to include a surf hire shop, a surf school and a restaurant. Dan left Cornwall for work but moved back to Sennen to take over the establishment from his father. Dan was able to live permanently in Sennen Cove. This enabled him to carry on his association with the lifeboat.
click on the image for video interview
Jack Shannon ~
Volunteer Crewmember of Sennen Cove and Penlee Lifeboats
With his father and older brother being on the crew the lifeboat was always a big part of Jack’s life. He joined the Sennen Lifeboat’s crew on this seventeenth birthday. Jack began to work at sea when he was nineteen training to become a professional mariner, which meant he was not always in Sennen but was an active member during his returns. Jack now works as a Deck Officer on large yachts and is away for six months of the year. Jack has recently moved out of Sennen and to Newlyn. Even though spending a lot of time back in Sennen, Jack has become a crewmember on the Penlee lifeboat as well. This means Jack carries two pagers and dependent on where he is he can go on shouts for either lifeboat.
click on the image for video interview
Sennen Cove
Land’s End
LongShips
Penberth
Lamorna
Location of the ‘Solomon Browne’ Disaster
Mousehole
Newlyn
The Penlee Lifeboat
The Penlee Lifeboat is based in the fishing village of Newlyn, which shelters in the westerly corner of Mounts Bay. There has been a lifeboat in the bay since 1824, but never one at Penlee. In 1913 a lifeboat station was built at Penlee Point, located between Newlyn and Mousehole. The boat was modernised three times until 1981 when the lifeboat ‘Solomon Browne’ launched from the Penlee slip on the night of 19th December in response to the distress call of the ‘Union Star’ vessel. The vessel had an engine failure and was drifting towards the cliffs near Lamorna. The whole crew were killed attempting to rescue those onboard ‘Union Star’. After this tragedy the Penlee Lifeboat Station was left as it was in 1981 as a memorial to the disaster. This is when the lifeboat relocated to Newlyn.
Patrick Harvey ~
Full Time Coxswain of the Penlee Lifeboat
Patrick grew up in Newlyn and like his father became a fisherman. Patrick thought he would be a fisherman for the rest of his life but with the knowledge of local waters and skills he had learnt from fishing he became a valuable member of the lifeboat crew. For the first ten or twelve years from 1993 when Patrick became a member of the Penlee Lifeboat crew he was unaware that his ancestors were former members. It wasn’t until a conversation with his uncle that he found out that his maternal grandfather and great grandfather had both been members of the lifeboat crew. Downing was his mother’s surname, an old family from Mousehole with stong links to the lifeboat.
“We certainly got it easier than they did, we’ve gone back through some of the service reports and they were handwritten then. You know they were rowing out to LongShips in a southwest gale and you know it would take them hours to row all the way back again. Just imagine the conditions on these open boats; the waterproofs they had were rubbish, they were probably wet and cold but they must have be as hard as nails. We are spoilt, but the ethos is the same: we still go out there in all weathers to rescue people we don’t know.”
Kenny Downing ~
Emergency Mechanic and Relief Coxswain of The Penlee Lifeboat
Growing up in Newlyn Kenny became a fisherman from a young age. He now works for P&O and is away at sea for one month and home for the following month. During his time off he is an active member of the Penlee Lifeboat crew. Sharing the same grandfather and great grandfather as Patrick Harvey, Kenny has a generational link to the lifeboat even though his father was not a member of the crew. The Downing family name is unlikely to carry on in the future of the Penlee lifeboat; Kenny has two daughters but still not many females are part of crews for the RNLI.
“Things get cancelled and plans get changed at short notice; that’s just the nature of being on the lifeboat. You’ve got to think: the shoe could have been on the other foot. You’ve got to just say it could be my children that need rescuing or my family that need rescuing, so they understand.”
Martin Brockmen ~
Visits Officer and Youth and Heritage Education Volunteer. of The Penlee Lifeboat
The lifeboat ‘Solomon Browne’ launched from this slip on a stormy December night in response to the distress call of the ‘Union Star’ vessel that had an engine failure and was drifting towards the cliffs near Lamorna. Martin’s father Nigel Brockman left on that night, the whole crew were killed attempting to rescue those onboard ‘Union Star’. Martin’s older brother, Neil Brockman, was also a member of the crew at the time of the disaster but was not allowed permitted to go because of the ferocity of the storm. It was custom that during a bad storm only one member of the same family were allowed to go onboard in case the boat was lost. Neil carried on in the lifeboat and became coxswain before being taken over by Patrick Harvey. Martin is the Penlee Lifeboat’s Visits Officer and Youth and Heritage Education Volunteer. Martin visits schools and community groups to give lectures on heritage and sea safety.
“It gets passed on; I dare say my son will probably want to get involved with the lifeboat at some stage. It’s a very proud thing and tradition is big, especially down here.”