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A SHIPS DEMISE.
Its December 1801 and a cargo ship carrying
copper ore from South America to Swansea for smelting into copper ingots is running
up from the South
West coast
of Ireland in a severe South Westerly gale desperately trying to make
and round Lundy Island and into the Bristol Channel. The gale is driving the ship relentlessly
towards the North Devon shore, the master and crew powerless to do anything, suddenly they see
crashing waves, foaming water driven over rocks and then the ship
strikes the rocks and begins to break up. Distress rockets are fired,
and before long they see people on the shore ready to help the sailors
to safety, the distance between the ship and safety is only 150 yards
(meters) yet every one on board will perish either by drowning or
being dashed on the rocks in the surf. Tragic! Unfortunately this
was a common occurrence in that era as there was no method of rescuing
seamen in situations like this. At the time about 10.000 sailors died
each year, most within a few hundred yards (meters) of safety in this
type of situation. Something had to be done to prevent this needless
loss of life. The British Board of Trade was responsible for safety
at sea and desperately needed to establish a method of rescuing sailors
in this type of situation. The methods of rescuing sailors from ships
was long established; however one major problem prevented the system
from becoming operational, getting a line from the rescuers to the
ship or from the ship to the shore. Many methods were tried and failed
until a military rocket was modified to carry a light line. A number
of people worked on this method and in about 1850 the Boxer rocket
was accepted as standard issue by the Board of Trade. Once it was
established that a line could now be sent to a ship, the Breeches
Buoy rescue method could now become operational. It remained in use
until 2003 (in Ireland) when it was officially withdrawn
from service. The cart and equipment illustrated on this website was
stationed at Crosshaven, County Cork, Ireland. until
1998. It is now restored and displayed in
the Coast Guard museum Crosshaven,
Co. Cork.
In this website I shall endeavour
to show you the equipment used from the 1850s until 2003, what it
was used for, and how it was used. All the equipment illustrated on
this site is original but restored to its original state and colours
where possible. In some instances when the original is not available
replicas have been constructed to as near the original as possible
from pictures, drawings etc. In such instances the item will be labelled
as a replica. Any errors in the information will be corrected if necessary
and you are invited to send any information to me via my email address
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