Falmouth RNLI volunteers attend shipwreck’s 110th anniversary memorial service

Five members of the Hera’s crew survived after they were rescued by the crew of Falmouth lifeboat.

The Hera, fully laden with nitrate, had been on passage from Pisagua in Chile and was making landfall off the Lizard. However, her captain had been relying on dead reckoning navigation due to poor weather conditions and a faulty chronometer. In heavy weather, Captain Lorenz altered course in an attempt to pick up St Anthony lighthouse but overshot Falmouth by several miles. Not long after midnight on 1 February, the four masted steel ship struck the rocks.

The crew of the stricken vessel managed to fire distress rockets before it settled by the head and rolled over, capsizing the lifeboats and throwing crew members into the icy sea. The deck of the sailing ship was swamped forcing the first mate and five other crew to climb the rigging onto one of the masts where they remained for three hours.

Falmouth’s 37-foot self-righting pulling and sailing lifeboat Bob Newbon with Coxswain Samuel Hingston and his 15-man crew, launched at 1.55am and towed to the scene of one of the worst sailing ship wrecks in the Falmouth area by the harbour tug Perran.

The Hera’s first mate succumbed to the cold but before he slipped to his death from the rigging, he managed to hand his whistle to a young able seaman.

Describing the rescue later, Coxswain Samuel Hingston said: ‘On the way we encountered heavy seas. When about a mile offshore we slipped the Perran and went in between Gull Rock and Nare Head to speak with the Coastguards who were on the shoreline.

All at once I heard a whistle blowing. We heaved in our anchor and got underway. Then we saw a speck on our lee bow and later we made out five men hanging on a spar. We experienced considerable difficulty in rescuing the men because of the heavy seas. Our bowman William Leuty badly crushed his finger in the rescue.’

In gale force winds and a rough sea, the five men were rescued from the topmast in what was later described by the RNLI as a ‘commendable rescue’.

The Hera’s captain and the other 18 crew members who lost their lives that night were buried in an unusually shaped grave, almost 120 feet long and three feet wide in Veryan Churchyard.

The memorial service at Veryan Church last Sunday was well attended and during the service an account of the shipwreck was presented by Kevin Patience, author of the book Hera - A Cornish Shipwreck Tragedy. He also read out the names of the lifeboat crew involved in the rescue. A collection of memorabilia including the Hera’s bell was on display and a wreath was laid on the grave after the service.

Falmouth Lifeboat crew members Coxswain Jonathon Blakeston, Deputy Second Coxswain Dave Nicoll, Deputy Second Coxswain Adam West, Mechanic Andy Edwards and Jack Williams were joined at the service by Coxswain Samuel Hingston’s great grandson and former lifeboat crew member, Adrian Hingston.

Coxswain Jonathon Blakeston said: ‘It was quite a poignant service and fitting that it coincided with this year’s RNLI 200^th anniversary.’

Key facts about the RNLI

The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 142,700 lives.

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