No-one knows for certain what happened that night as there were no survivors from either the lifeboat crew or the ship they went to save and the lifeboat house at Penlee (just outside the main village) now stands empty as a memorial to those who were lost in the disaster.
Every year on the anniversary the village switches off the christmas lights, and the village lies in darkness, a fitting tribute to the men who lost their lives trying to save others.
On one of our last days in Cornwall, we visited Penzance to try and find some Cornish Tartan Ribbon, and as we headed back to the car we noticed this little souvenir shop was open and as we still had a few minutes we went in.
Both of us were attracted to the lifeboats on the shelf and when we picked it up we knew we had to have it - the reason.. was this..Someone had written Penlee on it.
So it now sits on our shelf, a reminder of the good and the bad times that Cornwall has to offer.. So if you have any pennies to spare, and the RNLI (who really deserve government funding) are a good cause to give to.
6 comments:
I was at school when that incident happened and still rememeber the Penlee, they are great people down there and yeah the RNLI deserve funding.
Laters
Nicey
Well said.
I have blogged extensively on the Mumbles Lifeboat, which went down with all hands in 1948. I was privileged to have lined the route at their funeral. They will, quite truly, NEVER be forgotten in our village.
Yeah, I like Mousehole, though I've not been there for a while. Well, not since we went to see the Christmas Lights, 2007.
It's a lovely, quaint little place...
x
As a result of reading this post, I've spent a long time looking up a friend from years gone by, who worked for the RNLI in Scotland. She used to tell me some amazing stories of the work done.
I like it when something nice comes out of a post....
I agree with you, Sage, about RNLI...they are definitely worth blogging about. I agree with other comments left here...they deserve funding. They have been especially hit by rising fuel costs plus the government has also been increasing the cost (to the RNLI)of marine radio licences.
They exist on voluntary donations and the govt. is taxing them more!!!
Thank you for your lovely comment on my blog and well done on the recent award. Hx
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