Cornwall November 1907 and the night of a violent storm!
The ship S. S. Suevic was sailing from Australia to Southampton.
It was an appalling night, a gale was blowing and the Captain couldn’t see anything and they were getting close to the Cornish coast.
This was before the days of radar and it was down to the ship’s crew to look out for rocks and other boats.
Suddenly they hit the rocks and they hurriedly let off some flares.
Half the children were on this boat, while the other half scrambled into the open rowing boat.
We had to row through massive waves in the darkness and we eventually got off the first lot of people from the boat. Then we had to row back to shore.
We then learnt how on that real night a total of 3 lifeboats from 3 villages rowed out into the heavy seas for almost 16 hours.
Amazingly, 456 men, women and children were rescued and not one life was lost.
This huge life saving achievement still stands as a record.
As a result of the bravery and determination of the volunteer crews, some silver RNLI medals were awarded.
It made us feel thankful for the work of the RNLI.
It also made us think of how helpless those people must have felt on the ship fighting against such a fierce storm.
That then reminded us of when the disciples found themselves in the middle of a massive storm and their boat was sinking and then Jesus stood up and commanded the wind and waves to stop. And they did!
I can’t imagine any of us standing up in a storm and commanding it to stop.
See next event: Robin Hood 23rd September 2010
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