It is always moving to see the Mary Stanford Lifeboat House silhouetted against the sea and sky, the view reminding us all of the terrible tragedy of November 15, 1928 when 17 brave men lost their lives at sea.
A memorial service will be taking place at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Rye Harbour on Sunday, November 21 at 2:30pm. This year the whole service will be held outside.
We are reminded that the weather conditions at the time of the disaster were among the worst in living memory. Gale force winds were so strong there was great difficulty launching the boat which had to be pulled manually across a stretch of sand. At 5am it took three attempts to launch and the crew would have been drenched from the effort of climbing in and out of the boat in roaring winds and rough sea.
After being launched, the crew would have been busy setting the sails against the gale and holding 15ft oars. A message arrived almost immediately that Mary Stanford was no longer required to assist the SS Alice from Riga off the coast of Dungeness. They did not notice the message being signalled from the shore. We do not know what happened then other than that they were all drowned.
How salutary to imagine the RNLI boat with no engine or radio or any of the electronic devices that today we regard as necessary and commonplace on all vessels.
