Boatmans tales 1: The rescue of the Mary White.


 

 

 

Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

 

The Kulmar's Legacy

 

 

The Shrine of our Lady of Bradstowe.

 

 

The Goodwin Sands.

 

 

In the beginning ~ The Lifeboat story.

 

 

The Ramsgate Tug boats.

 

 

Rescue of the ‘Mary White’ 1851.

 

 


 

 

The Bradstowe boatmen.

 

 

The ‘Northern Belle’

 

 

A Lifeboatman retired.

 

 

The Great Fire of Whitstable.

 

 

Suicide in Broadstairs

 

 

Insanity in the family.

 

 

A boatman’s Funeral ~ (The death of Solomon Holbourn, 1901).

 

 

Frederick George Holbourn : (A Ramsgate Shipwright).

 

 


 

 

The Great War.

 

 

The Great Explosion at Faversham 1916.

 

 


 

 

 The North Deal Boatmen

 

 

‘Seamen of the Downs’.

 

 


 

 

 


In Acknowledgement

I am particularly obliged to the substantial effort made over the years by the late Author and Historian, Mr. William Lapthorne of Broadstairs, and the RNLI archivist Mr. Jeff Morris for their diligent preservation of the tales and times of the Kent Boatman, and generally to the many authors and the publishers of the local history journal ‘Bygone Kent’ for similar contributions to local history.

With regard to the assistance I have received in the verification of the Holbourne genealogical index, which is established fact from 1660 I should like to credit valued research undertaken by Mr. Glenne Holbourn and Harold Blackman, ~ distant cousins whose interest in my family tree has been an inspiration, and for verification of the facts.
Further, I am especially thankful, to the great legacy left to the nation by George B. Bayley in the work he did with William Adams in compiling ‘Seamen of the Downs’ extensively quoted in the chapter of the same name herein.
Stephen N Holbourn has asserted his right under the Copyrights, Designs and Patent Act 1988, to be identified as the Author of this work.
Copyright : S.N.Holbourn 1999.


Illustrations

Following a 175 years of Lifeboat service provided by the ‘R.N.L.I’., I should like to present, along with various other illustrations, a few related drawings by the artist W.H. Franklin.~ : (*)

 1*

Launching the Lifeboat

 

Thomas Holbourn : as a young man. (Family Album)

 

Culmer's Pier

 

Broadstairs Pier.

 6*

The Goodwin Sands.

 

The Mary 1703

 

The Original

 

(The Lifeboat Story : P. Howarth 1957) Routledge & Keegan Paul.

 

The ‘Mary White’ at Broadstairs in 1860. (‘Bygone Kent’)

 


 

The North Foreland Lighthouse in 1928.(Family Album)

 

York Gate

 

Culmer's Boatmen 1857

 

Shipwreck of the Northern Belle

 

(London Illustrated News) : Postcard.

 

1857 Lifeboat Medal (W.H. Lapthorne)

 

Isaac Jarman.

18*

Coming Home ~ ‘All Saved’.

 


 

The Great Fire of Whitstable 1869.

 

‘Samuel Morrison Collins’

 

RNLI Lifeboat & Trailer, 1869~ :( RNLI Archive; ‘The Lifeboat’ journal)

 

Solomon Holbourn : (Family Album) 1890’s.

 

Old Village of Cliffe at Hoo

 

Eliz. Baker as an infant with her mother (Family Album)

 

‘A road out of Cliffe’ : ‘Unknown Kent’, D. Maxwell,1921.~ (Pond Hill, looking out onto the Thames Marshes).

 

St Mary Church Gillingham

 

FREDERICK GEORGE : Son of William Holbourn. (Family Album)

 


30*

‘All hands in the Lifeboat’

31*

Hooking the Steamer.

32*

The Leda

 

Deal Beach

 


34*

Launching a Deal Lugger in a gale. (Deal Maritime Museum)

  The Charles Dibden
 

Fisherman James Holbourns at Herne (Family Album)

 

Coxswain Jarvist Arnold

38* The Mahratta
39* Coxswain William Stanton
40* Coxswain William Adams
41* North Deal Boatmen

* :

By the artist W.H. Franklin, reproduced here, ~from the original 1898 Journal of the Boatmen’s tale’s compiled by the Reverend Thomas Stanley Treanor and entitled “Heroes of the Goodwin Sands.’’ the copyright to which is held by the Religious Tract Society.~

TOP


Collating the stories told to his son by the Shipwright Frederick George Holbourn of Ramsgate in Kent.

 

Introduction ~

The first part of ‘Boatman’s Tale’ is an account of the lives and times of the East Kent maritime community, as encountered by way of research undertaken in the process of compiling my family tree. Such has been the fullness of existing accounts, the stories I originally heard from my Grandfather have proven every part the truth, although it must be said that not all of these were easy to come upon, for initial verification.

Such stories that have been formerly preserved separately are herein presented in one volume. It should be said however that many more such tales remain for the interested reader to discover, in the pages of Victorian history books. I have selected largely those tales specifically relevant to my own families endeavors, but not all of these are included.

Stephen N Holbourn.

Thomas John Holbourn as a young man

(Son of Frederick George),

and Grandfather of the Author.)


Part 1

Culmers Pier

The Kulmer Legacy.

Solomon Holbourn, Shipwright of Chatham Dockyard, was the uncle of Solomon of Bradstowe, (old Broadstairs) who like his father, Thomas, was also to become a Shipwright. 

Born in 1797, Solomon of Bradstowe was to raise his own family of Shipwright’s and mariners in Broadstairs, during the locally celebrated era of the Culmer ~ White’s boat building years in the little Harbour town. Young Solomon had grown up in old Bradstowe, and the works of the local shipbuilder’s ‘Culmer & White’ must have been apparent to him. 

The various members of Culmers family seem to have inspired the little fishing town of Bradstowe, for by their efforts over many years, in having constructed the first pier there, and later defensive fortifications and the main Harbour road as such, contributed substantially to the development of that place.

It is said that Gurth Kulmer and his two sons, Paul and James were baptized in 862 AD by the prior at Saint Gutlac. This was in the year that ‘the good Archbishop’ St. Swithens was to die. A year which also witnessed a bloody conflict between the Dane’s and King Alfred, Ethelburt’s brother. It is believed that Gurth was a son of Steven Kulmer, who with his father Knut Larson, ‘the Kulmer’ and his brother, Eric Kulmer along with their followers originally came to England. Existing Culmer Family folk law1 holds that they came in company with a number of Danish vessels and settled south of the river Thames in Kent, in all probability calling in at Denton, near Gravesend, then the most important settlement for such migrants, whilst the Danish fleet continued on their journey.

Denton in fact takes it name from ‘Dane town’. From Crayford extending east beyond Swanscombe (Sweyn’s Camp) nearby, to the remote and distant Isle of Thanet, the Danes occupied the land and terrorised the Saxon inhabitants, giving rise to much consternation amongst the locals who set about digging ‘Dene holes’, of which many have survived to this day. These were wells, cut deep into the chalk foundation of the landscape for the purpose of concealing people and goods, during such landings. In surveying the distribution of these denehole’s it would appear that Essex, on the northern shore of the Thames sustained a greater influx of these Vikings than did Kent, their being considerably more recorded denehole’s in Essex, particularly around Orsett and Greys. 2

“To come more to particulars, it was in the fifth year of King Ethelburt that a Danish army wintered in the Kentish Isle of Thanet, from whence Denton, on the shore of the Thames was an easy sail with an upward tide and an easterly wind. ‘These robbers knew nothing of truth or good faith, for they realised that larger gains would come to them by pillage than by treaties. So that the league was scarcely concluded and the treasure paid over, than “like cunning foxes”, they scattered and by night left their camp and ravaged all the eastern side of Kent’” (Arnold). 

The result becoming such that Thames side and the surrounding area was literally infested with the Danish Galleys of the Norsemen, as in fact was the Somme in France.

The descendants of Gurth prospered in East Kent and Canterbury, coming into lands that were kept in the family for generations and their were many soldiers and mariners amongst them. It was Charles Culmer, the son of Waldemar of the nineteenth generation who built the stairs for the fishermen of Broadstairs, Kent in the year 1350. The stairs have survived to this day and were first repaired by Richard Culmer over three hundred years after their original construction.3

Reference to the Culmer family is found in the pages of a Thanet history book, suitably named ‘Mockett’s Journal’ 4(1836) after its author, a Yeoman, and St. Peter’s most famous Churchwarden, John Mockett (1775~1848). Mention is made by Mockett to the will of a Richard Culmer, who was in 1434, a Carpenter. Shortly thereafter in 1440 an archway was built by George Culmer, across a track leading down to the sea, where the first wooden pier or jetty was built in 1460, a more enduring structure was to replace this later in 1538. The Culmer’s nestled their boatyard on its protected sands. It was in 1538 that the road leading onto the seafront, known as Harbour Street was cut out from the rough chalk ground Broadstairs is built upon. This was accomplished by the local Shipwright George Culmer. Going further still to defend the town he also built the ‘York Gate’ in 1540, this being a portal that still spans Harbour Street to this day, and which then held two heavy wooden doors that could be closed in times of threat from beyond the sea. By 1795 ‘York Gate’ was in need of some repair on account of worries over the French Revolutionary Wars, the subsequent renovation was undertaken by Lord Hanniker in the same year as the first Lightship was placed on the Goodwin Sands.
By 1804 a return to the House containing a statement of the number of Shipwrights in the country reveals that of the total available employed Shipwrights, being about 8,400, just over one third of these were retained through the Dockyards. Of the 5,100 remaining Shipwrights across the breadth of the nation, aside from those in small numbers that were dispersed around the coast, the more considerable concentration was to be found along the Thames.
Their was however such a sufficiency of Shipwrights to be found by 1805 that the traditional methods of reward had, were changing, the ordinary Shipwright was not well paid in the dockyards anyhow, with the basic daily rate having been set in 1690, remaining largely unaltered until that point. From the earliest day’s of the King’s first Patent’s to the employment of Shipwrights, they had been paid by the day.

The changes being slowly introduced throughout the Revolutionary wars placed the Shipwright in employment on the basis of ‘piecework’ which although unpopular, ‘permitted men to claim the highest rates of pay without their having performed the amount of work needed to earn those rates’; it was unpopular because in addition ‘the failure to distinguish work and earnings ‘by the piece’ during the day, and work performed in overtime5 was a considerable setback. A further reform in 1803 thus ensured that Shipwrights doing repair work (i.e. by the job) were allowed to secure as much in the way of earnings as they could make. The wage margin which had previously been lower than a days pay was abolished and by 1811 further increases were introduced to Shipwrights working on original structures. Still, it remained as ever the case that in times of war the Shipwright was called upon in a fashion not unlike that required of the Militia.

Richard Culmer, referred to above as the repairer of the fisherman steps from which Broadstairs derives its name, was the son of Sir Richard Culmer, by his first wife and was and was born in 1640/1.  

Of his legacies was the endowment on Broadstairs of an area of six acres of ground for the poor of the parish, land that is now used as allotment spaces, quite properly, although some portion of it has been taken improperly for a car park. The name survives to this day as ‘Culmer’s Allotment.’ Richard was buried in the parish church of Monkton, on the Isle of Thanet.

In Richard Culmer’s day, the little village of Bradstowe was entirely surrounded by farmland’s and such roads as their were, existed as mere tracks to, and between these farms. In wet weather they became quite impassable and therefore troublesome to the local craftsmen and traders, whom more and more came to rely on good roads to get about.


THE SHRINE OF OUR LADYE OF BRADSTOWE

The Shrine of ‘Our Ladye Star of the Sea’ in Bradstowe; was an old Chapel that dated back at least to the 1350’s. The Chapel of St. Mary’s structural remains are, as incorporated in the modern facade, situated on the site of what has been said also to be the oldest surviving building still standing in contemporary Broadstairs, and within its modern content is all that remains of the Medieval Shrine of ‘Our Lady of Bradstowe’.
It is said that the Shrine and its Chapel were known to have existed even prior to the year 1070, as it was in that year the old Saxon Church of St. Peter’s, then a wooden structure, rebuilt with stone and flint. The original building contained a replica of what was even then the famous shrine of ‘Our Ladye of Bradstowe’, but seems then to have been moved to a private manor even closer to the shoreline than the surviving portion of the present building. The Shrine of the Culmer Chapel, a statue probably derived from the figure of the Virgin Mary, mounted on a tall column, was so positioned that it faced seaward. It thus stood outside in the Chapel garden before the cliffs. The Chapel being the gathering place for the maritime community in Broadstairs, has by this virtue alone an interesting history. The tradition maintained by the Royal Navy of ‘showing the flag’ at seaside towns to uphold the morale of the Navy is said to have its origins in a service held at the Bradstowe Chapel in 1514 with the crew of the ‘Henry Grace a Dieu8 in attendance, whilst the largest and latest addition to the King’s Fleet was moored nearby.

Broadstairs Pier dating from 1538 (Print made in 1836)

During the 1520’s a severe storm lasting several days, cumulating in a huge tidal wave, swept into ‘Viking Bay’ and was so fierce that it utterly destroyed the Shrine, badly damaging the Chapel itself. In 1601 the owner of the Chapel and the estate upon which it stood was Sir John Culmer, one of the first Congregationalist pioneers.9 It was he who had ordered the Chapel (and its Shrine) restored. Restoration in those dark times paid little heed to the integrity of the existing structure, consequently, and although much of the original material was reused in the restoration, the new Chapel was said to be not so picturesque as the original. It is well that some of the original ancient wall, a doorway and window have survived in the renovated structure.
The first Pastor in 1601 was Joel Culmer. It had been for some years even then the tradition of ships passing at Thanet to lower their top sail in salutation to the Shrine and Chapel, which was though to bring a good fate to the passage of the ship. This had been the tradition until at least 1514, when Trinity House took over such duties for coastal towns and village’s to display some kind of beacon on the high points of their coastline as a warning against the potential hazard’s locally known to shipping, thus in medieval times the Chapel of St. Mary was known as ‘The Chapel of Blue Light’ ~ for its light was given out into the dark seas through a blue glass lantern. 

The Shrine was at some stage, probably 1601 placed in side the Chapel, for thereafter local seamen came to refer to it as ‘The Weeping Virgin.’ Hot weather is said to have caused humidity and thus condensation in the Chapel which settled on the face of the Shrine, and caused the figure to appear in the countenance of the Virgin, weeping. This effect was considered by religious mariners to be a bad omen as a storm would often follow, atmospheric changes indicated in the Chapel were thus a good rough guide to those who would face the perils of the sea.


THE GOODWIN SANDS

The Goodwin Sands are said to be all that remains of an ancient island known as ‘Lomea’~ understood to have once been part of the estate of the Earl Goodwin. It is often supposed the Island sank, destroyed by the sea in 1097, the truth of this has never fully been established.
 
“On a fine summers day, shortly before low water, there will be a flat calm between Deal and the Sands. A boat will put out, and as it approaches the Sands, it will suddenly be found to be rising and falling in deep troughs of sea. In front there will be a clearly defined oval with a white rim. As the Sands are neared, it can be seen that this rim is formed by waves breaking backwards, forwards, upwards and sideways. Inside the oval with it’s boiling perimeter are the brown sands on which seagulls rest, and from which masts and rusted funnels emerge. Yet all around beyond the immediate edge of the Sands, the sea will retain it’s flat calm.~
 
~These are the Goodwin Sands on a calm day. In gales they form the greatest natural danger to shipping round the coasts of Britain, and their position at the entrance to the Straits of Dover from the North Sea means that they must be constantly passed and re~ passed by shipping.”10

The Goodwin Sands


~ Cricket on the sands


First hand accounts of rescues by the Deal boatmen exist from as early as 1616. In the year 1619 Ramsgate fishermen rescued the Sailors from one of two Dutch ships stranded on the Goodwin Sands, thus setting a precedent for the Culmer~White Lifeboats that were to follow over two hundred years later. 

Captain John Pett, a brother of that famous Shipwright Phineas Pett came to grief upon these sands in October 1624 during a ‘wonderful great storm’, in which sundry ships also vanished in the Downs, the King’s ship upon which he was a passenger lost her rudder in collision with another vessel and barely escaped utter loss, but was able to get off and safely into the downs.11 

In 1675 the Chaplain Henry Teonage, whilst on board one of His Majesties Ships, entered into his diary an account of an event that he had witnessed on the beach at Deal clearly demonstrating the determination of the Deal boatmen in the saving of life. Teonage reported a curious form of artificial respiration that was being applied to a man who had been ‘hauled out, and there lay on the stones for dead’.

The Great Storm of 1703.

Whilst, during the intervening years, such as later in 1690 ‘The Vanguard,’ a 90 gun ‘Man O’ War’ struck the sands, but was fortunate enough to be got off by the boatmen of Deal. However between the 24th and 27th of November 1703, the Great Storm of that year raged like an angry god! Besides the spires of Churches, Windmills and an estimated 40,000 trees were blown asunder. A minimum of 13 ‘Men o’ War’ were wrecked on the Downs, with the loss of 2,168 lives and 708 gun, including the Sailors of 40 merchant vessels that were subsequently lost, wrecked on the Goodwin Sands, and yet, to their great credit, the Deal boatmen were able to rescue 200 wanton and wretched men from this ordeal.

The Great Storm, otherwise described as ‘the tempest that destroyed woods and forests all over England’ resulted in large scale flooding, and the devastation of uncounted buildings, including the Eddystone Lighthouse, which was completely blown down. In total this storm was reported to have sank an inestimable count of ships and boats. The Thames estuary took the brunt of the full force of the Gale and in London, over one million pound’s worth of damage was recorded. The maritime community at Greenwich and Deptford was seriously afflicted by this, perhaps the worst storm to be visited upon these Isles during its long recorded history, and, as at Thanet, it was the terrible toll in lives lost at sea that most shook the town. 

Of the Naval vessels sunk the ‘Northumberland’ and the ‘Restoration’ were both Deptford built, and, from there locally manned, they were lost with all hands; also built at Deptford in 1697 by Master Pett was the 1097 ton, 70 gun, third rate ‘Stirling Castle’ about which conflicting reports state that during the storm she lost either 206 of her crew of 276, or 379 of her compliment of 446? The Woolwich Forth rate ‘Mary’ was totally overwhelmed with the loss of 343 men, and the boom ship ‘Mortar’ was lost with all of her crew of sixty five.

The Mary 1703

It was during these tumultuous events that a Deal Lugger saved sixty four of the seamen. A few hours later ~ it then being low water ~ a number of men were seen from the shore, stranded on a part of the Goodwin Sand, which was then high and dry, the shipwrecked seamen were making frantic efforts to attract some attention. Their were but a few Luggers and other large boats then belonging to those Deal boatmen, still further, anyone with the slightest knowledge of sea conditions thereabouts also knew that these could not be launched from the beach, for some considerable time before and after low water.

Given these plain facts the boatmen went to the Officer in charge of the Customs House and begged the loan of one or two of his boats, which were of a size to be got afloat, so that they could make an attempt at a rescue. Remarkably, he refused! With this contemptuous and shameful behavior the response to their plea, they went to the Mayor, a Mr. Thomas Powell, who repeated the request to the said Officer who again refused any assistance, whereupon the Mayor authorised the boatmen to proceed to take the boats, by force if necessary. He also personally undertook to reward them for any lives saved. This endeavor was duly carried out and over 200 of the stranded seamen were saved and brought ashore. 

The unnamed Admiralty Officer’s delay caused some loss of lives, as the operation clearly necessitated several return journeys of approximately six miles in each direction, and consequently not all of the men were rescued before the tide rose to sweep the remainder away.

The Mayor of Deal was then left with some two hundred of Her Majesty Queen Anne’s seamen (reported not to be worth the trouble, having been ‘pressed’) on his hands ~ many of whom were injured or in a state of collapse from long exposure. He appealed to the Queen’s reluctant Agent, there being a regular Naval establishment at Deal, but again could obtain from him not the slightest assistance whatsoever in the forwarding of these servicemen to their homes or stations. Thomas Powell, the Mayor, a Clothier by trade was nevertheless himself a man of great courage and humanity, personally shouldered the responsibility.

Still no record of any reimbursement for his very considerable outlay has been produced, emphasizing another disreputable episode in our dappled naval history.


RESCUE OF THE “MARY WHITE”

The connection of Broadstairs itself with the saving of life at sea goes back to at least 1851, such was the bravery displayed by the Lifeboat crew on this occasion that it excited a great deal of enthusiasm throughout Kent and the following ballad (see over) was composed to honour the men involved.
As recited in the ballad written to celebrate the occasion, the then unnamed Lifeboat which had only recently (July 1850) been presented to Broadstairs by the Shipwright Thomas White, saw its first use on March the Sixth, 1851. On this occasion, the brig ‘Mary White’ became trapped upon the Goodwin Sands during a very severe gale blowing from the north. In response to the sight of the ship in distress the Harbour Master, Coxswain^ Solomon Holbourn, mustered a crew for the Lifeboat. 

The new vessel was launched into the surf, from its horse drawn wagon ~ trailer as was the method of the times. It was a bitterly cold morning as the crew struggled against the high winds, hailstones, sleet and snow, to reach the stricken ship, after a while they were able to get close and cast a line to the ‘Mary White’ and succeeded in getting seven of the ten crewmen aboard, to the relative safety of the Lifeboat.

The Harbour Master and another of the Lifeboat crew, George Castle, were on the ‘Mary White’ with the ships Captain and the two others remaining of her crew, when the rope snapped and the Lifeboat broke away from the wreck, which was rapidly going to pieces, soon to be devoured by the ‘Shippe Swallower’. 

The Second Coxswain signaled that he was unable to get alongside the wreck, and those left on the ‘Mary White’ were at the mercy of God and the sea. Captain White remained with his ship, and the Lifeboatmen were unable to persuade the remaining two to abandon their Captain or trust themselves to the waves. The Harbour Master and other Lifeboatman had no option but to make a swim for it, or face certain doom, Castle and Holbourn jumped into the maelstrom and made it to the Lifeboat, whereupon, every option exhausted the valiant band turned and rowed to shore.

^ Jeff Morris, Honorary Archivist to the Lifeboat Enthusiasts Society, whom also kindly explains that Coxswain Jethro Pettit also received an RNLI Silver Medal, this being on the occasion of his retirement on August 1st 1901. He was not the last Coxswain at Broadstairs, James Foreman served as such from 1901 to 1912, when the Station closed. Also that the ‘Bowman’ of the Lifeboat Mr. S.J. Pettit died from exposure on service in 1902.
This then, was the first Lifeboat that had saved lives from the Goodwin Sands. Due to the strange co-incidence of the re~occourance of the names White, from Thomas and John the Lifeboat builders, and the name of the brig ‘Mary White’ and also the name of its Captain, Mr. White the Lifeboat was thereafter named ‘Mary White’. The R.N.L.I. also made a special award of silver medals for gallantry to all eight members of the crew. So pleased was John White, that he presented Broadstairs with its second Lifeboat shortly afterwards, this was named the ‘Culmer White’. 

This itself gives testimony to the link, by marriage, between Mary Culmer, (Daughter of George Culmer, then owner of the Shipyard) and John White (Vth) in 1721, then a Shipwright, whose family can be traced back to 1583.# In 1800 Thomas J White, his son, was to take charge of the firm and went on, as records show, that for the years between 1795 and 1825 constructed a minimum of at least ten fair sized ships all between 224 and 354 tons a piece, it was also recorded that the yard of Mr. Thomas White ‘employs a large number of hands’. 

In 1803 the ‘world famous’ firm of Whites of Cowes, on the Isle of Wight was first established. Still 'Whites Wharf' stretched from 'York Gate' House, then the residence of the ‘Keeper of the Keys’ (to the York Gate) or as the holder of this job was later to become, The Harbour Master, ~ to the 200 year old building Shipwrights Cottage.^

# ‘The Whites were a family which had its roots in local Shipbuilding during the days of the Spanish Armada when they provided vitally needed supplies to the English Fleet anchored of Broadstairs in 1588.’ : ‘The Maritime Heritage of Thanet’ 1997 : W. Lapthorne Ed. : Michael Cates and Diane Chamberlain. (East Kent Maritime Trust.)
 
^ : ‘The Maritime Heritage of Thanet’ 1997 : Michael Cates and Diane Chamberlain. (East Kent Maritime Trust.)

‘SONG OF THE ‘MARY WHITE’

I.) COME , ALL YOU JOLLY SAILOR’S BOLD, AND LANDSMEN TOO, ATTEND, I AM INCLINED TO SING IN PRAISE OF THOSE EIGHT GALLANT MEN.

II.) WHO BOLDLY LEFT THEIR NATIVE SHORE AS YOU SHALL UNDERSTAND, TO SAVE THE LIVES OF THOSE POOR SOULS UPON THE GOODWIN SAND.

CHORUS : BRITONS ALL, BOTH YOUNG AND OLD THINK OF THOSE JOLLY SAILORS BOLD.

CHORUS : BRITONS ALL, BOTH YOUNG AND OLD THINK OF THOSE JOLLY SAILORS BOLD.

III.) ON THURSDAY, ‘TWAS MARCH THE SIXTH, THE WIND BLEW FROM THE LAND WHICH DROVE THE FATED ‘MARY WHITE’ UPON THE GOODWIN SANDS

IV.) THE LIFEBOAT’S CREW FROM BROADSTAIRS FLEW, WITH HEARTS SO LIGHT AND GAY, RIGHT GALLANTLY THEY MADE THE WRECK, THOSE PRECIOUS LIVES TO SAVE

CHORUS : BRITONS ALL, BOTH YOUNG AND OLD THINK OF THOSE JOLLY SAILORS BOLD.

CHORUS : BRITONS ALL, BOTH YOUNG AND OLD THINK OF THOSE JOLLY SAILORS BOLD.

V.) JOHN CROUCH, A GALLANT SAILOR BOLD, LIKEWISE GEORGE CASTLE TOO, GEORGE WALES,  RICHARD CROUCH, THIS DAY, MY PRAISE IS DUE TO YOU

VI..) SOL.HOLBOURN, SACKETT ANSEL, JOHN WALES, WITH GREAT DELIGHT SO GALLENTLY DID VENTURE OFF  TO SAVE THE ‘MARY WHITE’

CHORUS : BRITONS ALL, BOTH YOUNG AND OLD THINK OF THOSE JOLLY SAILORS BOLD.

CHORUS : BRITONS ALL, BOTH YOUNG AND OLD THINK OF THOSE JOLLY SAILORS BOLD.

VII.) NED CHITTINGDEN,17 YOUR HEALTH I DRINK, I DRINK WITH THEE, TIMES THREE AND FOR YOUR VALOR MY BRAVE MEN, YOU SHALL REWARDED BE.

VIII.) YOU’VE DONE YOUR BEST, AND SAVED THE LIVES OF SEVEN POOR SOULS THIS DAY; MAY GOD RECEIVE THE OTHER THREE WHO DID GET CAST AWAY.

CHORUS : BRITONS ALL, BOTH YOUNG AND OLD THINK OF THOSE JOLLY SAILORS BOLD.

CHORUS : BRITONS ALL, BOTH YOUNG AND OLD THINK OF THOSE JOLLY SAILORS BOLD.

IX.) SO TO CONCLUDE AND FINISH NOW, MY SONG IS AT AN END, MAY GOD ABOVE A BLESSING GIVE TO THOSE EIGHT GALLANT MEN !

 

CHORUS : BRITONS ALL, BOTH YOUNG AND OLD THINK OF THOSE JOLLY SAILORS BOLD.

 


TOP

The Bradstowe Lifeboat 'Mary White' in 1860.


FOOTNOTES

  1~ Ref : Letters from the Culmer family.
 

 2~‘Denton, it’s Manor, Court and Chapel.’ George M. Arnold. Caddel & Son, (Gravesend, 1902).
 

 3~ The Steps remain beneath Chapel Place, where they were found during the installation of service supplies many years ago: W. Lapthorne.
 

 4~Interestingly, Kent in the 1830’s was subject to a proliferation in agricultural rioting, caused as a result of unemployment resulting from the introduction of ‘threshing machines’ on many farms. On the 25th~6th October 1830 the rioters marched from Ash to West marsh to reach Wingham near Canterbury in which area considerable damage was inflicted upon the machines of several farms, amongst these we find one still owned by the Culmer family. Other Farms thus affected were occupied or owned by the families of Petley, Dawkers, Addley and Dadd. Curiously a John Marsh was amongst the rioters and was subsequently given nine months hard labour in prison, whilst many others were transported for life. Henry Andrews and Thomas Stroud were transported for seven years. (From : ‘Wingham, A Kentish Village’ Wingham Local History Soc.)
 

 
 5~ ‘The Royal Dockyards during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars’: Roger Morris. 1983. Leicester University Press.
 

 
10~ The Lifeboat Story :Patrick Howarth : 1957. Printed by Macay’s of Chatham.
 

 

 11~ (The Pett Dynasty ~ ‘King’s Carpenters and Heretics’.)


TOP