Flamborough’s double fishing boat tragedy marked at service

It was the Bank Holiday Monday 42 years ago that the Bridlington based motor coble Carole Sandra and the fast charter launch North Wind III were lost along with seven lives close inshore to the Headland.

There was a good turnout of local people at the memorial on Chapel Street, Flamborough, for the ceremony, some of whom were directly involved with the search for survivors in 1984.

A brief account of that tragic day was given by Paul Arro and wreaths were laid by Jonathan Tree of Copperfields Restaurant, on behalf of the Flamborough Fishermen’s Memorial Group, and by Councillor Vic Leppington representing the Parish Council.

Children of the School Council from the local Church of England Primary School attended and closed the proceedings with the reading of ‘A Fisheman's Prayer’.

Carole Sandra put out from Bridlington harbour early on the morning of May 7 to move crab pots north of Flamborough Head.

There was a Force 6 north-north-easterly blowing, a moderate to rough sea with a heavy northerly swell. A visitor walking the cliffs just before lunchtime sighted some wreckage close inshore and there was a strong smell of diesel fuel.

That triggered the initial search and the Flamborough Lifeboat was launched at 12:55, along with flanking station boats from Bridlington and Filey.

Two Wessex rescue helicopters from RAF Leconfield were airborne and teams of Coastguards, police and members of the local community searched along the cliffs for survivors.

North Wind III was among a number of local fishing vessels also involved in the search, she had a party of five anglers aboard from the South Yorkshire area. Whilst close inshore near Five Arches, the charter launch was overwhelmed by a freak wave and all five were washed overboard, only two survived.

A second wave capsized North Wind III trapping the skipper and his son inside.

As the upturned vessel washed ashore in the heavy swell, both were seen to crawl out from beneath and onto the scars. Local fishermen and the Flamborough Coastguard officer went down the cliffs on ropes at Newgum and helped recover the two, who were later winched aboard one of the helicopters, landed on the cliff top and taken to hospital by ambulance.

Those tragically lost that day were Peter Brigham, his father Guy Brigham, George Gray, Barrie Shilton from the coble Carole Sandra, together with David Bunting, Stephen Burton and Brian Priestly from North Wind III.

Sadly, it was a day when everything seemed to be against a successful outcome… a day when greater forces overpowered logic. At the Memorial Service held in St Oswald’s Church later that month, Coxswain Bob Major of the Flamborough Lifeboat paid tribute to everyone involved and said ‘we did try, but it seemed it just had had to be’.

Described as the worst local maritime tragedy in living memory, the events of that Bank Holiday Monday in 1984 are etched in many people’s memories and is commemorated each year by the Flamborough Fishermen’s Memorial Group.