Ladies Lifeboat Luncheon Club’s shipwrecks talk in Flamborough

The group’s members were pleased to welcome our speaker, Richard M Jones, who gave a very interesting, illustrated talk on shipwrecks.

He explained that, very surprisingly, there are three million shipwrecks world wide and 15,000 along the Yorkshire coast alone.

He started his talk with perhaps the most memorable shipwreck of last century, the Titanic.

A link between the Titanic and Bridlington later turned up when Wallace Hartley’s violin was found strapped to his body in its leather valise which had preserved it from the sea water.

The violin was an engagement present from his fiancée in Bridlington and was returned to her. After passing through several hands the violin was rediscovered in a Bridlington attic and in 2013 was sold for £900,000 – a record for Titanic memorabilia.

A spokesperson said: “Richard listed many other well known shipwrecks such as Henry V11’s ship The Mary Rose, which was sunk in 1545 and raised again 437 years later in October 1982 giving us the largest archaeological evidence of life in Tudor times.

“He then moved closer to home talking about the well known Great Gale of 1871 when 28 ships sank in Bridlington bay. This event remains one of the most significant maritime disasters in British History and was a pivotal event in transforming international shipping safety with the introduction of the Plimsoll line.

“The catastrophe is commemorated in February every year at Bridlington Priory where there is an obelisk marking the mass grave of 43 of the victims.

“In 1918 HMS Falcon under the command of Charles Lightoller, sank after a collision in Bridlington Bay. He was the most senior officer to survive the sinking of the Titanic and artefacts from the wreck were excavated from the sea bed and featured in BBC’s Antiques Roadshow which was filmed in the Royal Hall at Bridlington Spa.

“Richard M Jones is an expert on shipwrecks and has written 29 books, many of which were on sale at the meeting.”