Shipping

Christmas Eve at the Front

An interesting letter has just been received by Mrs Packer, of Broadclyst, from her husband, Corpl Packer of A Company, 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment, who is serving with the Expeditionary Force in Northern France. In the course of a letter he describes a remarkable incident which occurred on Christmas Eve between the British and German trenches.

Lifeboat station at Clovelly to close 28th July 1967 (article in Western Times)

Lifeboat station at Clovelly is to be closed at the end of March. Decision by the RNLI Committee of Management, follows consideration of the whole future of the lifeboat service in the Clovelly area, and it has been made despite a strong fight put up by local branch committee.

There has been a lifeboat station at Clovelly for nearly 100 years and Mr Jack Prince, the branch committee chairman, said that the R.N.L.I's decision had upset the villagers considerably.

Pebbles problem: In recent years problems over the use of the present station have arisen as a result of the building up at intervals of a bank of pebbles across the harbour mouth directly in line with the path the lifeboat would take when being launched, and twice this year a bulldozer has had to be called in to carry out clearance work.

"The R.N.L.I decision means of course that local control will be out, but I expect they will still want us to raise cash" said Mr Prince.

New pattern for cover by lifeboat? 17th September 1965

Suggestion that the revolutionary cruising lifeboat that is to be brought to Appledore around Christmas represents an immediate threat to the existence of lifeboat station in the Bristol Channel area is 'nonsense'.

This is an experimental type of rescue cruiser, of which two are being built. For some time there has been rumoured a plan to station a cruising lifeboat in this locality, with permanent crews as on lightships, to serve the Bristol Channel area.

Commander H B Acworth, assistant chief inspector of lifeboats, who was on board during the trip to Plymouth, said that the ship handled well, although no bad weather was encountered.

First rescue June 1st 1979

The planned marathon row by the Cox brothers of Appledore, reported on the front page of this issue, and the discovery that it will virtually coincide with the first ever rescue by an Appledore lifeboat, prompted research that has brought to light fascinating details.

Lifeboat committee chairman Captain Colin Lowry tells me that the lifeboat - the Volunteer - was the third vessel to be built by the RNLI and would in fact have been the first had her builder not been so slow. On her first mercy trip she was crewed by William Hurry, Philip Guy, William Drinksmead and Isaac Mathews with Owen Nile, Riordean Smith as Cox'n.