“Solomon Browne” by Seth Lakeman
“Solomon Browne” is a tribute song to the brave souls who responded to the call for help from vessel Union Star, led by Captain Moreton, on 19 December 1981. They had boarded the lifeboat sharing the same name as the song from Penlee Lifeboat Station at Mousehole. This disaster, caused by a “raging storm”, took the lives of over a dozen people.
Who died in this disaster?
Sixteen people. Eight men from the Penlee Lifeboat and from Union Star, Captain Moreton, his four-man crew and three family members (a woman and two daughters).
Immediately after the disaster, there was a long list of volunteers to form a new lifeboat crew.
The “Solomon Browne” Song
A percentage of the profits made from this song was donated to the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution).
“Solomon Browne” is from Lakeman’s fourth album, “Poor Man’s Heaven”. The album was released in 2008 under the music label, Relentless.
THE PENLEE LIFEBOAT DISASTER
The Penlee lifeboat, Solomon Browne was one of the many lifeboats set up by the (RNLI) as part of the plan to save lives around the coasts, lifeboat stations.
On 19th December 1981, 47-foot Solomon Browne launched to sea to rescue Captain Henry Morton and his family together with 4 crew members. These people had gotten stuck on sea near the south coast of Cornwall in the MV Union Starship.
The ship was sailing to Ireland from the Netherlands before it got blown off by hard winds that caused its engine to fail.
Onboard the lifeboat was an eight-man crew headed by first and second Coxswains Trevelyan Richards and Stephen Madron. Upon reaching its destination, the boat struggled to get alongside the ship for the crew members to jump in. Four people were successfully rescued from MV Union into the boat before the crew lost communication with their correspondents at shore.
No survivors were found. All 8 of the Solomon Browne crew, together with the passengers and crew of the MV Union Star, totaling 16 people died during that disaster.
