Heroes of Longhope ( Keyboard }

Описание: .Here's the story for my friends overseas and further south
A south-easterly gale had been pounding Scotland’s coast for days, heavy seas forcing the closure of Aberdeen Harbour and damaging the breakwater at Stonehaven.
Further north, the 2,600-ton Liberian registered steamship Irene was being driven towards the Caithness coast, its crew powerless to resist.
As the maroons exploded, momentarily silencing the wind and the rain, the lifeboat crew assembled and Longhope’s Coxswain Daniel Kirkpatrick considered his options. In view of the conditions, he decided to take an extra member of crew.
Bearing south, then east, the eight-man crew braced themselves for what lay ahead. The lifeboat TGB was about to enter the notorious Pentland Firth. The crew had been together for many years and they had trained in gales before. But as the spring flood tide smashed into the wind whipping in off the North Sea, conditions were perilous, even for an experienced lifeboat crew.
Families held their breath. A coastguard reported seeing the mast light on the lifeboat as it was swept towards Lother Rock. Three or four times he saw the light disappear, only to be followed by an agonising wait until it reappeared. People on the shore were glued to their wireless radios, listening anxiously on the lifeboat waveband to monitor the volunteers’ progress. The radio operator at Wick maintained constant contact with Daniel Kirkpatrick and his crew. An acknowledgement was received from TGB an hour and a half after launching. Later, the radio fell silent. The lightkeeper on Pentland Skerries rocks recalled seeing TGB’s stern light half a mile to the north-east, putting the lifeboat roughly at a point where the flood tide running down the east coast of South Ronaldsay was crashing into the tide running east. By now it was registering force 10. Repeated calls from Wick went unanswered.
Meanwhile, SS Irene ran aground half a mile south of Grim Ness, further up the South Ronaldsay coast. The steamship was on rocks, but intact. Battered by the wind, a shore rescue party using ropes began the torturous process of getting the ship’s company to safety, a process that would take them 4 hours.
The search for the steamship became a search for the missing lifeboat. The crew of Kirkwall’s lifeboat Grace Paterson Ritchie, which had been launched at the same time as TGB, fired a white parachute flare into the air. There was no sign of the other boat. In conditions such as these, Kirkwall’s coxswain reported to the Coastguard that there was virtually no hope of seeing TGB – there was no radar onboard lifeboats in those days – and the search was called off.
As day broke, the gale had moderated and a full-scale air and sea rescue – involving a Shackleton aircraft from RAF Kinloss, a helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth and lifeboats from Kirkwall, Stronsay, Thurso and Stromness – began.
Tuesday 18 March was London Lifeboat Day. As Longhope families waited anxiously for news of their loved ones, coins were dropped into collection boxes on street corners all over the city.
At 1.40pm, hearts were broken. The crew of the Thurso lifeboat had discovered TGB’s upturned hull floating 4 miles south-east of Tor Ness. There were no signs of life.
Ronnie Aim composed this beautiful tune as a tribute to those who gave their lives helping others.