Shipshape And Greystones Fashion

Evans above…

n his latest look back at pivotal moments in Greystones’ history, Gary Paine leaps back exactly 150 years today, and a remarkable rescue at sea.

Four lives were saved, and a lifeboat crew became national heroes.

A trilogy completion of sorts, this 150th anniversary piece sitting with Gary’s August 2022 article on the town’s first-ever lifeboat launch, and his 2021 article about the building of the first Greystones Coast Guards station in February 1821.

Arthur Evans

And there’s plenty more where that came from.

But before you head off down those particular rabbit holes of Greystones history, here’s young Mr Paine on one very heroic and happy day…

It was 150 years ago today, on Saturday 17th May 1873, that the Greystones lifeboat, Sarah Tancred, effected its greatest rescue, saving the lives of four crew members of the stricken yacht, Nicomi, during an easterly gale off Bray Head.

The eight ton vessel, whose owner was a member of the Royal Alfred Yacht Club in Kingstown had gone out for a cruise. The Irish Times dated 19th May 1873 reported on the rescue and noted that ‘when abreast of Bray Head the mast went about two feet under the hounds. The boat becoming unmanageable, all her sails and gear being over her side, the skipper endeavoured to set sail on the stump of her mast, but finding she would not work with it, he let go to his anchor.

Hoisting his ensign in the rigging, it was seen from the shore and the Greystones Lifeboat was telegraphed for. The occupants were all taken off after being three hours in a most perilous condition’.

Additional coverage of the incident was given in the Morning Post dated 6th June 1873 which reported that the Nicomi ‘had been overtaken by a fresh gale from E.N.E., a high sea and was in great danger off Bray Head. The lifeboat was launched through very heavy surf and found that those on board the yacht were about to run her ashore, where she must have gone to pieces among the rocks, with the loss of all hands. After effecting the rescue, the lifeboat had to run for Wicklow, not being able to land at Greystones’.

The lifeboat eventually made the safety of Wicklow harbour at 11pm. The extract from the Service Ledger of the Greystones Lifeboat Station which recorded details of the four launches undertaken during its years of operation (1872-1895) noted the expense incurred in performing the rescue of the Nicomi. It totalled £18 and 4 shillings and included £13 for 13 men, each of whom received 20 shillings. In addition, £2 and 5 shillings was divided between 18 helpers, a messenger received 7 shillings, whilst the expense of bringing the lifeboat back from Wicklow totalled £2 and 12 shillings.

The four lives saved were part of the overall total of 668 lives saved around the coast of Britain and Ireland by the RNLI’s 240 lifeboats during 1873, as reported in the Institution’s 1873 annual report. The records for the 24 years of operation of the Greystones Lifeboat held at the RNLI archives in Poole, Dorset disclose the names of the Coxswains of the Greystones Lifeboat only for the periods 1876-1892 (John Doyle) and 1892-1895 (Edward Archer). Both men were accomplished swimmers and received awards for saving lives of individuals who got into difficulties swimming off Greystones. Both were crew members of the Greystones Lifeboat from the station’s inception in 1872.

A clue as to the identity of the Coxswain under whose leadership the crew of the Nicomi were saved is contained in a report on the launching of the second Greystones Lifeboat, Richard Browne (which replaced the Sarah Tancred). In the report on the launch, The Dublin Daily Express dated 3rd December 1886 noted Arthur Evans, ‘former Coxswain’ attending the ‘substantial and sumptuous dinner in Burlington House’.

Arthur Evans, aged 40 when the Sarah Tancred was launched, an experienced mariner and more latterly, a coal importer and schooner owner was well qualified for the role. He resided at the harbour in Wavecrest next door to the telegraph office at Rockport and would thus have been ideally positioned to muster the lifeboat crew speedily in the event of a telegraph message calling for her assistance being received (as happened on 17th May 1873).

In all, the Greystones Lifeboat was launched on just four occasions. The first was on 6th February 1873 when a Dublin Pilot Boat was in difficulty off Greystones, however assistance was not required. The third occasion was on 30th September 1876 when the 300 ton brig, Leona bound for Liverpool with a cargo of Canadian timber got into trouble off Bray.

Telegrams were sent by Bray coast guards to both Kingstown and Greystones Lifeboat Stations, with the latter dispatching the Sarah Tancred by road to Bray sea front. She was not launched as the Kingstown Life Boat was already on the scene – the Greystones Lifeboat crew did however provide much needed assistance from the shore when the Kingstown Lifeboat capsized, helping to drag a number of men from the heavy swell crashing onto the beach.

The fourth and final occasion was on 25thAugust 1877 when the yacht, Cosette of Kingstown was in distress off Bray Head, however the services of the lifeboat were not required in the end.

At first glance, a mere four launches in total for the Greystones Lifeboat over a quarter of a century (all by the Sarah Tancred, with none by her replacement, the Richard Browne during her nine years of service up until the station’s closure) does not seem many, but this was not unusual. The RNLI archives at Poole reveal lifeboat stations which operated for a number of years with either a low number or even zero launches.

The records for Chapman’s Pool Lifeboat Station in Dorset reveal just two launches between 1866 and 1880. The Llanelli Lifeboat Station in South Wales had only one launch between 1852 and 1871. Furthermore, the degree of difficulty, not to say danger in attempting to safely launch a pulling lifeboat off a shingle beach in an easterly gale cannot be underestimated.

For the first 16 years of the Greystones Lifeboat Station there was also no boat slip. The extended pier and north wall were only in existence for the final eight years of the station’s operation. The Wicklow and Kingstown Lifeboats had the benefit of larger, more sheltered harbours than Greystones and this is reflected in their number of launches (for example, between 1866 and 1889, the Wicklow Lifeboat, Robert Theophilus Garden, was launched 21 times, rescuing a total of 66 people).

By 1895, telephonic communications were being extended by the General Post Office south along the coast from Greystones. At a meeting of the committee of the Greystones Lifeboat held in July 1895 it was confirmed that “an arrangement now exists by which messages on life saving service can be exchanged between Greystones and Five Mile Point Coast Guard Station via Dublin and Wicklow Post Offices (there being no coast guard at Six Mile Point), the committee decided in view of this information to abolish this lifeboat station”.

For the four member crew of the Nicomi, which got into difficulty off Bray head 150 years ago today, they undoubtedly owed their lives to the bravery and skill of the crew of the 33-foot long, 8-foot wide, ten-oared Greystones Lifeboat, Sarah Tancred, which cost £284 & 15 shillings to build in 1871/1872.

There are plenty more historical nuggets told in Gary Paine’s glossy 296-page historical archive of the town, A Pictorial History of Greystones & Its Coastal Environs 1760 to 2018, which is still available from Greystones Antiques beside the train station or to order online for €35 plus postage.

In the meantime, there’s a full gallery of hi-res pics from the above article here, a whole plethora of Paine deep dives here, and our 2018 interview with Gary here.

This article was first published on May 17th 2023.