On the 9 December 1886 the Mexico, a Hamburg-registered barque bound for Guayaquil from Liverpool went aground near Southport, in a full west north westerly gale.
A lifeboat from Southport in response to distress signals from the Mexico. When the craft reached the Mexico, it was struck by heavy seas and capsized. Two hours later, she was found approximately three miles from Southport. Thirteen of her fifteen crew perished.
Between fifteen and twenty minutes after the Southport boat launched, the neighboring St Anne's lifeboat was also called out. Her crew rowed her out to five hundred yards, and then hoisted sail, proceeding to two miles off Southport.
Additionally, a third lifeboat, from Lytham reached the Mexico. By that time, the Mexico had settled on her beam ends, and the crew had lashed themselves to the rigging. The lifeboat, on her maiden rescue, rowed for a mile and a half through the Ribble river, and then rowed to the Mexico, rescuing all twelve members of the barque's crew. In the process, the crew shattered three of her oars, and the small craft was filled numerous times with water.
Patrick Howarth said of the accident, in Lifeboat: In Danger's Hour:
"What happened there has never been clearly established. Two red lights were seen at Southport, which may have been signals from the life~boat. All that is known is that at quarter past eleven the next morning the life~boat was found ashore, bottom up, with three dead bodies hanging on the thwarts with their heads downwards. Every man in the crew was lost".
The disaster was the worst in the history of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, with 28 lifeboat crew lost.
A public fund for relief of the sixteen widows and fifty orphans was opened with the RNLI contributing £2,000, with more than £50,000 raised in total. A memorial statue of a lifeboatman looking out to sea on was placed on the promenade at St. Anne’s.
See also
External link
Enquiry report into disaster
Last updated: 05-27-2005 11:07:46
