This was a fishing vessel that may have been just about worthy on a mill pond, but in heavy seas whipped by gale force winds, it put the crew of nine in the greatest danger, this day 1925. Had it pushed through the storm to Bridlington in deep water it might have survived but it grounded on Smithwick Sands and was overwhelmed by the waves. None of the crew survived and their bodies were never found.
Eight of the men were from Filey, five of them from one family. The ninth was James SOUTHERN, the boat’s engineer. Kath has a note in Filey Genealogy & Connections to the effect that James took the berth because he had six children and it was coming up to Christmas.
The tragedy is well described in Allen and Todd’s book, Filey – a Yorkshire Fishing Town, and you can read the extract at the Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre website.
A plaque on the wall of St Oswald’s Church remembers all Filey fishermen who “perished at sea & whose bodies were never found” between 1901 and 1848. A quarter of their number was lost from Research. The eight have memorials in the churchyard – on four headstones. Jane Baxter CRIMLISK née JENKINSON asks us to think of her father, husband, two brothers and a cousin. (A third brother, James Henry Newby JENKINSON drowned in another place at another time.)
In loving memory of JANE B. CRIMLISK, born 1885, died Sep 20th 1931. Also of her husband GEORGE J. CRIMLISK, born 1885, and her father and brothers JOHN R. JENKINSON, born 1862, ROBERT JENKINSON, born 1890, GEORGE F. B. JENKINSON born 1897, WILLIAM C. CAMMISH, born 1895. All drowned in the RESEARCH disaster.
The brothers Edwin Chapman and George JENKINSON, cousins to ‘Jack Sled’, are on a stone by the church, and Joseph Edward COLLEY with his parents and a sister, Amelia. William Cappleman CAMMISH has a second mention on another family stone.
I couldn’t find Ted and George on the FamilySearch Tree but the other lost Jenkinsons are gathered here.
The rustbucket on which they perished is recalled on Filey Promenade and you can see where she went down on a ‘thumbnail’ chart at Wreck Site.
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