Rescue from French Liner S.S. Tchad, Christmas Day, 25th December, 1929.
Fleetwood lifeboat station was temporarily closed from January 1930 to January 1933 while the slipway was rebuilt and the boathouse modified to take a motor-lifeboat, which was sent to the station on 15th January, 1933. The lifeboat service is always available 365 days a year. In this incident Fleetwood Lifeboatmen effected a brave and gallant rescue on Christmas night, 1929. In the teeth of a south-westerly gale the lifeboat, manned by a crew of fifteen, was launched in response to distress signals from Lune Deeps. It had been seven years since the Fleetwood lifeboat Maude Pickup had been called out on a rescue incident and the lifeboat was reported to have performed extremely well. Apart from routine exercises the last rescue call out the Maude Pickup had been launched was on December 6th, 1922.
The French liner Steam Ship Tchad of Le-Havre was a vessel of about 6,000 tons register, that hhad been towed from Bordeaux by the Hull tug “Seaman,” on her way to be broken up for scrap at Morecambe. On Saturday afternoon 21st December she was moored about two miles to the north of Wyre Light. The Captain, three crew and two engineer shore workers were on-board when in deteriorating weather conditions on Christmas Day the liner began to drag her anchor and she slowly drifted across Morecambe Bay in the direction of Grange-over-Sands.
The Captain and another crew member had already paid out 150 fathoms of chain in the hope that the anchor would hold again, but it did prevent the ship from drifting. The vessel began to list heavily to port and it looked as if she might capsize. Distress rockets were then fired but did not appear to attract any answer from the shore. Those on board could just see the shorelights of Fleetwood. Realising things were getting serious, they brought up the mattresses from the beds, placed them on the ship’s lifeboat, soaked them in paraffin and set them alight.
Distress rockets from the Tchad had been seen by the light-keepers on Wyre Light. Shortly after 5.00 p.m. on Christmas Day flares were sent up from the Lighthouse to summon the lifeboat.
The lifeboat maroon was fired, and within a few minutes a large number of men had rushed to the lifeboat to volunteer their services. One youthful member of the crew who had left a family Christmas party and gone out in his ‘Sunday best,’ in order to arrive early at the lifeboat-house. To make sure of a life-jacket and place on the boat he had dashed straight from the family gathering at home on a push-bike. His relatives shouted that they would follow him down to the lifeboat-house as quickly as they could with warmer clothes but they hadn’t arrived with the rest of his clothes when the lifeboat was launched. Snow and sleet was driven relentlessly at the crew by the gale force winds. Their ears, fingers and toes were numbed by the cold. Water had filled the crew-mens’ boots but the boat’s motion was so violent they couldn’t empty them. Through mountainous seas the lifeboat ploughed its way to the aid of the disused large liner.
For those on board the Tchad it had seemed hours before those on board saw what proved to be the lifeboat sailing towards them, bobbing up and down in the rough sea.
When the lifeboat was close alongside the towering hull the coxswain manoeuvred the lifeboat as near as he could take the boat in safely, as tremendous seas were running, tossing the lifeboat up and down as though it were a cork. With the sails lowered the lifeboat’s oars were used to bring the lifeboat alongside the hull of the steamer. A rope end was thrown down from the Tchad to the lifeboat but this broke and several minutes elapsed before another was procured and they were able to secure it. Four of the men from the steamer quickly lowered themselves by ropes into the lifeboat. The lifeboat could have been away very quickly, but the skipper and the sixth man were some time before they left the vessel. The coxswain then ordered the rope to be released and the lifeboat sheered off. Sails were hoisted and they set a course for home. The tide was ebbing fast and the lifeboat had to make a number of tacks before they got into the Wyre Channel. When they left the steamer Tchad it had a severe list to port, still with 150 fathoms of anchor chain paid out.
Although they we were out for over four hours the journey back to Fleetwood was far less strenuous, with the roaring gale behind them. The Maude Pickup lifeboat received a severe pounding, and not one of the occupants had a dry stitch of clothing on their backs. Despite their oilskins, most of the men were drenched to the skin from head to foot and their bodies numbed by the intense cold when they returned from their perilous mission.
Although it was Christmas Night a crowd had gathered on the Fleetwood Promenade, eagerly scanning the darkness for signs of the lifeboat. White and green signals from the lifeboat denoted they had reached her objective and were returning. After six anxious hours of waiting the lifeboat came into sight, sailing up the Wyre channel and an hour later they had the Tchad’s crew landed at Fleetwood.
It was a happy ending to a remarkable Christmas night. Their strenuous effort had its reward, for six men had been taken into the Maude Pickup lifeboat. When Boxing Day dawned the Tchad was visible on the skyline when looking across the bay from Fleetwood’s Promenade. Apparently about seven miles out, she had drifted three or four miles from her moorings near Wyre Light towards Grange-over-Sands.
Fleetwood Lifeboats Past 