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Heroes

In October 1995, Brenda Orrell a member of Robin Hoods Bay Folk Club wrote this song about the rescue of the crew of the brig Visitor which was wrecked off Robin Hoods Bay in 1881. She sold copies of the hand written broadsheet for 50p, and donated all the proceeds to the RNLI.

Memorial plaque about the ship The Visiter

The Visiter memorial plaque at the  top of Bay Bank

Her original note on the broadsheet reads:

ON JANUARY 18TH 1881 THE BRIG ‘THE
VISITER’ RAN AGROUND IN ROUGH SEAS
OFF ROBIN HOODS BAY. THE BAY LIFEBOAT WAS OUT OF COMMISSION AND THE SEAS WERE TOO HEAVY FOR THE WHITBY LIFEBOAT TO BE LAUNCHED, SO IT WAS PHYSICALLY CARRIED AND PULLED FROM WHITBY TO BAY. THE OPERATION TOOK TWO HOURS ALL LIVES WERE SAVED.

GOD BLESS THE LIFEBOATS!

I HAVE DONATED THE COPYRIGHT OF THE SONG TO THE RNLI AND ALL PROCEEDS GO TO THEM.
BRENDA M ORRELL

Heroes
(To the tune of Rock of Ages)

1. Above the salty ocean’s roar,
Far away along the shore
Came a shout from those at hand
We’ll have to pill her overland,
We’ve had a message from the Bay,
They’ll dig to meet us and clear the way.

Chorus
Heave me boys, take up the slack,
There’s an angel upon your back.
To pull this boat on glory’s ride,
Across the cruel countryside.
We’ll launch a lifeboat and a crew,
if it’s the last thing we ever do.

2. The word was out the task began,
For men and horses everyone.
Two hundred digger’s hands now bled,
for eighteen horses to be led.
To pull the boat with tugs and lifts,
For six miles through snowy drifts.

3, Brave Whitby folk, and Hawsker too,
all did their best to pull them through.
And all the while the folk at Bay,
were busy clearing out the way.
To save the brig that had run ashore,
they said was called the ‘Visitor’.

4. And after two long hours were o’er,
they launched the lifeboat from the shore.
And Coxswain Freeman and his crew,
all bravely did what they could do.
And the rescued sailors from that gale,
they all lived on to tell the tale.

5. So, if you’re driving along that way,
From Whitby town down to Bay
Imagine winter’s storms that rage.
And heroes of a bygone age,
who gave their all and helped to save,
A shipwrecked crew from a watery grave.


The Wreck of The Visiter

The Whitby registered collier brig 'The Visiter', on a Newcastle to London run with a cargo of coal, was off Flamborough on Tuesday 16th January when a violent southeast gale blew up. The gale force wind left her sails in tatters and blew her back up the coast onto rocks below the cliffs at Ravenscar. In the middle of the night, they were taking on too much water, so dropped anchor hoping to ride out the storm.

The wind backed round to the northeast bringing with it snow, hail and mountainous seas. The six-man crew took to the ships longboat to seek shelter in lee of the wreck, afraid the boat would be dashed on the rocks.

Sepia photo of seaman with cork life jacket and southwesster hat

Coxswain Henry Freeman

At daylight, the following day, the wreck was sighted from Robin Hoods Bay. The old Robin Hoods Bay Lifeboat was unseaworthy, so the local Vicar, Reverand Jermyn Cooper, sent a telegram to Captain Gibson, the Whitby Harbourmaster, asking for help. The Harbourmaster, in conjunction with the Whitby lifeboat’s coxswain Henry Freeman, decided that launching and rowing the lifeboat
from Whitby to Robin Hoods Bay was out of the question. The only way to get the boat there was to haul it overland.

The lifeboat, Robert Whitworth, was placed on its carriage,
and a team of eighteen horses were harnessed, to pull it up, and over the steep hill to Robin Hoods Bay.An army of over two hundred volunteers, armed with shovels, helped clear the deep snowdrifts that hampered the way, and down the hazardous decent to Robin Hoods Bay Dock End. To control the boats descent down the steep winding Bay Bank, and to stop it running away, ropes were attached to the rear of the lifeboats carriage so the helpers could control it. The whole journey had taken just three hours.

Painting of boat by harbour wall

‘The Rescue’ a painting by John Freeman

The first attempt to launch the lifeboat had to be aborted, when six of the oars were snapped by a tremendous wave, but the second was successful and all the ‘Visitors’ crews six lives were saved.
Several days later the lifeboat crew walked from Whitby to Robin Hoods Bay and rowed the Robert Whitworth back along the coast to Whitby Harbour. Later that year, the RNLI presented Robin Hoods Bay with a new lifeboat, the Ephraim and Hannah Fox, and built a new brick lifeboat house in the Dock.

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Mick Haywood is a traditional folk singer & folk song collector who has run and organised folk clubs and festivals for many years. He now lives in Whitby, North Yorkshire.

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