# m.f.v ST FINBARR CHRISTMAS DAY 1966



## rustytrawler (Jul 6, 2021)

To remember the twelve men who lost their lives fishing of the coast of Newfoundland's grand banks on the Hull trawler St FINBARR. On Christmas day 1966 there was an explosion and a fireball ripped through the trawler ten men from a crew of twentyfive died instantly, two more perished in the subsequent rescue bid. Never to be forgotten R.I.P. rustytrawler


----------



## jmcg (Apr 20, 2008)

Well remembered Rusty.

BW for Christmas & New Year.

J


----------



## rustytrawler (Jul 6, 2021)

I will never forget, the skipper Tom Sayers lived near me in Hornsea and i went to school with one of his daughters, and my dad sometimes sailed with him. There is now a book out about the incident called the luckiest thirteen by Brian Lavery and what a story it tells


----------



## Peter Hewson (Mar 12, 2019)

The fact that shocks me most, beyond the loss of lives, is that fact that there had been several smaller fires on the vessel the cause of which had never been addressed. Alleged to have been due to the overloading of power cables?. (BOT Report). Typical of some shipownwers, the vessel was just repaired and sent back to sea!. The underlying issue was neither investigated nor any attempt made to solve it!.
Certain cables start to degrade the insulation if overheated by overloading, giving off toxic and explosive gasses.

Pete


----------



## rustytrawler (Jul 6, 2021)

Hi pete. At the board of trade inquiry (the guildhall Hull sep 19 1967) they did testing on the same type of electrical wire used on the finbar and found that the insulation on the wire gave off light smoke and smelled like petrol, it was a build up of the gasses that caused the blast, i find it hard to understand why nobody got prosecuted. The crew tried to release the lifeboats but were blown backwards as the gripe and davits were live, skipper Sawyers was on the bridge VHF telephone when the blast happend and was blown out of the wheelhouse window flames followed him, he landed under the wheelhouse front with a melted phone still in his hand.


----------



## rustytrawler (Jul 6, 2021)

Another Hull trawler that was wrecked on Christmas day was the IAN FLEMING H396. She was wrecked on the 25.12.1973 off Havoysund outward bound to the northerly fishing grounds,17 crew were saved but 3 lost their lives.......On the 23.12.1955 the Hull trawler PRINCE CHARLES H249 ran aground of Socroeya60 miles off Hammerfest during a snowstorm, the survivors were rescued from the shore, by a Norwegian ship INGOEY, nine crew of the Charles were lost and one Norwegian pilot . The wreck was salvaged and towed back to Hull, she became the LOCH MELFORT.


----------



## OzBoz (Dec 9, 2008)

The whole story is well worth the read.









Hull’s Quiet Disaster: The Christmas Day Tragedy of St Finbarr | Fishing News


On 25 December, 1966, 12 of the 25-strong crew of the Hull trawler St Finbarr died in an explosion off Newfoundland. Find out more...




fishingnews.co.uk


----------



## rustytrawler (Jul 6, 2021)

I have a story about Tom Sayers, in the 60s he made his film star money on a Hull trawler called ST ALCUIN H125. As skipper on the Alcuin he spent some of his money building a large house in Hornsea, (15miles from Hull) and he named it st Alcuin it is still called st Alcuin today. At that time a pal of mine had just passed his driving test and bought a new ford anglia and went for a ride out to Hornsea and ran out of petrol one night outside toms house, (he did not know it was tom's house) he saw a garage door open and stole a can of petrol out of toms garage. At 3am the next morning, Tom and my pal were on the bridge of the st Alcuin heading out of the Humber, when Tom said i hope the wife gets back to Hornsea ok some bastard has nicked a can of petrol out of my garage, my pal confessed to Tom that it was him who stole the petrol, how about that for a coincidence.


----------



## taffe65 (May 27, 2007)

Nearly 7 gallon petrol tank capacity on those, should have ensured adequate bunkers before departure! Did they find your mates body afterwards ?⛏☠.


----------



## rustytrawler (Jul 6, 2021)

My mate i talked about broke his back when on the ST ALCUIN, he got washed about on deck and took a good beating he spent many months off work and was never fit enough to return to sea, when he was recovering his wife bought him some paints and he taught himself to paint ships and found he was good at it, his name is Dennis Chapman........At the time of the petrol ncident i tink there was some sort of a shortage.....THIS IS ONE OF DENNIS'IS PAINTINGS.


----------



## rustytrawler (Jul 6, 2021)




----------



## taffe65 (May 27, 2007)

rustytrawler said:


> My mate i talked about broke his back when on the ST ALCUIN, he got washed about on deck and took a good beating he spent many months off work and was never fit enough to return to sea, when he was recovering his wife bought him some paints and he taught himself to paint ships and found he was good at it, his name is Dennis Chapman........At the time of the petrol ncident i tink there was some sort of a shortage.....THIS IS ONE OF DENNIS'IS PAINTINGS.


Sorry Rusty I didn't know about his misfortune onboard the St Alcuin , was just jesting about the skippers reaction when finding out who knicked his petrol. Every cloud has a silver lining judging by his paintings.


----------



## rustytrawler (Jul 6, 2021)

taffe65 said:


> Sorry Rusty I didn't know about his misfortune onboard the St Alcuin , was just jesting about the skippers reaction when finding out who knicked his petrol. Every cloud has a silver lining judging by his paintings.


Dennis is now in his 80s and always has lots of paintings on the go rgrds


----------

