The Solway Harvester, continued...

The search for the Solway Harvester pitted man and machine against the unrelenting fury of the Irish Sea. Over the next few hours Mother Nature’s unbridled power held sway, and in spite of Herculean efforts by the coastguard, the RNLI, the RAF and the Royal Navy, the boat and its seven man crew failed to materialise from the enveloping darkness. The search was finally abandoned at dusk on the evening of the 12th January, when two unopened life-rafts shattered any last vestiges of hope that the crew would be found alive.

Over the coming days the Irish Sea remained loathe to give up her prey, and it was another three days before the wreck of the Solway Harvester was finally located, lying 11 miles off the Isle of Man in some 35 metres of water. She lay like some slumbering leviathan, silent and brooding, her seven man crew still aboard, together in death as they had been in life.

Aboard the Royal Navy minesweeper HMS Sandown the mood changed dramatically as one of her submersibles approached. As her captain, Ben Key, said: ‘I remember vividly the silence that descended in the Operations Room as the trawler became visible, the name Solway Harvester emerging from the gloom. We were all struck by how a vessel that had been so alive just a few days before could now be so silent and still’.

Having given their word to the families of the crew that they would bring their boys home, the Isle of Man government now committed nearly a million pounds to the recovery operation, incurring the wrath of the British government in the process. The Irish Sea too remained an intractable foe, and like a jealous lover continued to grip the boat and her human cargo in her icy embrace. Undaunted, the salvage teams and divers refused to be thwarted, and the boat and its crew were finally raised and returned to Douglas some weeks later, to the haunting lament of a solitary piper.

The journey home had been a long and painful one, but despite the tragedy of the loss, it is a journey filled with hope. It saw men and women risk their lives in atrocious conditions that fateful January night. It saw politicians stand up for what was right, rather than what was expedient. And it saw two communities come together in grief and remain together in friendship. It is time to lay the Solway Harvester to rest now, its rusting hulk has served its purpose: but isn’t it inspiring, in these days of greedy bankers and expense scandals, ruthless bombers and pointless wars, that a story can still be told of the inherent goodness and indomitable resolve of the human spirit.

To the memory of the crew of the Solway Harvester:

Craig Mills
Robin Mills
David Mills
Martin Milligan
John Murphy
David Lyons
Wesley Jolly

"We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch - we are going back from whence we came."
John F. Kennedy

© Trevor Gibbs 2010