Dean Swift
Dean Swift - Click image for a larger view
But the Dean Swift (built in 1898) did become the port’s oldest steam trawler before she was scrapped in 1959.
Built in Dublin – and bought by the Dalby Steam Fishing Company in the 1930s – she returned to Dublin to meet her fate in the breakers’ yard.
Perhaps her greatest claim to fame was in February 1957 when she towed the port’s smallest trawler into port after a night long battle in Morecambe Bay.
The drama developed on a wild February night as hurricane force winds lashed the Irish Sea – it was one of the worst storms within memory of local folk.
As the news of the trawler’s battle spread, families ashore gathered round their radios to tune into the trawler waveband.
It was off Maughold Head, Isle of Man, that a crack developed in the combustion chamber of the boiler in the 148 ton trawler Alcmaria.
In control was Skipper Leslie Hatcher who decided to try and make it back to Fleetwood.
“But by noon, it was becoming hopless. All we could do was to just keep the engine turning over. The Dean Swift said she was coming to help.”
After a 40-mile voyage from Ramsey Bay the Dean Swift (Skipper Jack Randles) arrived at 5.30pm. The wind was reaching gale force.
At 6pm they shot a line to the crippled Alcmaria – but it parted.
With winds of 60mph and torrential rain the crews were soaking wet as they worked to try and secure another line.
Skipper Hatcher said “All we could do was to try and keep her head to wind – and that meant the engines must be kept turning over.
“Engineers, Dick Bailey (Chief) and Paddy Macauley (Second) did very well. It would have been hopeless without that bit of steam.
The trawler put out an SOS and Barrow Lifeboat was launched at 10pm. The trawler Red Sabre on passage to Iceland turned back and into the storm to try and help.
Red Sabre’s Skipper Jim McKernan fired his 6 rockets in a bid to fastern a tow rope.
Attempt number 3 was lucky and crewmen soaked by rain and spray shackled a 4” cable in Alcmaria’s another chain.
But with the trawlers wallowing in the angry seas the tow parted and other attempts saw the rockets carried away by the wind.
Hours passed. It was 3am and Skipper McKernan tried to float a line across with a barrel. It proved hopeless.
And then Red Sabre became crippled with a warp around her propeller. She had to anchor and await a tug from Heysham.
Alcmaria began to drift and radio contact with the lifeboat was lost for more than an hour when her radio mast was swept away.
Then the weather moderated and Dean Swift took Alcmaria in tow – anxious to complete the job she had set out to do – and determined to get her back to Fleetwood. Later Skipper Randles said;
“I have known no worse night in 25 years. The wind reached more than 100mph at the worse point.
“One sea – the biggest I have ever seen – swept the full length of the ship. It poured through the galley door, down into the cabin and engine room. All 15 deckboards were washed over the side.” Three minutes earlier the crew were on deck. If they had been there then it would have been the end.
“But the old ship was marvellous – bloomin’ marvellous. She wallowed a bit on her side in the trough when the big sea swept over but came right up again.
“It took two of us to hold the wheel to keep her steady most of the time,” he added.
And so the two trawlers (both owned by Dalby) came safely home.
They had just 41 boxes of fish between them for sale on the Wednesday market.
The previous day – as the little ships fought the elements – not one vessel had docked at Fleetwood causing the worst fish famine since the war.
remember that night,my dad was in a foul mood when he came home!!!!