M.F.V. Pygmalion – FD132
Fleetwood Trawler – Pygmalion FD132
Official Number: 182178
Gross Tonnage: 35grt / 24nrt
Engine: 120hp
Built: Brixham, 1947
Owner: J.A.S Wright, Fleetwood
History
1947: Registered as Pygmalion BM27
19??: Sold to James W Wright of Fleetwood, registered as FD132
Loss of the Pygmalion
The motor fishing vessel Pygmalion was trawling to the east of the Point of Ayre on the 26th of may 1964.
Her skipper was Richard Billington Sumner. Around 8:30 am the Calor gas stove exploded as the three man crew was having breakfast, knocking one man unconscious and injuring two others as fire quickly engulfed the vessel. The crew launched the self-inflating liferaft but it didn’t inflate properly. The badly injured crewman was lowered into it by the other two as the Pygmalion sank, some 9 miles east of the Point of Ayre.
It was a sunny day and distress rockets would have been of no use so a decision was made to wait until darkness before using them. To make matters worse a coal strike had reduced traffic to and from Whitehaven do no other vessel passed them.
They drifted for fourteen hours all the time within sight of the Isle of Man, but with no sign of rescue. The injured man, John Cowell, was in considerable pain and only an emergency injection of morphine eased his pain,
By 22:30 it had grown dark enough to use the flares and these were fired. The Whitehaven trawler Lorraine was outbound for the fishing grounds and she spotted the distress rockets and changed course towards the liferaft.
Meanwhile the signals had also been seen from the Maughold Lighthouse and the Ramsey lifeboat, Annie Rowland Isabella Forrest, was launched.
Lorraine, under the command of Peter Haroldson, reached the liferaft, took the three crewmen aboard and set his course for Ramsey where an ambulance was waiting.
The crew of Pygmalion were:
Richard Billington Sumner, skipper
Les Patterson, deckhand
John Cowell, deckhand
All were from Fleetwood
Images
Pygmalion FD132 - Picture Courtesy of Mitchy
Pygmalion BM27 - Photo courtesy of Keith South
Map – Source Dictionary of Shipwrecks off the Isle of Man by Adrian Corkhill c2001
Map showing where the Pygmalion FD132 was lost.
hey is there anywhere i could find out more info on this , as John Cowell is my granddad and id love to know more about him
Hi Damen, i did pleasure trips when i was a boy in the 1960′s with John,what a great fellow he is.John was skipper of the Plough LL.256,then,later on he was skipper of the Northfleet FD.226.Lista FD.191,Dee Jay BF.257 and others.
hey
yes northfleet and deejay was his fav boats he had , i think him and rainford had 8 boats and 3 fishing company’s, i also heard that he was one of the best skippers in fleetwood
i think northfleet is wrecked now just behind the fleetwood dock on the edge of the river
to Damen Cowell, I remember your grand father when he was on the deejay. he was indeed a very good skipper. I worked out of the small welsh fishing port of Conwy which always had ties with Fleetwood. I sailed on a Fleetwood trawler which worked out of Conwy in the late 1970′s Constant Hope. The skipper was Alex Randells who originally was from Fleetwood and he was one of the best skippers around at that time. Ask around if anyone remembers him.
Regards
John