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CloseCoastguard Disaster at Wells
24 February 1898
On Febrary 24 1898, the gunboat Alarm anchored off Wells to bring a few trivial stores for the coastguard. The coastguard's cutter set off with five men but was capsized and all five were drowned. Next morning the commander of the gunboat, not knowing what had happened, sent one of his boats with six men to bring the stores ashore. This too was capsized and all the crew drowned.
The lifeboat Baltic then went out to the gunboat and was able to prevent another and larger one of their boats being sent. The lifeboat was out all night.
A monument to those who lost their lives was erected on Wells Quay, besides the Harbour Office, in 1998, 100 years after the tragedy.
Exercise Launches
Our crew will be training with our new Shannon 13-46 in the coming weeks. You are welcome to come and see the lifeboat launch from a safe distance on the beach bank or beach; please keep clear of the lifeboat and SLRS and keep children and dogs under supervision. Exercises and training will be ad-hoc but we will try to post dates in advance when we can. All dates are subject to change for operational reasons.
Sunday 4 Dec 2022 08:30
Launch & Recovery practice, Holkham beach
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