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Beau
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Longhope
His is a story of men who were heroes
But wouldn't have seen it that way.
It began with the news of a ship in distress
A few miles off South Ronaldsay.
That ship came around and then ran aground
And all the crew made it ashore,
But no one knew then what eight lifeboat men
Were paying so dearly for.
It was 7.29 on the 17th March
The Coastguard had put in the call.
The way it was seen, the SS 'Irene'
Was helpless, adrift in a squall.
The storm had been rated a vicious Force Nine
With waves that were sixty foot high.
It was these on this dark night in March '69
The lifeboat set out to defy.
The boat headed out into mountainous seas,
As she had done so often before.
We know that she battled through fifty knot winds
For a full ninety minutes or more.
The lifeboat from Longhope they called T.G.B.
Was last seen from Cantick Head light,
But then T.G.B. was claimed by the sea.
She disappeared into the night.
The following day, a search well under way,
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The lifeboat from Longhope was found;
Seven of the lifeboat men still at their posts
But all of them sadly had drowned.
They say she was hit by a hundred foot wave;
Capsized in the night's long ordeal.
When the crew of the Thurso boat ran alongside,
The Cox was still strapped to the wheel.
Daniel Kirkpatrick was Cox on the boat,
The father of John and of Dan.
The night that the lifeboat from Longhope went down
She took with her every man.
There was young Jimmy Swanson and Eric McFadyen;
The Johnstons – James, Robert and Rob.
They were all volunteers who'd gone out for years,
Lifeboat men doing their job.
So this is the story of men who were heroes
But wouldn't have seen it that way,
That began with the news of a ship in distress
A few miles off South Ronaldsay.
The ship came around and then ran aground
And all her crew made it ashore,
But no one knew then what eight lifeboat men
Were paying so dearly for.
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