Volume Eleven - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - some more aspects - Built with Pride at the Penarth Shipbuilding Company - s.s. 'Aira Force' - 1890 . . .

Lifted Out of The Water - Rescuing Steamer's Heroic Struggle - When the Hayle left the Seaforth in Lundy Race, the latter was at the mercy of the waves for hours, being buffeted by the storm with heavy seas washing her from end to end. Her distress signals were at eight o'clock on Sunday morning sighted by the s.s. Mayflower, of Harwich, bound light for Burry Port from Plymouth for coal.

The Mayflower threw a lifebuoy line overboard, and though this was missed by the Seaforth, a second attempt was more successful. The Seaforth now secure was towed along in the direction of Swansea, but the rope parted as in the case of the Hayle. Fortunately another rope and chain were secured, and this held fast to the Swansea port.

Capt. Palmer, in command of the Mayflower, a small coasting steamer, said his boat was like a cork in the gale, and he described the latter as terrible in its force. "At times," he said to a "Post" reporter, "the Mayflower was lifted bodily right out of the water, and the Seaforth's crew stated they could see right underneath her."

Instead of running for Burry Port with her tow she came to Swansea. The Seaforth was bound for Fowey, in Cornwall.

Capt. Sanders, of the Seaforth, said the weather they experienced ranged between a gale and a hurricane and considering his ship's breakdown, he was very pleased that his vessel had come through it in the way she had. The seas poured over her in the darkness (he told a Daily Post reporter), and he could do nothing with her circulating pump and steering gear out of order off Padstow.

"If we had tried to work the engines," he stated, "we should soon have been flooded out. As it was, we were inches down when we were towed into port." Considerable damage had been done to the boat by the storm.

Before the Hayle reached her, the Seaforth had been in tow of two trawlers from Lowestoft. One of the latter had got her steering fouled by the rope, with the result that she had to be towed into Padstow by the other trawler. - South Wales Weekly Post [929] [361] 28th February 1914.