The Southport and St Anne's lifeboats disaster, commonly known as the Mexico disaster, occurred on the evening of the 9th December 1886. In all, 27 lifeboat men lost their lives trying to save the crew of the German barque called the Mexico. 14 of the 16 crew members aboard the Southport Lifeboat, Eliza Fernley, drowned along with all 13 of the St Anne's Lifeboat, Laura Janet. The 12 crew of the Mexico were eventually rescued by the Lytham Lifeboat, Charles Biggs. In the words of Queen Victoria, written in her private journal Saturday 11 December 1886, "A dreadful misfortune has happened on the Lancashire coast, the loss of life boats, & many lives, a terrible & inconceivable thing!" Disaster On 9 December 1886, Mexico, a Hamburg-registered barque bound for Guayaquil from Liverpool went aground near Southport, in a full west north westerly gale. A lifeboat, Eliza Fernley, was launched from Southport in response to distress signals from Mexico. When the craft reached Mexico, she was struck by heavy seas and capsized. Two hours later, she was found approximately three miles from Southport at Birkdale. Fourteen of her sixteen crew had perished. The two survivors, Henry Robinson and John Jackson, were trapped under the boat after she capsized and only survived by freeing themselves, swimming out and clinging onto the keel of the boat, then walking miles back to their homes and raising the alarm. One of them had tried and failed to rescue other comrades who were still trapped under the boat. Amazingly, four other men from the Southport boat initially survived the disaster but subsequently could not be saved. Between fifteen and twenty minutes after the Southport boat launched, the neighbouring St Anne's lifeboat—Laura Janet—was also called out. Her crew rowed her out to five hundred yards, and then hoisted sail, proceeding to two miles off Southport. In the words of Patrick Howarth, author of Lifeboat: In Danger's hour: "What happened there has never been clearly established. Two red lights were seen at Southport, which may have been signals from the life–boat. All that is known is that at quarter past eleven the next morning the life–boat was found ashore, bottom up, with three dead bodies hanging on the thwarts with their heads downwards. Every man in the crew was lost". Additionally, a third lifeboat, from Lytham, reached Mexico. By that time, Mexico had settled on her beam ends,