persistent and heroic endeavours by the coxswain and his crew to save the lives of all from the Union Star. Such heroism enhances the highest traditions of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in whose service they gave their lives. Coxswain Trevelyan Richards was posthumously awarded the RNLI's gold medal, while the remainder of the crew were all posthumously awarded bronze medals. The station itself was awarded a gold medal service plaque. The disaster prompted a massive public appeal for the benefit of the village of Mousehole which raised over £3 million (equivalent to £ in ), although there was an outcry when the government tried to tax the donations. Two nights before the disaster, Charlie Greenhaugh, who in civilian life was the landlord of the Ship Inn on the quayside in Mousehole, had turned on the village's Christmas lights. After the storm the lights were left off but three days later his widow Mary asked for them to be repaired and lit again. The village has been lit up each December since then, but on the anniversary of the disaster they are turned off at 8:00 pm for an hour as an act of remembrance. A plaque was also erected on the Ship Inn on behalf of the tenants, managers, directors and employees of the St Austell Brewery, the pub's owner. Within a day of the disaster enough people from Mousehole had volunteered to form a new lifeboat crew. In 1983 a new lifeboat station (still known as 'Penlee') was opened nearby at Newlyn where a faster, larger boat could be kept moored afloat in the harbour. Neil Brockman later became the coxswain of the station's lifeboat. The old boathouse at Penlee Point with its slipway is kept the same as it was when the lifeboat launched and a memorial garden was created beside it in 1985 to commemorate the crew of the Solomon Browne. The Sea King helicopter involved in the rescue attempt is today preserved at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at RNAS Yeovilton, primarily because it had been flown by Prince Andrew, Duke of York during the Falklands War. Cultural references The disaster has been the subject of several songs. English folk singer and songwriter Seth Lakeman wrote the song "Solomon Browne", which appears on his 2008 album Poor Man's Heaven. The CD reissue of the Anthony Phillips' album Invisible Men includes "The Ballad of Penlee" about