and the crew had lashed themselves to the rigging. The lifeboat, on her maiden rescue, rowed for a mile and a half through the River Ribble, and then rowed to Mexico, rescuing all twelve members of the barque's crew. In the process, the crew shattered three of her oars, and the small craft was filled numerous times with water. The bodies of the unfortunate lifeboatmen (who were fishermen by trade) were removed from the beaches and laid out in the coaching house of the nearby Birkdale Palace Hotel. The coach house was later converted to a public house, being named The Fishermen's Rest, and is reputed to be haunted by the spirits of the dead men. The disaster is the worst in the history of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), with 27 lifeboat crew lost. A public fund for relief of the sixteen widows and fifty orphans was opened with the RNLI contributing £2,000, the queen and the emperor of Germany also contributing. £30,000 was raised in total. A memorial statue of a lifeboatman looking out to sea was placed on the Promenade at St. Anne's. At Southport, a memorial was erected in the Cemetery and a permanent exhibition can be seen in The Atkinson Museum on Lord Street, Southport. A further memorial was placed in the churchyard of St Cuthbert's Church, Lytham. In 1925, the RNLI withdrew its service in Southport and left the town with no lifeboat. However, in the late 1980s, after a series of unfortunate tragedies, local families from Southport started to raise funds and eventually bought a new lifeboat for the town stationed at the old RNLI boathouse. The Southport Offshore Rescue Trust is completely independent of the RNLI and like the RNLI it depends entirely on charitable funding. See also Birkdale Palace Hotel – Fishermen's Rest References External links Southport Lifeboat Enquiry report into disaster A History of the Southport Lifeboats – Eliza Fernley Wrecks off the Southport Coast Disasters in Merseyside Shipwrecks in the Irish Sea Maritime incidents in December 1886 1886 in England Maritime incidents in England Royal National Lifeboat Institution Lytham St Annes Southport December 1886 events