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Local Trawler's Ordeal - 1929

The following appeared in the Hartlepool Daily Mail, on Thursday, January 17th, 1929:

LOCAL TRAWLER’S ORDEAL. Skipper’s Story.
FOUR OF CREW WEDGED UNDER A GRATING. A graphic story was told Captain Burton Truefitt, the young skipper the Hartlepool trawler Gertrude Cappleman,  in a further interview with Mail representative last night. As we reported, the vessel was swept by a big wave on Tuesday afternoon, and one member her crew—Septimus Lupton—received fatal injuries, whilst three others—Joseph Stewart, third hand, and J.W. Wilson and G. J. Hume, deck hands—were badly hurt, Stewart having a leg broken, Wilson a broken arm, and Hume a broken nose. At the time - 3.30 -the Gertrude Cappleman, which was some 180 miles north-east of Hartlepool, had her trawl down, and Lupton and the three other men were engaged at what is known as the fish pond, constructed of boards on the fore part of the deck.

The skipper described the weather as “rather rough”, with occasional hail squalls. He himself was in the wheelhouse when he saw the big wave bearing down on the trawler. He estimated its height at 15ft., and he at once shouted a warning to the men on the deck. Before they could save themselves, however, the huge sea broke over the vessel’s bows and swept them aft, boards and all

NEARLY WASHED OVERBOARD. But for a small boat grating in the stern of the trawler, the men must have been washed overboard. The sea, however, wedged them under this grating, the water swirling over them. Calling to the mate, who had just gone into the fish room, Captain Truefitt rushed to the men's aid, wading waist deep through the water. Lupton was almost completely submerged, and looked as though he were drowning. When, after the vessel had shaken herself free of the wave, they got him down in the cabin, it was found that he was badly injured about the head, and bleeding from the nose and ears. “We lashed Stewart and Wilson up in splints,” said Capt Truefitt, hauled the trawl aboard, and made for port.”

20 HOURS ON THE BRIDGE. “There were only two of us left to manage the ship,” added the skipper, “and the mate and I were on the bridge for 20 hours.” Lupton, who never regained consciousness, died three hours after the occurrence. The skipper paid a warm tribute to the plucky behaviour of the other injured men. “I never heard a murmur from them,” he said, “till they were being brought along the alleyway from the cabin to the gangway when got alongside the Fish Quay.’’ They were then immediately taken to the Hartlepools Hospital.

THE SKIPPER S SORROW. Captain Truefitt spoke of Lupton as being a good worker and a promising young man, and expressed his deep regret at his untimely death. Lupton added, had been in the trawler about ten months.
Captain Truefitt mentioned that the crews other trawlers which had also just returned from the fishing grounds were surprised to hear of the mishap on the Gertrude Cappleman , they had none of them experienced anything abnormal. Captain Truefitt, who is 24 years of age, last night himself still showed signs of exhaustion as the result of the exposure and the long vigil to which he had been subjected. Lupton lived in Bond Street, Hartlepool ; Stewart resides in Church Street, Hartlepool; Wilson in Northgate, and Hume in Lilley Street. 

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