WILLIAM STANLEY DREW - Mary's great-grandfather

At the turn of the 19th/20th century before it operated from Penlee Point at Mousehole, the lifeboat worked out of Penzance. On 1st November 1907, in darkness and terrible weather, the Thames sailing barge Baltic went aground on St. Clement's Isle (often known as Mousehole Island) just outside Mousehole harbour. The cries of the crew could be heard on shore. Mousehole men organised a rescue with the crabber Lady White under the leadership of William Stanley Drew. All hands were saved. The Penzance lifeboat Elizabeth & Blanche had not been able to go to the aid of the stranded vessel, and the story goes that the lifeboat became stuck on its carriage in the harbour mud at Penzance. As a result of the rescue the Penzance lifeboat was moved to Newlyn the following year, which was just an interim measure, because by 1913 the lifeboat was sited permanently at Penlee Point until the terrible disaster of the Solomon Browne in the night of 19th December 1981 when the Penlee lifeboat and all its crew were lost going to the aid of the coaster Union Star whose crew also perished.

The heroic rescue in November 1907 of the Baltic initiated the following verses which are well-known in Mousehole folk history:

Oh what became of the Lifeboat
When the Baltic ran ashore?
They took the Lady White
And launched her across the por.
The first man to volunteer was Mr. Stanley Drew.
Then five others followed him and rescued all the crew.

The rescuers were Willie Harry, Harry Harvey, Luther Harvey, Richard Harry, Dick Thomas and William Stanley Drew. They all received cash awards from the RNLI and a Birmingham business man had a special medal - the Baltic Medal - struck in honour of their bravery, which each rescuer received.

John Batten Drew, the son of William Stanley Drew, was later to become Chief Mechanic of the Penlee Lifeboat from 1938 to 1970. In April 1947 the old battleship HMS Warspite was being towed from Portsmouth to the breaker's yard on the Clyde when she went aground at Cudden Point in Mount's Bay in a strong south-westerly gale with eight men on board. The Penlee lifeboat the W & S went to her aid and all her crew were rescued. For his part in this rescue Mechanic John Batten Drew received the RNLI Bronze Medal.

Geoff Adds: Looking at the Penlee Lifeboat web-page, there is now a Marc Drew (nicknamed Stretch) on the crew. Julyan Drew is the lifeboat chaplain. There are also surnames like Harvey and Nicholls that are quite familiar.

http://www.penlee-lifeboat.ik.com/