Longhope

This is a story of men who were heroes
But wouldn't have seen it that way
It began with the news of a ship in distress
A few miles off South Ronaldsay
That ship came around and then ran aground
And all her crew made it ashore
But no one knew then what eight lifeboat men
Were paying so dearly for

It was 7:29 on the 17th March
The Coastguard had put in the call
The way it was seen, the SS Irene
Was helpless, adrift in the squall
The storm had been rated a vicious Force Nine
With waves that were sixty-foot high
It was these on this dark night in March '69
The lifeboat set out to defy

The boat headed out into mountainous seas
As she had done so often before
We know that she battled through fifty knot winds
For a full 90 minutes or more
The lifeboat from Longhope they called T.G.B
Was last seen from Cantick Head light
But then T.G.B. was claimed by the sea
She disappeared into the night

The following day, a search well under way
The lifeboat from Longhope was found
Seven of the lifeboat men still at their posts
But all of them sadly had drowned
They say she was hit by a hundred-foot wave
Capsized in the night's long ordeal
When the crew of the Thurso boat ran alongside
The Cox was still strapped to the wheel

Daniel Kirkpatrick was Cox on the boat
The father of John and of Dan
The night that the lifeboat from Longhope went down
She took with her every man
There was young Jimmy Swanson and Eric McFadyen
The Johnstons, James, Robert and Rob
They were all volunteers who'd gone out for years
Lifeboat men doing their job

So this is the story of men who were heroes
But wouldn't have seen it that way
That began with the news of a ship in distress
A few miles off South Ronaldsay
The ship came around and then ran aground
And all her crew made it ashore
But no one knew then what eight lifeboat men
Were paying so dearly for