Laforey GY85
Laforey GY85
Watercolour on paper
1999
Tom Morris
The Laforey was built in 1949. It set sail on a fishing voyage on 18th January 1954 and ran aground in a storm on 8th February. She was wrecked and capsized on Sendigene Rocks near the port of Floro, Norway, in heavy seas and driving snow. None of her 20-crew survived.
57-year-old skipper William Mogg, MBE, was preparing for a new role behind a desk at the Ross Fishing Group when he was asked to skipper the Laforey one final time. He would never return. Mogg’s son Kenneth was working as Mate on the ship and his brother-in-law Jack Powley was also on board.
Thomas Baxter Evans was on board the Stockholm, another Grimsby trawler, at the time of the accident and headed the rescue efforts despite being 80 to 90 miles away. The Laforey had a catch of 1,500 nets and was heading home when it sank.
An SOS was sent on 8th February that detailed that they were listing heavily and capsizing. A Norwegian vessel reported seeing the Laforey belly up the next day. Searches carried out later that day failed to find any survivors. More than 1,200 people attended a service at central hall in Duncombe Street, Grimsby. A diving bell was discovered in the wreck by Norwegian divers and donated to the families of those lost in the wreck. The bell was donated to the Grimsby fisherman’s chapel where it remains on display.
One year previous on 25th June 1953, skipper William ‘Bill’ Mogg recorded witnessing a spectacular act of bravery. The vessel was fishing off Vardoe when the call was made that there was a man overboard. 17-year-old deckhand Harry Page had fallen into the water. The ship was brought to his side and a life buoy tossed to him, but it missed in the heavy water. Kicking off his boots the mate, Jack Noble Kerr grabbed a life jacket and leapt into the water. He helped the boy find the buoy and kept him afloat until a line was thrown and they were both pulled aboard. Kerr received the Royal Humane Society’s bronze medal from the President of the British Trawler Federation, Mr Jack Baker Croft. Mogg himself had won the Distinguished Service cross during the war for his rescue of passengers aboard a bombed liner.
Monologues written and performed by Eileen Simpson.
