The ninth of December, eighteen eighty-six. This is the Mexico lifeboat disaster of eighteen eighty-six: the German barque Mexico, four hundred and eighty-four tons, drove aground off Southport in a Force Nine hurricane. Three crews launched. Southport’s Eliza Fernley was hauled three and a half miles by horse-drawn carriage, then launched after 11 p.m. under Coxswain Charles Hodge, who took three extra men, making sixteen.
Fourteen drowned: Charles Hodge, Ralph Peters, Benjamin Peters, Peter Wright, Thomas Spencer, Thomas Rigby, Timothy Rigby, Thomas Jackson, John Ball, Henry Hodge, John Robinson, Richard Robinson, Peter Jackson, and Harry Rigby. Henry Robinson and Bowman John Jackson survived when the boat capsized; they clung to the keel, swam ashore, and raised the alarm. Twenty-seven lifeboatmen died that night in Britain’s worst lifeboat disaster; the Mexico’s crew lived. For all Lord Street’s polish, this resort rested on working hands. The Atkinson keeps a permanent exhibition.
Hold onto Henry Robinson and John Jackson on that upturned keel in the dark... then head inland along Marine Drive toward Lord Street.
