In Safe Hands
Coxswain Brian Thomson and the Crew of Holyhead
by Nicholas Leach

On 9 December 2003, the new Severn class lifeboat Christopher Pearce arrived at her Holyhead station, the latest in a long line of vessels to come under the command of Brian Thomson, the station’s full-time Coxswain.  Having spent his whole life as a seafarer, working in different roles on a variety of vessels all helping to ensure the safety of ships and other seafarers, Brian’s new charge, the high-tech Severn class lifeboat, was a far cry from the first craft on which he served, the Trinity House vessel Argus, as a deck boy.  Anglesey born and bred, Brian has lived in Holyhead all his life.  He joined Trinity House as deck boy on the local Trinity House vessel Argus.  Trinity House is responsible for lights and buoys around the coasts of England and Wales, and the organization’s vessels are used to service the lighthouses, which were once fully manned, and navigation buoys.  Brian served on two Trinity House vessels, Argus and Winston Churchill, spending about five years on each.

Argus was mainly employed in changing the navigation buoys in the shipping channels and servicing lighthouses before the days of automation.  During his initial years on board, Brian recalls having “to bring my own bedding and food on board, but we were only at sea for two or three days a week although sometimes we were out for up to six days.”  By the time he switched to THV Winston Churchill, Trinity House provided everything including bedding, clothing and food.  He became a Coxswain in charge of one of the 27-foot tenders used to service the lightvessels and lighthouses, a position which, within the ship, was about half way up the hierarchy. 

Based in Holyhead, Argus was responsible for servicing the lights on the Welsh coast and England’s west coast.  Servicing a lighthouse involved taking the mail to the keepers, dry stores, lubricating oil, supplies, and diesel which was used to power generators. Once a month, the ship would relieve personnel on a lighthouse and once a fortnight on a lightship.  But if the weather was bad, the relief was postponed and quite often Argus would wait in Fishguard for the weather to abate.  The actual task of getting alongside and into some places, such as the Smalls lighthouse, was often difficult.  The Smalls was the most remote of the lighthouses Brian serviced and, he recalls, was “the worst if there was a big swell.”  Getting a small 27-foot tender alongside the landing platform was not only difficult but was also dangerous. 

After serving on Argus, Brian transferred to the 1964-built THV Winston Churchill.  A few years later, feeling he had done his time with Trinity House, he applied for a job with the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (MDHB) as a pilot boat coxswain.  Six months after his initial application, he became a Pilot Boat Coxswain and left Trinity House after eleven years, by which time he had two young children and wanted more of a home life.  He explains the reasons for his move: “I had always looked up to them [the Pilot boat coxswains] and I was more interested in small boats and boat-handling.”  The pilot boats were based at Lynas on Anglesey from where Brian worked as a Pilot boat coxswain for twenty-five years. 

The senior pilots based at Lynas lighthouse directed ships either to an anchorage in Moelfre Bay or to take a pilot for the Mersey.  Pilot boat coxswains, such as Brian, would then take a pilot out to the ship.  In heavy weather, it was necessary for the ships to come right into Moelfre Bay before a pilot could be safely got aboard.  Sometimes, the ships would have to wait at anchor for a pilot if heavy weather or strong easterly winds prevented the pilot boat from getting alongside.  Transferring a pilot could be undertaken in most weathers up to about force eight or nine, but safety was paramount and it was up to the coxswain to decide whether a transfer was possible.  Brian once went to twenty-seven ships in one twelve hour period in the late 1970s when the approaches to the Mersey were very busy, but this was not the norm.  A more usual shift involved taking pilots to five or six ships, with most of the work done at night as the shipowners liked their vessels to be in port at 8 a.m.  On three separate occasions, he took pilots to the Royal Yacht Britannia. 

After almost a quarter of a century on the Pilot boat, Brian relinquished this post in 2001 to become the full-time Coxswain of the Holyhead lifeboat.  He first volunteered as a lifeboat crew member in January 1972 when the station operated a 52-foot Barnett class boat, St Cybi (Civil Service No.9), which was kept in a boathouse, now lying empty near the ferry terminal, and launched down a slipway into the harbour.  She was replaced in 1980 by a faster lifeboat, the 52-foot Arun Hyman Winstone, which in turn was replaced by the 47-foot Tyne St Cybi II (Civil Service No.40) in 1985.  He became Second Coxswain in June 1987, having been emergency mechanic since 1981.  He volunteered originally, he explained, because “I worked at sea and would like to know someone was ashore to help me if I needed help’ adding that ‘not many of the crew now work at sea.” 

The worst weather he has experienced in the lifeboat came on the Tyne when on service to Kymia on 6 January 1990.  With the wind at force eleven, the ferries had not sailed from Holyhead but a ship was in difficulty and was reportedly listing heavily.  Once the crew had assembled, the lifeboat was launched and was soon battling with the severe conditions.  Off the South Stack lighthouse, the seas were mountainous but the lifeboat ploughed through them with the breaking seas causing the boat to freefall as she came off the back of the waves.  As she rounded the South Stack, the rescue helicopter radioed to say it was picking people out of the water from the ship.  But as the seas were so big by then that turning the lifeboat round would have been too dangerous so she carried on and eventually reached the casualty, which by then had sunk.  Two people were lifted out of the water by the helicopter and four bodies were recovered by another lifeboat with the Holyhead boat acting as back up.  The lifeboat returned to her station at 4 p.m., the weather having moderated to, according to Brian, “only a force nine.”  Having been away in the most horrendous conditions for more than twelve hours, being unable to help the casualty meant that the outcome was recorded as “No effective service.” 

Brian describes his job of full-time Coxswain as “better than on the pilot service.”  The majority of his time is spent following the planned maintenance program for the new 17-meter Severn which consists of looking after the boat’s engines, electronics, engine management system, and the electronics such as the laser plotter and GPS.  As well as maintaining the Holyhead lifeboat, he is also involved in passage work for the RNLI, taking boats out of the local Holyhead Boatyard on proving trials, moving boats across to Malahide Marina, in Ireland, and delivering them to stations.  He has been a relief Coxswain at a number of other stations, including Moelfre, Angle, Mumbles, Barry Dock and Douglas covering for the full-time station Coxswain when cover is unavailable. 

The new Severn has not yet been tested in heavy weather on service, although her delivery trip from the RNLI’s Headquarters in Poole was undertaken mostly in a force nine.  When forty miles off Start Point and in forty-five knots of wind, her starboard engine went down after a split in an injector pipe.  She had to limp to Plymouth on one engine where a relatively straightforward repair was carried out.  After repairs, she sailed in a force nine to Newlyn, then to Fishguard, then to Howth, then to Dun Laoghaire for an exercise with their lifeboat and she came into Holyhead in December 2003.

The Severn, the RNLI’s largest all-weather lifeboat and the only one of its type in Wales, was stationed at Holyhead partly because of the ferry port.  Exercises with ferries are undertaken on a regular basis but in fact, Brian says, “we rarely get involved with ferries unless there are suicides or someone falls over half way between ports.  The last one I did, it was blowing a full force nine from the east, but we did not find them and never any chance of finding them as the bodies go under quite quickly.”  Training is a vital part of the job and Brian leads his team in regular exercises on both lifeboat and inshore lifeboat.  The crew numbers twenty-six and when the call comes there is a good pool from which to call.  But it is getting increasingly difficult to find people working close to the station and only one crew member now works at sea with the others coming from a variety of walks of life.  Over a long career at sea, Brian now finds himself back where he started.  It is perhaps appropriate that the old Trinity House buildings at Holyhead, where Brian went for his first job, are now refurbished as the current lifeboat crew shore facility.

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