18 February : Cork Jackets and Drill – tells the story, through original music, songs and narration of the 1886 Southport lifeboat disaster, which claimed the lives of almost all of the crew members of the Southport and St. Anne’s Lifeboats.
The music, songs and script are by Southport based playwright Len Pentin whose work has been performed at local theatres, on BBC Radio Merseyside and at the London Fringe. The six person musical performance with its folk roots tells how the dreadfully impoverished mostly fishermen bravely gave battle one terrible storm-ridden winter night in 1886, in an attempt to save the crew of a ship in distress off Southport Sands.
At the time, the tragedy touched and deeply affected the whole of the UK but it is now sadly, largely forgotten. Cork Jackets and Drill attempts to reinstate the memory of the brave lifeboat men who risked and gave their lives that night for others.
‘And they call us part-time sailors, but we are soul-savers’
Last Updated on November 1, 2018