The dedicated crew of the Southport Lifeboat station will be visiting The Atkinson’s new coastal exhibition on Thursday 25 September for a special trip to see the newly restored painting of the Wreck of the Eliza Fernley depicting the worst lifeboat tragedy in history.
Southport Lifeboat members have been invited by The Atkinson to have a private tour of the exhibition and to see Martin Simpson, Andy Cutting and Nancy Kerr – three of Britain’s finest folk artists as a thank you for the outstanding rescue service they provide around the coastline of Southport.
The oil painting was restored just in time to feature in The Atkinson’s new exhibition Sea Change: The Art of The England’s North West Coast thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The Wreck of the Eliza Fernley depicts a shipwreck which killed 27 local lifeboat men when an iron ship, The Mexico of Hamburg, ran into trouble on Dec 9, 1886, and was driven on to the beach at Birkdale. The picture will now take pride of place in the Sea Change exhibition, which runs from Saturday 23 August– Sunday 9 November.
In worsening weather, the lifeboats Eliza Fernley of Southport and Laura Janet of St. Anne’s put out to the rescue. Neither boats reached the vessel, although the former approached so close that according to the narrative of the two survivors, one of the lifeboat men was about to throw a line but the boat swung broadside on to the sea and a huge mountain of water lifted it up and turned it over, burying the majority of its crew beneath it.
The nation grieved and a fund for the relief of the bereaved families raised £30,000 – a huge sum at that time – in a fortnight.
The artist was Francis Krause, born Franz Emile Herman Krause in Prussia in 1836. He married Amelia Stock, the daughter of an artist, and went to live in Birkdale. Krause’s descendants still live in Southport.
Stephen Whittle, Museum Manager at The Atkinson, says:
“Perhaps more than any other painting in the Sea Change exhibition The Wreck of the Eliza Fernley illustrates how dangerous and unpredictable the sea can be off the Sefton coast. There were a lot of paintings, drawings and newspaper illustrations made of the events surrounding the wreck of The Mexico. This is by far the most moving and, unlike the others, which tend to focus on the courage and heroism of the lifeboat crews, we get a real sense of the impact this tragedy must have had on the small fishing community in Marshside.”
The volunteer crews at Southport Lifeboat give up their time and comfort to carry out rescues in difficult and often dangerous conditions. Independent of the RNLI, the Trust relies on donations and fundraising to support itself to provide a first class life saving service.
To find out more about how you can support the trust please visit southport-lifeboat.co.uk/
For more information on the exhibition please visit theatkinson.co.uk or call the Box Office on 01704 533333.