Our Shipping Reporter discovered this framed picture in North Queensand which graphically highlights the toll on brave men who went to the rescue of people in peril at sea . It is of Henry Freeman , a lifeboatman, the only survivor of the February 9 , 1861 Whitby West Pier lifeboat disaster in which 12 crew drowned.
A wild storm saw some 200 vessels get into difficulties and the Whitby lifeboat station , established in 1802 , made several rescues , finally overturning on its sixth rescue run.
Freeman's survival was attributed to the fact that he was wearing an early cork lifejacket , seen here , recently introduced by the Board of Trade .
A fisherman, Freeman carried on as the Whitby lifeboat station's coxswain for 20 years and helped save more than 300 people .
The above study was taken by pioneering photo artist Frank Meadow Sutcliffe (1853-l941) ,whose coverage of the seaside town of Whitby and surrounding areas earned him the title , the pictorial Boswell of Whitby ,Yorkshire .
His father was an amateur photographer and painter .Young Frank ,one of eight children, slept in his father's studio .
