ON THE EASTERN FORESHORE

Oh, I remember this...all too well. I was due to be part of the lifeboat crew but had taken my daughter and nephew to the panto in Eastbourne. Just as we got back our pagers went off, but by the time I dropped the kids off we had a full crew so I gathered up my foul weather gear from the boathouse and along with my good friend Steve Kent we headed over to the buckle to lend the coastguards a hand.

The trawler (The Whitehorse) had managed to get a trawlwire and anchor down which initially held it off the beach. The plan was to wait for the tide so that the lifeboat could get closer and put a tow on and take her to deep water.

So leaving the coastguard Brian Sims to monitor the situation on the beach we all retired to the Buckle for some refreshment. Well, then the wire parted, the trawler was up on the beach banging around violently in the surf and the crew wanted to get off.

There was no breaches buoy then, (retired by the ministry) so we managed to get a line over to the boat and with half a dozen bodies pulling on it, we kept it tight and the crew shimmied down one by one to drop onto the beach.

Steve Kent, Mark Cottingham and I, (all lifeboat crew) were dressed in our foulies.  We stood in the surf to grab them as they dropped. It worked well for a while, but then one guy dropped into the surf as the wave went out and got dragged under the trawler as it went up on a swell.

Without thinking I grabbed onto his collar and dissapeared with him into the water. I remember breaking surface and looking up, still holding onto his collar, and seeing the bottom of the trawler coming down. Luckily for me, my buddie Steve Kent worked for Charringtons as a drayman (he was very strong) and he grabbed me (still holding on to the trawlerman) and dragged both of us up out of the surf and onto the beach.

I suppose we do stupid things, when we don't think straight. Dick Willis, the Coastguard Chief was as white as a sheet, and the decision was made to wait for the helocopter to arrive to winch off the remaining crew.

We took the trawlerman to rooms at the Sheffield to recover and dry out. Lucky Lucky Lucky.

Interesting history to read. Good to read these stories about this vessel White Horse. The comment from Rob gives a lot of context of the history around vessel White Horse. Good to hear it eventually end up all good. The White Horse was set out of service after this event. The vessel had been at a wharf for some years, a decade somewhere.

Somewhere around 1999 a Dutch raider; Jarig Roode bought the vessel White Horse to rebuild the hull to an expedition/gentleman’s yacht. After an extensive conversion it set sail in 2001 and it became part of the fleet of Mr. Roode under the name of “Thales” and used for exclusive day charters in the Rotterdam area and the rest of the Netherlands. Thales was for over 20 years after in service for a wide scale of clients, especially the authorities port of Rotterdam made a lot of use of the vessel for sightseeing the port of Rotterdam with clients and management. In 2020 Mr Roode sold the vessel due to retirement, we became the owner of the vessel and did again a full scale overhaul and refit to get it ready for the next 20 years or so. Still in service for b2b activities in the Rotterdam area. 

(website removed site rules) 

We are interested in all stories and history of the White Horse to complete our archive and documentary the lifecycle of the White Horse - Thales as complete as possible. Feel free to send an email! 
email removed again site rules BUT if you wish to contact Tom we can forward your contact details on to him.

We are pleased if anybody could help us with more information about the shipwrecked event of the trawler "White Horse". We are working on a documentary about the story of the White Horse life cycle. Also other interesting stories of the White Horse would help us. Please post something here or get in touch with us via OurNewhaven website.

It would be nice if we are able to organise interviews with spectators, Crew, lifeboat crew, coastguard, etc of the unfortunate shipwreck event in December 1988. 

Thank you in advance for your reply;  

Tom Bakkers - (details removed site rules)