Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ remembers local hero in first of new series
Inside Out, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE (Yorks & Lincs), Monday 9 September,
7.30pm
Dramatic footage of a shipwreck that turned a North Yorkshire lifeboatman
into a national hero will be screened tonight in the first programme
from a new Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE series, Inside Out.
The Disperser was a salvage ship that sank off Whitby in 1934. She
went down hours after Robert Patton, the coxswain of the Runswick
Bay lifeboat, sacrificed his own life to save a disabled crewman
clinging to the doomed vessel.
Patton was posthumously awarded the RNLI Gold Medal - the lifeboat
VC - and his boat was renamed after him.
Some
4,000 people attended his funeral and a popular song was written
about his bravery.
Now, divers Andrew Jackson and Carl Racey, from Scarborough, have
found the Disperser and recovered vintage diving equipment abandoned
by her crew as she slipped beneath the waves in an East Coast storm.
The discovery has reawakened memories of Robert Patton, who dived
overboard and grabbed the disabled man after his crew had failed
to persuade him to jump to safety.
Patton refused to let go of the survivor and was crushed between
the hulls of the Disperser and the lifeboat.
He
died a few days later, after telling RNLI officials: "I couldn't
let the little fellow go - he would have drowned."
Clem James was 13 at the time and clearly remembers the sense of
shock that hit the village in the aftermath of the tragedy.
He said: "He was an absolutely acknowledged leader both as
a lifeboat man and as a fisherman. One of his men said to my father,
'We're like a ship without a rudder without Bob'."
The Disperser lies in a hundred feet of water off Whitby. The divers
who discovered her are keeping her location secret to prevent her
being disturbed.
Andrew
Jackson and Carl Racey spent three years looking for the wreck,
identifying various possibilities using sonar.
Andrew, a Yorkshire Water official, said: "There were six possible
shipwrecks on the sea bed of the right size that could be the Disperser.
"The
story really does pull you in, the more you know about it, the more
interest there is."
Inside Out reporter, Sophie Hull, who dived with the team, said:
"Robert Patton's story is remarkable - he's something of a
forgotten hero and we hope this programme will change that."
Patton was buried in the cemetery at Hinderwell. His grave - marked
by a headstone with a carved lifeboat - is now overgrown.
But
the memory of his rescue lives on on the record board at the RNLI
boathouse in Staithes.
Notes to Editors
Please credit Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Inside Out if any part of the transcript above
is used.
Inside Out ()
is the new name for the regional programme which will be used across
all the English Regions.
It will replace the range of individual titles previously used on
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ TWO (Close Up North in Yorkshire & Lincolnshire) and introduce
a completely new approach to engaging audiences with aspects of
life in their region.
Inside Out will be made and produced locally.
It
will feature three different stories each week - all designed to
offer, as the new series strapline says, surprising stories from
familiar places.
The first item will be a traditional investigation, the second heritage/history
based and the third, a personality-led piece.
Morland Sanders will be the main presenter.
He
will also be joined on Inside Out by Lucy Hester and Sophie Hull,
as well as guest presenters including Sir Bernard Ingham, Edwina
Currie and boxer Johnny Nelson.
Two worlds collide - the
boxer meets the Buddhists on Inside Out in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire
New
prime time current affairs programme for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE viewers in Yorkshire
and Lincolnshire
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