Cold Bones by David Mark

Author:David Mark [Mark, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781473643185
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Published: 2018-11-01T04:00:00+00:00

Hull Daily Mail, 5 January 1970

BRAVE BOSUN LOST IN DRAMATIC RESCUE WAS GOING TO BE A FATHER

By Neville Greaves, Shipping Correspondent

TRIBUTES have been paid to ‘a prince among men’ who perished while attempting to save a crewmate from the freezing Icelandic waters on New Year’s Day.

The death of Rory, 23, is the latest tragedy to hit the well-known Ballantine family. His father, uncle and grandfather all died at sea.

Mr Ballantine, of Marmaduke Street, was serving as bosun aboard the freezer trawler Blake Purcell, owned by the long-established Hessle Road trawler firm Blakes Ltd, when the tragedy occurred.

He leaves a widow, Margaret, who revealed last night that she is expecting their first child. Mrs Ballantine had relayed the good news to her husband through a coded telegram message just hours before the vessel struck rocks near Grimsey Island, off the Skagi Peninsula in the far north of Iceland, in the early hours of 1 January.

The vessel, already foundering, was trapped on rocks and pummelled by heavy seas. Skipper Malcolm Gill made an emergency Mayday call and ordered the crew to man the lifeboats but the gale made it all but impossible to get any of the rescue vessels into the water. Deckhand Michael Timpson, 42, of Eton Street, Hessle Road, courageously attempted to use his own body to weigh the inflatable down and allow his crewmates to climb aboard. The rope connecting the lifeboat to the Blake Purcell snapped and the inflatable was swept away, together with Mr Timpson. Deckie learner William Godson, 16, was struck by the rescue craft and pitched into the freezing water.

Gerard Wade, 24, was later plucked from the freezing waters by the crew of an Icelandic vessel. He has been transferred to Isafjordur hospital where his condition is critical.

The tattered lifeboat was later found clinging to the basalt columns that form the entranceway to the uninhabited township of Kalfhamarsvik. Mr Timpson’s body was not inside. Local rescue workers are still searching for the bodies of his crewmates.

The Blake Purcell sank within hours. Those saved by the Icelandic rescue vessel were landed at the tiny fishing village of Skagastrond, where locals provided them with food and dry clothing.

Mrs Ballantine told the Mail: ‘Rory wouldn’t think twice about risking his own life to save one of his friends. He thought the world of Billy and Mick. They were like family to him. I’m trying to take comfort in the fact that at least he knew he was going to be a father. I’ll raise his child knowing that their father was a true hero. He was a prince among men.’

At Mr Ballantine’s home, his younger sister Roberta, 13, was too distressed to talk to our reporter, refusing to believe the reports that her beloved older brother had perished.

Neighbour Eva Banks, 63, said: ‘The Ballantines have known so much heartache. Rory’s father Lachlan died in an accident at sea and his grandfather was lost during the war. His uncle, Stuart, was lost overboard in 1945. Rory had worked so

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