Club Meeting

On the 22^nd March 1953 the converted minesweeper Leicester City was wrecked on the north coast of Hoy a remote island in the Orkneys off the north coast of Scotland. This tragedy received minimal national coverage as the country was engrossed in the euphoria of the Queen’s Coronation in May 1953 and just after the terrible floods in The Wash in Lincolnshire, Kent, and Essex earlier that year which claimed more than 300 lives.

The Leicester City was now a trawler lost in the fog, returning from the fertile fishing grounds around Iceland to its home Port of Grimsby. The ship’s radar was broken as it sailed at full speed obliviously past the west coast of the Orkneys towards the Island of Hoy, the Dark Island.

7 seamen from Grimsby in North East Lincolnshire died but more amazing is that 11 people were saved due to the quick thinking and bravery of Mary Ritch and her family, friends and neighbours. All the community of Hoy and Stromness were involved. They mounted a difficult rescue in harsh conditions, no electricity no mobiles, total darkness. 

Robin Green