Louisa

The Story Behind the Song

On the night of 12 January 1899, the Lynmouth lifeboat crew faced a rescue no ordinary launch could manage. With the harbour flooded and the sea unreachable, Coxswain Dave Crowcombe made the call that would define the night: haul the Louisa thirteen miles overland to Porlock Weir instead, and launch her from there. What followed was one of the most extraordinary nights in RNLI history — and the reason we still sing about it today.

Louisa is the Crew's own song, written to keep the names and the night itself alive in performance. Where the wider history gives us the shape of the story, this song gives us the people inside it — the men called from their firesides, the horses in the mud, the wall pulled down to let the boat through.

The song was originally written for the folk band Hearts of Oak. A superb collection of musicians, which included our own Tony Piper. If you haven't come across them, then look them up.

For more details see this longer post: The Overland Launch of the Louisa Lifeboat in January 1899

Lyrics

Come gather round friends and I'll sing a true story

Of the Lynmouth lifeboat and its stout-hearted crew

In the year of our lord 1899, on the 12th of the first, when a nor'wester blew

Out in the channel, the Forrest Hall foundered, flares like a meteor cracked in the storm

John Peder at 6.33 took the call

Leave your wives and your families and your homes snug and warm

Chorus:

And we'll pull once again with John Crowcombe, Dick Burgees

Dick Ridler, Dick Moore, George Rawle and Charles Crick

The three or more tons of the Louisa lifeboat

With Jarvis we'll make that incredible trip

Will Richards, Tom Pugsley sat close by their fireside

Burt Penicott was settled down after his day

But quick as a flame they were down by the quayside

With John Ward and John Riddler in the driving rain

As he leaned in the face of the storm from the ocean

Dave Crowcombe looked into the billowing sea

And shaking his head as he patted Louisa

Said "we can't launch the lifeboat away from this quay"

Chorus

Now beautiful Porlock on the borders of Devon

Has a weir that is sheltered by night and by day

So they lifted Louisa and pulled her with horses

Up hills and through mud, thirteen long miles away

And all through the night, the wind howled like a monster

Black as a raven, it froze to the bone

George Richards was thinking of fifteen souls shipwrecked

He was thinking of food, and thinking of home

Chorus

Twelve hours from Lynmouth, the crew came to Porlock

And they launched the Louisa in a gale of force ten

As they rowed to the Forrest Hall and into the sunrise

We leave, but we think of them now, and again

Chorus (x2)