It remains one of Whitby’s most mysterious shipwrecks and even today, on the 50th anniversary, the full story of how fishing boat, Admiral Van Tromp, met its maker may never be known.
What is known, however, is that just after 3am on Thursday September 30, 1976 a distress call was made from Admiral Van Tromp as it had run aground on cliffs underneath Whitby High Lighthouse.
Local folklore will tell you that skipper Frankie Taal was woken by the bumping of the ship and when he dashed to the wheel-house, John Addison at the helm, was staring blankly ahead, still holding the wheel as The Admiral smashed into the rocks.
Despite efforts to recover the boat’s position, the Scarborough based boat began to sink and fill with water.
When William and Mary Durham, a Watson class lifeboat on temporary duty at Whitby, found The Admiral within 50 minutes of the May Day call, it was listing.
But, with 20 feet high waves it was impossible to get closer.
They battled for five hours to get lines to The Admiral and to save the crew, but faced stormy seas and were forced to hold off the rescue until daylight.
At 8.40am that morning, a maroon was fired to rouse the crew of Whitby’s inshore lifeboat (ILB) which set out to sea in thick fog.
There were three crew on board – helm Richard Robinson, Dave Wharton, Tony Easton – with just a hand-held compass for navigation.
Speaking to The Anchor ahead of the half a century anniversary, Dave Wharton said: “It was 50 years ago and the thing that still riles me, is they make it sound suspicious as to why it happened.
“We don’t know why it happened but I am convinced it wasn’t suspicious. Addison could have been unwell, but something happened and we will never know what.”
He recalls a sea full of “wreckage, debris and boxes” when The Admiral originally ran aground. When she began taking on water, it caused the electrics on the boat to fail and ceased any radio contact.
Over the next hours, the case of The Admiral Van Tromp became one of the most daring and dangerous in the history of Whitby RNLI.
William and Mary Durham made three attempts to secure The Admiral, then her own anchor broke.
Thanks to the skill of Coxswain, Robert Allen, she was scrambled out to sea and an anchor secured, but two great waves washed three of the all-weather lifeboat crew off their feet.
In a desperate attempt to cling on, Raymond Dent managed to hook his arm around a stanchion but dislocated his shoulder and Howard Bedford lost consciousness after banging his head.
Dent was transferred to a fishing boat and back to Whitby for hospital treatment, while Bedford stayed on board.
As the search and rescue mission resumed in the morning light, with the assistance of the ILB, Dave and his crew arrived at Saltwick to find Taal, the Admiral’s skipper, stood behind Black Nab with the sea swirling below his feet.
Helmsman Robinson, knew he would be washed off the rock, so drove the ILB at some speed to the shore side of the rock and on to a ledge. Dave and Tony Easton pulled him into the boat, which was washed back into the sea by waves.
By this time they knew John Addison and George Eves had both drowned and they were later located by the Coastguard.
As all the vessels involved in the rescue made their way back to Whitby, Dave recalled what a bridgeman had said to him earlier that day.
Dave recalled: “I had been going to work, unaware The Admiral was in trouble, got as far as the bridge and the bridge man said ‘where is the rubber duck’. Some called the inshore this because they thought it was a joke.
“I went to the harbour office where I was a joiner, got on a fishing boat to listen to its radio to see what was happening. The maroon went off again and I ran to the lifeboat station.
“As we came back to Whitby, I remember thinking ‘this is not a rubber duck’. It was a lifeboat, it saved someone that day and she proved herself for being a lifeboat.”
The silver medal for gallantry was awarded to Coxswain Robert W. Allen and the bronze medal to Helmsman Richard M. K. Robinson.
The thanks for the Institution inscribed on vellum were accorded to Second Coxswain/Motor Mechanic Peter N.Thomson, Assistant Mechanic Dennis D.Carrick and crew members Howard Bedford, Raymond Dent, Thomas Hansell, David A. Wharton and J.Anthony Easton.
Medal service certificates were presented to crew members Michael R. Coates and Brian W. Hodgson.
A hearing held in November of 1976 heard that, even if the vessel had been left to her own devices, she would not have gone onto the rocks and so the mystery of what happened to the Admiral Van Tromp remains.
