Neil Oliver’s Christmas message is timely and brilliant. Using the heroic story of incredible selflessness exhibited within the historic Penlee lifeboat rescue effort, Oliver reminds the audience the true heroes in life are the people around you right now.
As we gather to celebrate the birth Christ, the greatest gift ever provided by a loving God, we reflect on what it means to give. We are surrounded by valiant givers; they are just not in the spotlights created by lesser men – but they are present in our family, in our lives and in our communities. WATCH:
[Transcript] – Last week saw the anniversary of the loss of the Penlee lifeboat, with all hands. She was the Solomon Browne, a 47-foot Watson class vessel paid for, like all RNLI lifeboats, by donations from the public.
On the evening of the 19th of December 1981, The Union Star, a brand new 1,400-ton coaster on her maiden voyage and making for Arklow, in Ireland, was in trouble around 8 miles off the Wolf’s Rock lighthouse, in SW Cornwall. Her engine had failed and could not be restarted. Aboard were her skipper Henry Morton, his wife, two teenage daughters and a crew of four – eight people in all.
Morton’s call for help was heard first by the crew of a nearby tug, also struggling through the English Channel that night in the teeth of a dreadful storm. They offered to put a line aboard and take the Union Star in tow. But Morton knew that that would have made the ship salvage. Fatefully he said thanks, but no thanks, and instead radioed for help from the rescue services.
The situation quickly worsened even more. Dead in the water they were being driven inexorably towards the rocks of the Cornish coast. A Sea King helicopter was scrambled from the base at Culdrose, and a call was sent out to raise the men of the Penlee lifeboat at Mousehole.
Coxswain William Trevelyan Richards received the alert. He stepped out of the home he shared with his mother, into the teeth of what was by then a full-blown hurricane. It was the last Saturday night before Christmas, and he made his way to the village’s Ship Inn where he knew many would have gathered for celebrations. He asked for quiet, told them the score and asked for seven volunteers. A dozen men raised their hands.
By the time they got to the boathouse there were more men waiting – all having received the call out at their homes. In the end, that night of nights, the Solomon Browne was crewed by Richards, James Stephen Madron, Nigel Brockman, John Blewit, Charlie Greenhaugh, Barrie Torrie, Kevin Smith and Gary Wallis.
The Sea King helicopter, piloted by Lt Cmdr Russell Smith, a US Navy pilot on exchange with the Royal Navy, was first to reach the Union Star. He lowered his winchman into the hellish soup of rain and hurricane force winds, in hopes of plucking some souls from the rolling deck of the ship below, but the conditions were so bad, they had to pull back and only watch what happened next.
The Solomon Browne lifeboat, utterly dwarfed by the coaster, hove into view and immediately sought to come alongside, trying again and again to get into position so as to be able to take her people off.
Lt Commander Smith later described how the Solomon Browne was picked up by mountainous waves – not once, but several times – and tossed onto the deck of Union Star like a landed fish, before washing back off into the sea once more.
Finally, Trevelyan Richards was able to keep her alongside the coaster just long enough. Lt Cmdr Smith watched as four shadows leapt from the deck of Union Star, down into the arms of the lifeboatmen waiting so very far below. Having saved four, Trevelyan Richards steered the Solomon Browne back to try and get the rest.
The helicopter crew watched, the operators at Falmouth Coastguard listened. What came next was everlasting silence. No one knows for sure what happened. It seems likely the lifeboat and the coaster had been pushed so close to land that finally they hit rocks in shallow water. Union Star may have rolled over on top of the lifeboat when she capsized. In any event, all were lost – the 8 from Union Star and the 8 lifeboatmen. Only eight bodies were ever found, four from each vessel. It’s the last time the RNLI lost an entire crew. May that sad record stand for evermore. William Trevelyan Richards, the coxswain, was buried on Christmas Eve. There were more funerals to come.
On the morning after the tragedy, many volunteers stepped forward from the community of Mousehole, ready to take the places of the lost men.
At the subsequent enquiry, a letter from Lt Cmdr Smith was read out to the court:
“Throughout the entire rescue the Penlee crew never appeared to hesitate. After each time they were washed or blown away from the Union Star, the Penlee crew immediately commenced another run in.
“Their spirit and dedication were amazing. They were truly the greatest eight men I have ever seen.”
Truly they were … truly they were.
Nearly an hour after the last transmission from Solomon Browne, a lookout on the cliffs swore blind he saw her lights, making her way home.
“Dusk is drowned forever until tomorrow,” wrote Dylan Thomas. “It is all at once night now. The windy town is full of windows, and from the larupped waves, the lights of the lamps in the windows call back the day and the dead that have run away to sea.”
Ever since, it has been the tradition to switch off the Mousehole Christmas lights at 8 o’clock on the 19th of December as a gesture of remembrance.
I think about the Penlee lifeboatmen every year at this time. They say Greater love hath no man than this, but that he lay down his life for his friends. I say there is a greater love, and that it was revealed in the willingness of those eight Mousehole men who were ready to lay down their lives for people they had never met and would never know.
I often remind myself of the Penlee lifeboatmen, in fact, throughout the year – and I think about selfless acts of courage that declare in the strongest possible terms what it truly means to be human and alive. I think about what people are capable of, how much they have to give … and how much some of them WILL give. The Penlee lifeboatmen gave everything they had.
At Christmas we think about the birth of a child – Jesus Christ. He is God’s gift to the world. Every child is a gift precious beyond description. It is also an act of immeasurable bravery by every woman who bears a child – because every child is, she knows, at the mercy of the world and every mother must understand, without needing to think about it, that her child is ultimately surrendered to life itself.
Mary gave birth to Jesus – the son of God – and even she would not be spared the ultimate loss. All our lives are forfeit – a debt that must be repaid, willingly or unwillingly.
Christmas is the time to think about all this – to think about what it means to give – and to acknowledge the meaning of the gift of the child … of every child.
The selfless courage of the Penlee lifeboatmen and the message of the Christmas story can be the antidote to much of the madness that is all around us now. It is a time to remember what we have, to value our loved ones and be thankful they are with us.
Rather than our hollow, spineless leaders, it is the courage and sacrifice of our fellow citizens that should capture and hold our attention, and not just now but all through the year.
It often feels like we are supposed to be focus all our attention on those who are not worthy. Those whose faces we see every day, the politicians in parliament, the leaders around the world, their preferred experts … whose names we hear over and over – they have nothing to give that is of any use to us now, that much as been made painfully obvious in recent years. I have long since stopped paying them any attention at all. Instead, I look for heroes elsewhere.
We are supposed to believe our leaders mean to rescue us – from whatever Covid was, from the warmongers, from climate change, from the cost of lockdown crisis – but they had, and have, no such intentions as far as I can see. If they have plans to make anything better, it is certainly not our lives, or the lives of our children.
There is no cavalry coming to rescue us. If we are to be saved – and we surely will be – then we must look to one another for the necessary effort. We are more than capable of the task. We must save ourselves and each other by setting aside old broken ways and finding new.
We should turn away from those who have failed us, lied to us, deceived us and left us to our fates and see that it is time to take the initiative, to shape and build something new, something untouched by those who have betrayed us and let us down.
Just because the help and leadership we need is not yet clearly in view … the seeds of it are there among us already, nonetheless. We must come to our own rescue in the year and years ahead because there’s no one else.
The Christmas story tells us that 2000 and more years ago, a baby boy was born into poverty and into obscurity. During the 33 years of the life of the man he became, he was recognized for what he really was, his true value, by relatively few. He died as he had lived, in obscurity. He was executed for standing up to, and challenging, the establishment, but by his actions the world was changed forever, for the better.
Sometimes the most obvious people change the world. At other times, it’s the people the world does not notice, that the world thinks nothing of and so ignores, who end up making all the difference.
I hope and also trust that this is one of those times. I have no faith in the obvious, loud people with their hands on the levers of power. We will be saved by our own actions in defiance of those who care for us not a jot and who prioritize only those they serve – which is to say the already rich and the already powerful, the banks, the markets and the global corporations. I say we should ignore the whole lot of them.
Here’s the thing: together, right now, we already have everything we will ever need, which is to say each other. We can share food and warmth and light.
We are free people. It’s Christmas and the Christmas message is that hope is here. Light in the dark.
Merry Christmas.
We have each other, is so very true. WWG1, WWGA.
Neil Sage of Scots is such a welcome voice in this all too dark Winter.
Merry Christmas to all. Even you pessimists make me rejoice that our problems are being considered.
Sundance, you have lifted us all, please give yourself a break.
God Bless Treepers one and all.
https://rnli.org/
The RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) is truly an awe-inspiring group of people standing by at a moment’s notice to leap into small boats and aircraft, and enter the roughest, deadliest seas in the North Atlantic to come to the aid of strangers in peril. Truly a work of altruism, pure and simple love for fellow human beings. It is probably the toughest, most dangerous job on the Earth today, and many are the people who have had their life saved by these angels of the water, as are many who were lost, never to rise again.
I visited many a Lifeboat Station while afoot in the UK and sailing the English Channel to the south. Thank God I was never in need of their services, but it was calming to know upon setting out on a journey long or short by boat, the there would be angels ready to come to my aid if needed. Donate if you can, it is a cornerstone of British public service, and one of the last uncorrupted Institutions left to the UK. Good men, and women, God bless ’em.
Merry Christmas to all, and thank you Sundance and team for bringing Neil into our Treehouse home for Christmas.
Jeff…
There is a small Welsh village not far from where we lived…200 souls. There is a government training centre there for the RNLI. While training was going on recently, the trainees were staying in local hotel, as they always did.
One night when they returned to their rooms, they were shocked to discover all their belongs had been repacked while they were absent, and placed in the lobby. They were told to “find other accommodation”.
Why is that, I hear you ask…
The government under WEF PM plant Sunak had commandeered the hotel and installed 300 illegals. More than the population in that small village. It did not go down well, in the beautiful Welsh hills, I can tell you.
As you mention this wonderful organization, I thought you’d find this sorry bit of news of interest.
Merry Christmas to you and your family, my friend.
…and yes oh yes!! You were right in your faith in the men of this wonderful organization. Others before self. They are truly dedicated and brave.
My God, I would expect that from Sunak. It is the same here in the US, the motel/hotel business is being destroyed by the same evil. Prices up, because Leviathan buys all the rooms. It is a sorry bit of news, but sadly not a surprise.
A Merry Christmas to you and yours, Betsy. I know your days will be merry, and bright! Cheers, my friend!
Thank you, dear sir. All the best for this Christmas. May peace and joy with you and your family.🌲
I read somewhere that UN troops were embedded in the flood of illegals. Is that too paranoid? I don’t know. Sunak is so exquisitely tailored in every way; all I can think of when I see him is salesperson at a Bently/Rolls Royce dealership.
He was serving in a homeless shelter today, and actually asked a man receiving a plate if “he was in business”.
The man said, no, he was homeless. He was no home.
I need say no more about Sunak. Fabulously wealthy, completely clueless, and utterly disconnected from the conditions of others.
As far as the UN soldiers are concerned, that was through John O’ Looney’s contacts with Black watch whistleblowers. Remains to be seen, but illegals with military haircuts seems to be a clue. His short video is easily found.
I saw a video clip of the conversation.
I agree, Sunak is obviously disconnected and clueless.
It was appalling. A real Marie Antoinette moment.
Yes Betsy,
It is even worse than that. Those same illegal ‘visitors’ are being picked up/rescued from un seaworthy rubber dingies in the English channel by … wait for it …. the RLNI life boats every day, as well as UK Border control.
Am just reading 1984 which my wonderful wife got me for Christmas. What a prophet he was and goes well with our wonderful Scottish prophet Neil Oliver.
Happy Christmas from Scotland to you and yours and all Treepers.
We follow it daily Patrick. All the blowhards in a “Conservative” (???) government yammering on about how “something must be done!!”.
At the behest of their WEF masters, the door is being held wide open, welcome mats laid, taxpayer money by the fistful handed to each one. It grieves us. Like being told to move out of our own house while arsonists set fire to it.
And there we stand, unable to do anything about it.
Enoch Powell gave fair warning. We watch to see at what point Britons decide enough is enough. But that is for another day…
I wish you a Happy Christmas, Patrick. Choose joy for today, my friend. God has delivered on His promise. We welcome the Son of man, our Saviour, Christ Jesus to our woeful world. Blessings always to you🌲
Rishi Sunak demonstrates his ethical standards … they appear to be on par with those of our own Uniparty thugs: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-appoints-historic-england-head-ethics-chief-kcht2k327
My Grandfather father who raised us was a loyal volunteer on R.N.L.I. and like many from my our hometown on the east coast of Scotland answered the call without hesitation.
As boys we would head down to the launching station to watch these incredibly brave men head out into an angry North Sea.
My youngest brother is a ships pilot here on the Pacific and we often reminisce of those boyhood memories.
Thank you for the post it invokes terrific memories, and reminds me to put “ first things first” and take care of the home front.
Merry Christmas.
Dekester, please see my reply above to Jeff Charles to see how these strong, selfless men of great character are now being treated.
Wow!
Thank you for posting that information.
We truly are living through utter madness.
We struggle against corporations and governments that have near absolute power, and limitless financial resources.
Sadly, as long as the majority of folks are “ entertained “ pro sports, Hollywood etc.
They just shrug…until they are personally affected.
Then its “ what happened ?”
Merry Christmas Betsy.
Yes, my friend…bread and circuses for all. A tragedy all around…
Thank you for your Christmas wishes. Enjoy your beautiful family, Dekester. All blessings to you.😘🌲
👍
Merry Christmas, and I suppose Happy Boxing Day! (I seem to recall your being Canadian?) I have gazed upon the Firth of Forth on many occasions upon crossing, a beautiful country indeed. Warm regards, brother.
Merry Christmas to you !
Ha..yes Boxing Day on the 26th.
Cheers!
The quality of our life corresponds exactly to how we treat each other.
That’s a wonderful sentence. I truly believe you get back what you give out. Today while doing some last minute shopping I made a point of smiling and chatting with everyone –glum faces turned to smiles in many instances- people desperately want positive contact in public these days.
Thank you for your beautiful voice of love, truth and reason. Merry Christmas and may we all find a world of peace and hopefulness in the coming year.
Very nice…very strong. To defeat this entrenched evil will take time, be of good cheer and fight on patriots.
Merry Christmas!
“Message, We Have Each Other“
I was hoping to hear something more hopeful than that.
Those at the Alamo had each other.
The 300 Spartans had each other.
Custer and his men had each other.
The millions at the Holocaust had each other.
I love Neil O. and am so grateful for his voice in these times, but he needs to upgrade his Christology from 19th liberalism (Jesus as inspiring example) to orthodoxy (Jesus the God-man as the Savior and Judge).
We lay our heads on pillows on different continents.
Yet we are united as one in our humanity.
God bless us —each and everyone!🙏🌟💕
Merry Christmas, Mr. Scrooge!
There is a dollop of Bah Hum Bug 🐜 in every crowd!
Merry Christmas, ruby yarn, have a blessed day!🙏
Thank you Sundance.
Aho.
The world. The madness that is all around us.
Truly only 1 thing matters the most.
Have you trusted in Jesus as your personal savior?
John 3:16
For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have ever lasting life.
Two choices.
Reject Jesus and die in your sins.
Accept Jesus and have your sins forgiven.
Follow Christ…and get others to join in the journey
America and the Season of Hope – American Thinker
Pascal’s Wager
Merry Christmas. For onto us a child was born. He suffered and died for all of us.
This blog provides invaluable information and is a gathering place
for like minded people.
Even though times are challenging, I try to find the good in others and life.
Thank you Sundance for gift of The Conservative Treehouse, your brilliant articles, and insightful knowledge.
Have a Blessed Christmas ~ Sundance, your wonderful & dedicated team, and all the treepers.
The Lord Jesus, is the light and the way, Amen.
Merry Christmas everyone !
“AND THE NEW BABY WAS GOING TO CHANGE THE WORLD.”
According to these children, their interpretation of the Story of the Birth of Jesus, was that “it was all the Shepherd’s Fault”, because they were “high” on “inhaling (vaping/smoking) something that caused them to “hallucinate” (think something is real)??? And the “Angel” took advantage of that!
Yes, every parent thinks that their “Baby” is going to grow-up to be “a Doctor or POTUS”!
I don’t want to be “the GRINCH that Stole Christmas”, but do you “ADULTS” here actually want people that think like these kids “running your life”?
My biggest concern right now is “are the people who are here in NA illegally, going to get deported back to where they came from, or is this going to be the new norm”?
One of my former “roommates” was from one of those EU Countries like Serbia or the Check Republic or something & the Canadian Gov’t kept deporting him back & he was such a nice guy, that I often told him that he would be an asset to Canada, but our Gov’t just could not see it?
Maybe he was “conning us all” & our Gov’t was just “doing their job & saving us all from ourselves”?
In support of our brethren across the pond at Mousehole, perhaps we should do the same on December 19, at 2000–Mousehole time…and annually thereafter….
Thanks you for the inspiring words. I will say that in this day and age it is very difficult to have Faith. After all we have seen since 2016 (and before, but accelerated since circa 2016.) It just beats you down watching evil win on a daily basis in courts,elections and in “the” governments. Tempted to say “our government” but it really isn’t anymore.
I just really do hope and pray that these evil people get what they deserve in the end. At the risk of sounding evil myself I hope they all go like McCain did to the square root of 10! It may sound evil to say such a thing but i honestly believe that something like that happening is actually a good thing for the world ,our country and every honest hard working citizen in it. These evil people end up in power by evil and dishonest means .Not a one of them is a true statesman and all are an embarrassment and shame to this country. So I do pray for my enemies , they just aint the prayers that your average christian finds acceptable. but give me time…………I may soften up one day. like if i wake up one day and read headlines that a plane went down full of Wasgington DC politicians went down on their way to Ukraine .
Some people are fearful of various ongoing occurrences these last couple of years.
However, it’s been said:
“… be not afraid…”
Luke 2:1-14
Linus of Charlie Brown stories was known to carry a blanket
( insecure feelings, fear )
But,
watch Linus tell us what Christmas is all about ( quoting Luke )
..and Linus, naturally let’s go of his blanket.
Luke writingss are real.
Linus quoted Luke.
People know
…be not afraid…
…instead, Great joy
Luke shared what people know.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%202%3A1-14&version=NIV
Merry Christmas
The First and the Last is the ultimate hope of humanity. Let us give Him the only worthy gift, our faith and our day-to-day reliance, and from the richness of the supernatural relationship that ensues from that, to give each other our sacrifice and selfless service.
Believers without borders.
We should
turn away fromfind and hold accountable those who have failed us, lied to us, deceived us and left us to our fates…——————————–
There is no turning of the cheek, here.
Thank you so much, Sundance. I needed Neil’s perfect message of hope on this wondrous night. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
It’s a nice message, but sounds too much like humanism.
The only hope we have is Jesus returning to make the new Earth.
“The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”
Isaiah 40:5
“We anticipate the happy day when the whole world shall be converted to Christ; when the gods of the heathen shall be cast to the moles and the bats; when Romanism shall be exploded, and the crescent of Mohammed shall wane, never again to cast its baleful rays upon the nations; when kings shall bow down before the Prince of Peace, and all nations shall call their Redeemer blessed. Some despair of this. They look upon the world as a vessel breaking up and going to pieces, never to float again. We know that the world and all that is therein is one day to be burnt up, and afterwards we look for new heavens and for a new earth; but we cannot read our Bibles without the conviction that—
“Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
Does his successive journeys run.”
We are not discouraged by the length of his delays; we are not disheartened by the long period which he allots to the church in which to struggle with little success and much defeat. We believe that God will never suffer this world, which has once seen Christ’s blood shed upon it, to be always the devil’s stronghold. Christ came hither to deliver this world from the detested sway of the powers of darkness.
What a shout shall that be when men and angels shall unite to cry “Hallelujah, hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!” What a satisfaction will it be in that day to have had a share in the fight, to have helped to break the arrows of the bow, and to have aided in winning the victory for our Lord! Happy are they who trust themselves with this conquering Lord, and who fight side by side with him, doing their little in his name and by his strength! How unhappy are those on the side of evil! It is a losing side, and it is a matter wherein to lose is to lose and to be lost for ever. On whose side are you?”
~Charles Spurgeon
I describe Neil Oliver as a voice of sanity each week when I listen to him.
This week the message was special.
Thank you Neil Oliver and thank you Sundance for sharing.
Merry Christmas to everyone.
An excellent Christmas true story.
Start by ignoring the MSM. They and their advertisers do not deserve our attention or our respect. Do not support them.
It seems that if the boat owner had just let the rescuers tow his boat into port he and his precious family/cargo could have been saved. The man chose saving his boat over the lives of his family and ultimately caused the deaths of the rescuers. He lost the boat AND SO MUCH MORE. These thoughts take nothing away from the sacrificial courage of the rescuers. The goodness of those men should never be forgotten. They were exceptionally brave.
Neil Oliver is a very wise man. Thanks for bringing his thoughts to us at our favorite roost: The Treehouse.
This is precisely the soppy maudlin twaddle that’ll see us all tucked safely into out internment camp bunks.
What a great, inspiring message! We have each other… how true! We forget this… we have to be reminded.