Glasgow And Ships Of The Clyde

French trawler JEANNE GOUGY wrecked at Land's End, England and 12 men drowned

A free-to-view 6 minute long film in black and white showing the rescue and aftermath is available on

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-tragedy-of-the-jeanne-gougy-trawler-1962-online

From Lifeboat Magazine

TWELVE MEN LOST FROM FRENCH TRAWLER Sennen Cove, and Penlee, Cornwall.

At 5.21 on the morning of the 3rd November, 1962, the coastguard informed the coxswain of the Sennen Cove life-boat that a vessel was ashore on the Armed Knight Rock off Lands End. The life-boat Edmund and Mary Robinson, on temporary duty at the station, was launched in a moderate south-westerly breeze and a very rough sea. It was two hours before high water.

At 6.20 the coxswain found the trawler Jeanne Gougy of Dieppe on the north side of Lands End point. A parachute flare was fired and the trawler was seen lying on her side on the rocks at the foot of the cliff. There was an exceptionally heavy ground swell, the aftermath of a storm which had begun to die down, and it was impossible to take the life-boat closer than a hundred yards from the trawler.

A life-saving apparatus team which had assembled on the cliff fired several lines across the trawler, but her crew were unable to get hold of the lines as the trawler was completely submerged by the swell. Several men were washed out of her wheelhouse. At 8.15 a helicopter from the R.A.F. station at Chivenor arrived, and both the lifeboat and helicopter carried out a search for the men. The life-boat picked up two men, but they were found to be dead. The helicopter also recovered a body. At nine o'clock the helicopter left for Penzance to land the body and later to refuel at the Royal Naval Air Station, Culdrose. The coxswain also decided twenty minutes later to land the two bodies recovered by the lifeboat, as it seemed clear there was nobody left alive on board the trawler. As it was impossible to come ashore at Sennen Cove, the bodies were landed at Newlyn, which the life-boat reached at 10.50. The life-boat crew had some food at Newlyn and then returned by road to Sennen Cove.

At 11.30 people on the cliff saw signs of life aboard the Jeanne Gougy, and the helicopter was recalled. The Penlee life-boat Solomon Browne was launched at 12.45, as the crew of the Sennen Cove life-boat were at that moment on their way back by road and could not be contacted. By this time four survivors had been rescued by the life saving apparatus team and two injured men had been lifted by the helicopter in two separate operations. The Penlee lifeboat reached the trawler at two o'clock, and as soon as the Sennen Cove lifeboat crew heard that men were still aboard the Jeanne Gougy they immediately returned to Newlyn. The life-boat put out at 2.15, reaching the trawler at 3.45. Both life-boats and the helicopter carried out a search for any further survivors but found nothing, and the Sennen Cove life-boat reached her station at 4.20 and the life-boat from Penlee at 5.30. The trawler had a crew of eighteen on board and twelve of these men lost their lives. The French Embassy expressed its appreciation. A lady living in Bristol made gifts to both life-boat crews..