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Henry Freeman (1835-1904)
Encyclopedia
Whitby
Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a combined maritime, mineral and tourist heritage, and is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey where Caedmon, the...
fisherman and lifeboatman.
Born in Bridlington
Bridlington
Bridlington is a seaside resort, minor sea fishing port and civil parish on the Holderness Coast of the North Sea, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It has a static population of over 33,000, which rises considerably during the tourist season...
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, Henry worked in his youth as a brickmaker. He was successful at his work rising to the position of manager. With the decline of the brick trade Henry turned to the sea and fishing.
He moved to Whitby
Whitby
Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a combined maritime, mineral and tourist heritage, and is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey where Caedmon, the...
and became a fisherman and a lifeboatman. He was the sole survivor of the 1861 Whitby lifeboat disaster when a freak wave drowned all his companions. It was his first mission and he was the only member of the crew wearing the newly developed cork flotation jacket.
Henry was a lifeboatman for more than 40 years, 22 years as coxswain. He participated in many rescues and saved many lives and became a respected ambassador for the lifeboat cause and a prominent spokesman for his fellow fishermen.
Late in life he married his deceased wife Elizabeth's widowed sister Emma, an action that was illegal at that time. He died on December 13, 1904 at the age of age 69. His story is retold in Storm Warrior by Ian Minter & Ray Shill.