Solomon Browne

The Solomon Browne was a Penlee lifeboat with crew from the Cornish village of Mousehole. In December 1981, a crew of eight answered a call from a cargo ship called the Union Star. In heavy seas and hurricane force winds the Solomon Browne and her crew battled to save lives aboard the stricken ship.

However, despite their courage, all eight crew members from the Solomon Browne lost their lives that night, as well as those aboard the Union Star.

This disaster was the last time the RNLI lost an entire crew in action. Every year on 19th December, the Christmas lights in Mousehole are dimmed in memory of the 16 people who lost their lives.

My A6 handmade book  was inspired by a song about the Solomon Browne by folk group Silvington.

I researched articles online and extracted text from the RNLI page about the incident. The resulting prose, I hope, conveys the unfolding tragedy and the disbelief and grief from such a sad event.

I hand painted the artwork on a large sheet of cartridge paper using ink and water. I scanned images from the the artwork for the inside and then cut the artwork up to make the covers for the books.

Solomon Browne is an edition of six.

Solomon Browne

Front cover

A6

Solomon Browne

Example of inside page

Solomon Browne

Example of inside page