On February 10, 1928, three men set out from Craster harbour in their coble The Provider but never returned.

Thomas Archbold 50, William Stephenson, 32 and James Sanderson, 39, were lost at sea and their bodies were never recovered.

Their boat got caught up in a storm and, while other boats out that day saw the storm starting and headed back to the safety of the harbour, The Provider and its crew were too late.

William Archbold, 72, of Heugh Wynd, Craster, and his sister Willemena, 79, will spend Sunday remembering their uncle William Stephenson, their mother's brother, who they were named after.

Mr Archbold said: "We'll go down to the harbour and remember them and think about it. We are really the last ones left.

"Our mother talked about it until the last day and I always remember when I look out."

He wrote about the tragic event in the book We Can Mind The Time, Memories of Craster People.

The fishermen had worked the boat together for about four years and Mr Stephenson's father would have been out with them that day if he had not been in ill health.

On Saturday, February 18, 1928, the Alnwick and County Gazette and Guardian reported: "The industrious North Northumbrian fishing village of Craster has been for a week in mourning over the tragic fate of three of its inhabitants.

"They were drowned by the foundering of their motor fishing-boat The Provider in a storm that swept over this part of the county on Friday.

"Although no time was lost and much traditional heroism displayed in the search for the craft and its occupants, still the night closed upon distress and sadness in the homes of Craster and Boulmer with all hope abandoned of ever seeing them alive again."

The Provider left the harbour at about 7.30am on the fateful day, reaching the fishing ground two or three miles east of the village, an area visible from the shore on a clear day.

But a storm arose and visibility became poor.

Fisherman Robert Smailes was in his boat Our Girls and returned to the harbour at about noon.

He had seen The Provider and its crew hauling in their lines to make for home.

But the boat never returned.


After the storm, visibility improved but the coble was nowhere in sight.

As the Gazette and Guardian reported, the lifeboat Arthur R Dawes was launched and it and other volunteer rescuers found items belonging to the boat.

The report said: "Getting to the place the lifeboatmen saw dead fish floating, unmistakably the catch out of The Provider. By Smailes's boat Archbold's sou'wester and engine cover of The Provider and tiller were picked up. This evidence told its own grim tale."

A wireless message was sent out from Cullercoats on the evening of the disaster at the request of Hugh Stephenson, secretary of Alnmouth and Boulmer RNLI.

The message was to all steamers passing the fishing ground to keep a look out but nothing was reported.

The search began again the following morning but nothing was found.