SS Fernebo

The Fernebo was built in 1912 at the Oskarshamn Shipyard in Sweden. She was constructed of steel and measured 69.7 metres (229 ft) long, 11 metres (36 ft) wide and 4.9 metres (16 ft) deep with 1,440 GRT. Fernebo was powered by a three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine driving a single shaft and screw. Her yard number was 244 and Swedish Official Number was 5361. She was owned by Broström Axel & Son of Sweden and operated under the Swedish registry and with call sign JSTN.[1] In early 1915 she was at Gothenburg, Sweden, where she was used as a depot ship for the holding of part of a load of 40,000 sacks of wheat for export at a time when Swedish neutrality during the First World War was under question.[2]

A bust of Henry Blogg

On 9 January 1917 the Fernebo was travelling from Gävle, Sweden, to London, England, with a cargo of timber. When she was near Cromer Pier she suffered an explosion that broke the vessel in two and killed her chief engineer Johan Adolf Anderson.[3] The cause of the explosion is unclear; it was attributed to a sea mine laid by a German submarine in newspaper reports of the time, but may also have been a boiler explosion.[3][4] The remaining 17 crew members were divided between the two parts of the ship. Six crew on one part drifted ashore, where they were rescued by a human chain of onlookers. The other 11 crewmen on the second part of the ship remained stranded at sea.[3] The sea was rough and there were 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) north-easterly gale-force winds.[3][5][6]

The Cromer lifeboat, the Louisa Heartwell, had just returned from assisting a Greek vessel but the boat's coxswain, Henry Blogg, ordered her out to sea again to assist the Fernebo.[3][7] Blogg and his crew had to launch the boat three times because of the poor conditions but eventually reached the floating portion of the Fernebo and took off the 11 survivors.[5] The event has been described as "one of Norfolk's most heroic rescues" and the act was recognised by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).[5][6] Blogg received the RNLI's gold medal and his second coxswain received the institution's silver medal.[5] Blogg also later received the Empire Gallantry Medal for the rescue.[7] Blogg became a hero of the lifeboat service, eventually being credited with saving 873 lives, but the rescue of the Fernebo was "perhaps Mr Blogg's most famous feat".[6][7] Anderson's body washed up at Mundesley, to the east, and he was buried there.[3]

A 20 metres (66 ft) long section of the Fernebo remains on Cromer's East Beach but is only visible at a combination of extremely low tides and erosion of sand deposits.[3][6][8] When it was sighted on 9 January 2020 the last time it had been seen was June 2018.[8]