Died
17 December 1957 Aged 22 years
Born
1945
Sources
North West Evening Mail
Place
Walks
Themes
John Walker Hughes. Trinity House Pilot
IN LOVING MEMORY OF
JOHN WALKER HUGHES
AGED 22 YEARS
WHO LOST HIS LIFE ON THE
PILOT BOAT ARGUS, 17TH DEC. 1957
ALSO
JAMES WALKER HUGHES
BELOVED HUSBAND OF
MARGARET HUGHES
DIED 12TH NOVEMBER 1977
ALSO MARGARET
22ND SEPTEMBER 1987
The North West Evening Mail 17 December 1957 reported:
North West Evening Mail 17 December 1957BARROW MAN DIES AFTER BOAT ACCIDENT
John Hughes, of 22 Roa Island, a boatman with the Trinity House pilots at Barrow, today sustained fatal injuries while working below deck aboard the pilot boat Argus.
Hughes, who was in his early 20s, was attempting to clear a choked bilge pump and was caught by the propeller shaft. He sustained a broken arm and a broken jaw and suffered severe shock.
He died in the ambulance while being taken to North Lonsdale Hospital.
The Argus had put out that morning to take Mr. Roland Moore, a pilot and coxswain of the lifeboat, to a tanker bound for Heysham. The pilot boat was then to take Mr. Ralph Hoffman, another Barrow pilot, off the steamer Cora, outward bound from Barrow to Glasgow.
HEARD THUMP
While proceeding to the Cora, Jackson Charnley and Hughes, the two boatmen on the Argus, noticed the bilge-pump appeared to be choked. Hughes, the second mechanic aboard the Barrow lifeboat Herbert Leigh, went below to deal with the trouble. His companion then heard a thump and the boat’s engine stopped.
Going below, Mr. Charnley found Hughes, apparently caught by the propeller shaft, badly hurt in a confined space.
Mr. Charnley tried to call Seaforth radio on the pilot boat’s radio telephone and then took a chance and called the Barrow lifeboat. The call was intercepted by Mr. Frank Moore, mechanic on the lifeboat, who summoned the crew.
The lifeboat came up with the Argus off the South End of Walney where the pilot boat had apparently drifted aground whilst Mr. Charnley was attempting to give aid to Hughes.
BY PUNT
Members of the lifeboat crew went by punt to the grounded Argus and managed to free Hughes. They waded ashore carrying Hughes on a stretcher to the ambulance.
Aboard the lifeboat were Hughes’ father, Mr. Jim Hughes, a member of Barrow Fire Brigade and a lifeboatman, and Mr. Bert Jackson, John Hughes’ brother-in-law.
Because of the accident it was impossible for the pilot boat to contact the Cora and take Pilot R. Hoffman off at Lightning Knoll. Mr. Hoffman carried on with the ship and will land at Glasgow.
