On the night of 9 December 1886, one of the greatest tragedies in British maritime history unfolded off the coast of Lancashire. What began as a routine rescue mission soon became the worst disaster ever suffered by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, claiming the lives of 27 lifeboatmen from St Annes and Southport and leaving communities across the Fylde and Sefton coast in mourning. More than a century later, the Mexico Disaster remains one of the most powerful stories of courage, sacrifice and heroism associated with the Fylde Coast. The tragedy centred on the German barque Mexico, a three-masted sailing…
