St. Annes Lifeboat Memorial

March 30th 2008. The memorial at St. Annes marks the loss of the entire lifeboat crew on 9th December 1880. They set out in stormy weather to rescue a German barque called Mexico, but all the crew died in the attempt.

A 'barque' must be a type of old sailing ship (a similar term to 'clipper' etc.) as Captain Cook's ship is sometimes referred to as 'the barque Endeavour' and that went and found Australia.

The Mexico, however, only found the sandbank off Lytham.

Still, they must have been big ships in their day.