The Luckiest Thirteen

A true-life drama of an intense battle for survival on the high seas. The Luckiest Thirteen is the story of an incredible two-day battle to save the super trawler St Finbarr, and of those who tried to rescue her heroic crew in surging, frozen seas. It was also a backdrop for the powerful stories of families ashore, dumbstruck by fear and grief, as well as a love story of a teenage deckhand and his girl that ended with a heart-rending twist. From her hi-tech hold to her modern wheelhouse she was every inch the super ship the great hope for the future built to save the fleet at a record-breaking price but a heart-breaking cost. On the thirteenth trip after her maiden voyage, the St Finbarr met with catastrophe off the Newfoundland coast. On Christmas Day 1966, twenty-five families in the northern English fishing port of Hull were thrown into a dreadful suspense not knowing if their loved ones were dead or alive after the disaster that befell The Perfect Trawler. Complete with 16 pages of dramatic and poignant photographs from the period. AUTHOR: Brian W. Lavery was born in the East End of Glasgow in 1959, the fourth of six sons of William, a sheet metal worker and Margaret, a shop assistant. He has been a university drop-out, factory worker, car valeter, market trader, waiter, Customs and Excise officer (very briefly) and is now a journalist, tutor and writer. After 25 years of various senior roles in national and regional journalism he returned to education. In December 2013 he wrote and presented Courage and Effect for BBC Radio 4 on their Four Thought series, drawn from the subject matter of this book. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography commissioned him to write the entry on Mrs. Lillian Bilocca for its 2013 edition. He has also published short fiction and poetry, and has a PhD in Creative Writing. Brian runs a community media project in Hull, where he has lived with his wife Kathryn for more than 30 years.