I switched on the TV and the report of a boat being lost came on.. it was our boys, and our world stopped and changed forever
Widow backs fundraising effort of Fishermen’s Mission
A WIDOW of the Sapphire fishing boat tragedy has taken part in a moving tribute to her local Fishermen’s Mission almost two decades on from the disaster.
The trawler sank as it approached its home port of Peterhead laden with 400 boxes of fish on October 1, 1997.
The crew – Robert Stephen, 25, Victor Podlesny, 45, Bruce Cameron, 32, and Adam Stephen, 29 – died in their bunks as their vessel sank “like a stone” 12 miles from harbour.
Skipper Victor Robertson, son of the Sapphire’s owner, survived after scrambling through a wheelhouse window into a life raft.
Now, on the eve of a difficult year, Robert’s widow Shirley has appeared in a video called The Mission: For Those In Peril At Sea.
In it, Shirley speaks about the night tragedy struck and how Peterhead’s Fishermen’s Mission supported the families.
She couldn’t turn down mission superintendent Steve Murray when he asked her to feature in the fundraising video made by local church, Apex.
Shirley has rebuilt her life with daughter Darcie, 21, who was three when her dad drowned.
Shirley married joiner Paul Henderson and went on to have a son, Owen, 14, together.
In the video, Shirley tells of the night disaster struck.
She said: “Me and my mum and Darcie, we’d taken off to Aberdeen. We were away looking for a carpet for Darcie’s bedroom.
“On the way home, Robert had phoned to say they were on their way home, and it was a scabby day. There was water coming in the wheelhouse window so he had momentarily stopped speaking to close the window.
“He said he had to go, he loved me and he was going awa’ to his bed and I was like, ‘OK. See you soon, love you.’”
Shirley said when she got home, Robert’s brother told her a Peterhead boat was missing, feared lost.
She said: “I switched on the TV and the report of a boat being lost came on.
“And little did we know, 10-15 minutes later it was us, it was our boys, and our world stopped, and changed forever.”
In the video, Shirley tells how she used to joke with Robert about how she’d be mad with him if “the Fishermen’s Mission mannie” turned up at their door.
She said: “The saddest walk you can visualise is the mission man coming up your path knowing he’s got to tell you that news.
“Peter (Dade) was our mission man. It was his probation so he had a major incident, four families to liaise with and comfort – and he did it marvellously.
“It took 10-plus weeks to get
the boat raised, raise the money, get a plan in place, organise companies that had the facilities and the technology to do it.
“The mission believed in us and supported us the whole road.”
The families, backed by a Daily Record campaign and Alex Salmond, then the town’s MP, netted £500,000 in five weeks to raise the Sapphire.
The ship was taken to Peterhead that December. The men’s bodies were inside the hull. Their funerals were held before Christmas and the Sapphire was later returned to the spot where she sank.
Water pouring through open hatches and a faulty fish-hold hatch were blamed for the disaster.
The boat’s emergency beacon also failed to float free after vital parts had been painted over.
Today, Shirley is comforted that she got to talk to Robert on the night he died.
Now, nearly 20 years on, she has taken up the cause of her Fishermen’s Mission and feels she owes them a debt of gratitude.
She said: “They made our tea when the house was jam-packed with folk, they took in flowers from florists. They went above and beyond just spiritual support, which they are there to do. People underestimate what the mission are capable of.
“If a person’s gone to sea, the mission is there the rest of their life. They deal with the best, happiest times of your life and help you through the saddest.”
Mission superintendent Steve Murray said: “The Fishermen’s Mission provides emergency support, and practical, financial, spiritual and emotional care to fishermen and their families.
“I suppose you could sum it up by saying it’s Christianity with its sleeves rolled up.
“Just as Jesus worked with people, caring for them, praying with them, loving them, then that’s what we aim to do here in our fishing community.”
He said he had to go, he loved me and he was going awa’ to his bed SHIRLEY