The Helen Blake Lifeboat Project
Fethard-on-Sea
The Helen Blake Replica Project are a community based group focusing on the development of community skills in boat building, carpentry and marine tourism. The boat is being built by a team of participants from the Ballycullane Community Employment Scheme, Wexford Local Development TÚS workers and volunteers, under the guidance of master shipwright and craftsman, John Colfer.
In 2014 at the hundredth commemoration memorial of the sinking of the Helen Blake Lifeboat, the vision of The Helen Blake Replica Project was born. The original Helen Blake lifeboat was lost attending the shipwreck of the Norwegian schooner “Mexico” on 20th February 1914. Just 5 of the 14 man crew returned to their homes.
It is those men, those heroes, that their descendants and fellow villagers want to honour by building a replica of their boat that will be a lasting memory and a fitting tribute to their selfless bravery.
