Memorandum book with an account of the sinking of the St CUTHBERT in 1908 by Percy Bowman, Fourth Officer. Account in pencil of voyage of ST CUTHBERT (British and Foreign Steamship Co) , with fire on board ship on 2 February 1908; two lifeboats being launched and one sinking; Percy Bowman's lifeboat surviving with four men dying overnight; the rescue of the remaining men on the ST CUTHBERT and the lifeboat by a White Star Liner the CYMRIC. An enquiry by the Naval Court in Boston found the 'foreign' crew had launched the lifeboats incorrectly; Bowman's account contradicts this. The account also describes the duties of a Fourth Officer including searching for stowaways, finding five stowaways once the ship had left port, and the crew's reaction to them.
Written by Fourth Officer Percy Bowman in the 1930s.