Tens of thousands of people backed a Hull Daily Mail campaign to honour the victims of the city’s worst fishing disaster.

Fifty eight men died when three trawlers – the St Romanus, Kingston Peridot and Ross Cleveland – sank in as many weeks in 1968.

The Triple Trawler Tragedy is one of the most painful chapters in the city’s history.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the tragedy the Hull Daily Mail launched a campaign for a minute’s silence at noon on February 5, the day the city heard the terrible news that the third ship had been lost.

The focal point of the silence was a special ceremony organised by the Mail in the city’s main shopping centre on the site of a former quay.

At least 1,000 people including many relatives of the victims, some of whom had travelled from as far away as France, attended the ceremony which included a roll call of the victims read by pupils from a city school.

Across the city more than 300 businesses, schools, public organisations and voluntary groups supported the campaign by observing the silence impeccably.

In Hessle Road, the former heartland of the city’s fishing industry, more than 1,000 people lined the road and traffic stopped as they paid their respects.

The silence was also marked by judges, barristers, solicitors, ushers and jurors at the city’s magistrates and crown courts.

Mail news feature writer Allison Coggan, who suggested the idea for the minute’s silence campaign, managed to track down and interview most of the families in the weeks prior to the silence.

Many families also got in touch with the Mail to tell their stories in heart-rending detail for the first time.

The Mail eventually managed to compile photographs of 54 of the 58 victims having started the campaign with just 22 photographs.

On the day the city fell silent, the Mail printed 13,000 copies of a late final edition with five pages of coverage including the replica front page from February 5, 1968, with the headline – “Third Hull Trawler Lost”.

In addition there was a breaking news story on the memorial service and the minute’s silence.

A video of the service was also uploaded to the paper’s website within hours of it finishing.

The following day the Mail produced a complete multimedia package including the first nine pages of the paper, plus five videos from across the city and four picture slideshows with a total of 132 photographs.

Mail senior assistant editor Paul Hartley said: “This was one of the most remarkable campaigns I have had the privilege of being involved with.

“We hoped for a good response but were amazed by just how many people took part.

“The campaign touched a very raw nerve and it was a highly-emotional day.

“For a day the city was united in remembrance in a way which has probably never happed before.

“It was emotional and uplifting at the same time and while there was a lot of sadness we hope it also brought solace to the families of the victims by showing their loved ones had not been forgotten.”

He hailed the whole campaign a “superb team effort”, but paid special tribute to Allison Coggan who initiated it and drove it forward with “amazing passion and professionalism”.

The Mail is now backing a campaign to raise £100,000 for a lasting memorial to the estimated 6,000 trawler men from the city who lost their lives at sea.

As part of its support, it is producing a commemorative edition including a complete 20-page broadsheet replica of the Mail from February 5, 1968, with all the profits going to the campaign fund.

Editor John Meehan said: “The unprecedented response to our call has proven that the Triple Trawler Tragedy has not been consigned to the pages of history, and that people across our region want to express their appreciation for the ultimate price the crewmen and thousands of other trawler men paid to put food on the nation’s tables.”

Comments

Graham Smith (12/02/2008 11:11:41)
And what about the Gaul?