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The crew of a Cornish lifeboat who were killed in a disaster 30 years ago have been remembered by their present-day colleagues.

On 19 December 1981 hurricane force winds blew the cargo ship Union Star off course after it suffered engine failure.

The Penlee lifeboat Solomon Browne launched into difficult waters, but never returned.

There were no survivors from the Union Star and the lifeboat was completely wrecked with the loss of its crew of eight. In total there were 16 casualties.

Remembering the heroes of the Penlee Lifeboat the Solomon Browne who died during 'the greatest act of courage'

They set to sea in waves so huge that the spray hit an RNAS Culdrose helicopter hovering 400 feet above

Today, December 19, marks the anniversary of one worst tragedies in the history of the RNLI - and an event which saw eight brave lifeboat men lose their lives in a remarkable act of courage.

Just days before Christmas, the Penlee lifeboat the Solomon Browne was launched from its station near Mousehole in Cornwall, to go to the aid of a the Union Star, a stricken coaster which was being swept towards the cliffs after its engines failed.

The cargo ship's crew of five - and the captain's wife and teenager stepdaughters, who were also aboard - were all in mortal danger, and would also lose their lives in the tragedy that unfolded.

The weather that night was so fierce that lifeboat Coxswain William Trevelyan Richards famously refused to take two members of the same family as crew.

And so Assistant Mechanic Nigel Brockman went to sea, while his son Neil, who would later become coxswain of the Penlee Lifeboat, stayed behind as the 47-foot Solomon Browne battled hurricane force winds - and seas so huge spray from the waves hit the cockpit windows of an RNAS Culdrose helicopter hovering 400 feet above.

The helicopter's pilot, a Lieutenant Commander from the US navy called Russell Smith, watched as a huge wave picked up the lifeboat and hurled it onto the deck of the stricken cargo ship, at the foot of cliffs near Tater Du Lighthouse, a mile west of Lamorna Cove in West Cornwall.

Lt Cmdr Smith would later recall how the lifeboat stayed there, stranded, for a few seconds – then the Union Star listed in the waves, and the lifeboat slid off, back into the sea.

Incredibly, in an awe-inspiring display of seamanship, the Lifeboat's coxswain, William Trevelyan Richards, used that momentum to tuck the lifeboat alongside the Union Star.

The helicopter pilot said he saw Solomon Browne 's crew run out on deck and, with their arms outstretched and the ocean exploding around them, they urged the children, women and men aboard the Union Star to leap for their lives.

In a radio message to the Falmouth Coastguard at 9.21pm, the lifeboat's mechanic, James Madron, said: "This is the Penlee Lifeboat. Penlee Lifeboat calling Falmouth Coastguard. We got four men off – look, er, hang on – we got four off at the moment, er, ma… male and female. There’s two left on board…’

The message was interrupted by a loud thud and screech, as the lifeboat was either dashed against rocks, or smashed against the hull of the Union Star. And then the radio fell silent. Radio contact with the lifeboat had been lost.

However, Lt Cmdr Smith still had visual contact, and said Solomon Browne appeared to be heading back out to sea. Convinced the lifeboat was returning to port, Lt Cmdr Smith did the same - and so no one witnessed what happened next.

It's believed the crew of the Penlee Lifeboat, after a collision took out their radio, went back for the two people left on board the Union Star – and to search for two others thought to be in the water.

The Solomon Browne was never seen again and 16 lives - all of the lifeboat crew eight and the eight people aboard the Union Star - were lost at sea.

Some, but not all, of the bodies were eventually recovered.