A MOTHER and her son, who was born aboard a banana boat off the west Cornwall coast 50 years ago, visited Penlee lifeboat station this weekend to mark the anniversary.

Anne Noonan was 20 years old when she gave birth to baby Timothy after going into labour on the merchant ship on passage from the Canary Islands on September 25, 1960.

They were brought ashore by lifeboat Solomon Browne, a vessel which was lost with all hands in December 1981 when it launched to help the coaster Union Star.

Her father worked in the banana trade and had taken his family with him on a business trip. They were on their way home from the Canary Islands to Liverpool on board the MV Fravizo when Anne gave birth to Timothy.

With no doctor present, the ship's captain requested that she be taken ashore for a check-up.

It was the first emergency call-out for the new Penlee lifeboat, the Solomon Browne, which launched at 9.15pm from Mousehole and proceeded to Newlyn to pick up a local doctor and the midwife.

Both were then transferred to the Dutch ship, which was by then a mile south east of the Wolf Rock. Just before midnight the ship moved into Mounts Bay so mother and baby could be transferred to the lifeboat.

"My son was lowered from the ship to the lifeboat in a fish basket and I was stretchered from one vessel to the other," Anne recalled. "Both the Dutch crew of the Fravizo and the lifeboat crew were wonderful – I was pretty scared at the time and they were very reassuring.

"We were both devastated when the Solomon Browne was lost with all hands as somehow we regarded the lifeboat as ours."

Both Anne and Timothy visited the Penlee lifeboat station on Saturday.

He made a donation of £50 on his birthday while Anne gave £70 to mark her age.

article copyright THE CORNISHMAN