Buckie Lifeboat crews pay tribute to 'Jake' Murray
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The RNLI’s Buckie Lifeboat Station joined the Murray family and wider Buckie community last Saturday to pay tribute to John Charles ‘Jake’ Murray who, for 20 years between 1987 and 2006, led generations of the town’s lifeboat crews with distinction in his role as full-time coxswain.
Crewmembers past and present formed pall-bearer parties at the church and graveside and, as the funeral cortège passed the lifeboat station, they formed a guard of honour lining the route as the town’s Severn class lifeboat, RNLB William Blannin, sounded a single long blast on her horn in mournful salute to her former coxswain.
Jake was born in Buckie on January 30, 1951, to parents George and Margaret Murray.
During his early career, he went to sea as a trawlerman, principally working out of Buckie and other northeast harbours.
In 1986 he joined RNLI Buckie Lifeboat as a volunteer crewmember, bringing all his knowledge of the sea – and particularly of local waters.
He made rapid progress and, in 1987, was appointed full-time coxswain of the lifeboat station.
One crewmate of more than 25 years’ standing said of Jake: "The man had an aura that inspired confidence and trust.
"He had a lifetime of experience and could read the sea like few others.
"I would have sailed into a hurricane with him if he asked me.
"He took care of his crews and they were intensely loyal to him in return."
Jakes’s deep knowledge of the sea enabled him to take his boat where few others would have gone and, in doing so, to win recognition and respect for the station and for his crew.
In 1987, during the first of two rescues in one day which later received national recognition, he and his crew escorted the yacht Samphire back to Buckie in a rising east-south-easterly gale.
After three hours on service to the Samphire, the lifeboat was almost immediately tasked back to sea to assist the yacht Monsun of Ekero, reported to be drifting seven miles northwest of Burghead with machinery failure and rigging problems.
In building seas, poor visibility and persistent squally rain, the lifeboat eventually passed a tow line and began a difficult, slow tow to Burghead.
The lifeboat finally returned to her berth after nine hours on service.
In recognition of the two rescues, a ‘thanks on vellum’ was awarded by the RNLI.
Even more dramatically, in the early hours of August 17, 1991, the fishing vessel Fidelity issued a Mayday call that she was aground on the Muck Rocks which guard Buckie harbour less than one mile off.
Jake immediately launched the lifeboat with a crew of volunteers.
Within 15 minutes they found the Fidelity hard aground on the Middle Muck, her crew of three still aboard, listing and rolling some 40 degrees to starboard and in imminent danger of capsize.
Recognising the urgency of the situation, but aware of the risk of grounding one of the lifeboat’s own propellers, Jake made his approach to the casualty vessel, inching ahead using one engine only, thereby protecting the other should it be needed for a retreat.
He placed the lifeboat alongside the Fidelity such that her crew could scramble over the bow and, by 3.25 am – less than an hour after the original alarm was raised – the casualties were safe ashore at the lifeboat station.
This service undoubtedly represented three lives saved and led to the second ‘thanks on vellum’ awarded to lifeboats under Jake’s command.
More recently, Jake also led his crew in responding to the terrible flooding in Elgin and Lossiemouth in 2002, rescuing vulnerable people from their homes and delivering vital assistance to the community at that most difficult time.
Throughout his time as Coxswain of RNLI Buckie Lifeboat Station, Jake always made time to bring on new generations of lifeboat crewmembers.
To this day, the station has a proud record of developing its own successor generations of coxswains to lead the town’s lifeboats into the future.
Jake was a man, a seaman, and an outstanding coxswain of ‘the old school’.
He died on November 6, aged 70 years.
He leaves a wife, Morag, son Kevin and his wife Donna, son Malcolm, daughter Melanie and her husband Peter, together with four grandchildren and one great grandchild.
