Songfacts®:

• This song is about the 1981 Penlee lifeboat disaster in which 16 people lost their lives while attempting a sea rescue in hurricane-force conditions off the south Cornish coast. Amongst those who died was the father of a couple of Lakeman's friends while his own father Geoff, a Daily Mirror reporter, covered the story. Seth Lakeman, who was 6 when the tragedy happened, told the Daily Telegraph July 3, 2008 about it: "I remember it very well. The whole of the West Country was in shock. It's not something you forget. And, when I was 19, my best friend and his mate died surfing at Polzeath. There was no lifeboat there. I was in a band - Equation - and we did a couple of concerts to raise money to help build a lifeboat station there. Those lifeboat guys… they're heroes. I just wanted to honor them."