The Spirit of the Yealm
CHAPTER 4.2 LIFEBOATS AND SHIPWRECKS.
Robert Hodge
The chapter on Lifeboats and Shipwrecks in the “Spirit of the Yealm” is very much about the local area and the River Yealm Lifeboat and its crews. Many born here, as we have seen, lived and worked far from the River Yealm, some ending up in the USA and Canada. One, Robert Hodge moved to Clovelly.
Robert Hodge was born in Revelstoke in 1867, but moved with his wife, a local girl, to Clovelly where he was the first to introduce the Lobster Pot to the local fishermen. Like so many men of his time he was an experienced fisherman and together with his friend Stan Abbott was responsible for a highly dangerous rescue at sea.
In this early photograph Stan Abbott is on the left and Robert Hodge on the right.
The citation for the RNLI Clovelly Silver Medal in 1890 reads
Mr Stan Abbott and Mr Robert Hodge rescued two men from a boat capsized off Clovelly in a North-North-East Gale and heavy sea on the 5th November 1890.
We are grateful to Ann Mason of Poolquay, Yealm View Road, Newton Ferrers; whose great grandmother, Mary Ann Hodge was born on 23rd May 1856.