In 2016 the Gower Brewery in Swansea, South Wales brewed Janet 1916 to commemorate the Port Eynon Lifeboat disaster .
On New Year’s Day 1916 the Port Eynon lifeboat, Janet, launched at 11.45am to the aid of the SS Dunvegan which was in difficulties in Oxwich Bay. The storm force conditions were described as the worst in living memory. On completion of the service, the Janet attempted to return to Port Eynon but huge waves capsized her twice and three crew were lost, Coxswain William (Billy) Gibbs, second coxswain William Eynon and George Harry.
With their oars and mast gone, the then survivors drifted through the night until making shore in Mumbles at daybreak, after more than twenty hours at sea in atrocious conditions.
A memorial statue of a lifeboat man was placed outside St Cattwg’s Church in Port Eynon, as a tribute to the brave three. It remains standing there 100 years on, its gaze forever searching seaward.
Crew of the Janet on January 1st 1916:
Coxswain William (Billy) Gibbs, 2nd Coxswain William Eynon, George Harry Capt. George Eynon, William Harris, William Grove Snr, William Grove Jnr, Onslow Grove John Jenkins, James Jenkins, Leonard Jenkins, William Howell, John (Jack) Moirris.
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