Nancy Lee

Howard Foale was born in Norwood, South Australia and was 75 years of age. He was a retired railway man and lived in Moore Street in Bunbury.

His Son Walter Hamilton Foale, lived in Picton Crescent in Bunbury. He was 35 years of age and a hairdresser by trade. Walter bought the Nancy Lee in March 1948, intending to become a professional fisherman. The boat was uninsured and represented Walter’s life savings.

On the 12 October 1949, both men had been fishing all evening off Bunbury. By 5am they were 40 miles North of Bunbury. When the barometer dropped sharply, they set sail for Bunbury returning from their two-day fishing trip. At approximately 10:30am they were under sail about eight miles north of Bunbury, near Point Belvedere. The strong north-westerly wind suddenly whipped around to the south and ripped away the sail.

Walter immediately tried to start the auxiliary motor and went forward to drop the anchor, but the transmission failed, and the boat had stopped moving. The sea was very rough, and a huge wave broke over the boat. Walter told Howard they needed to swim for the shore.

Howard responded, “I am in your hands.” At that time, they were 50 to 150 yards from the shore. Walter cut Howard’s great-coat off him and when the boat touched the bottom, they both jumped into the water. Another huge wave broke on top of them and Walter was hurled to the bottom and dragged 400 yards out to sea by the undertow.

He didn’t see his Father again and presumed he had been taken out to sea. Another wave crashed on him, and he was “full of salt water.”

He was then picked up by a breaker and washed on to the beach. It was freezing and the sand was cutting him. There he laid exhausted for some time. The boat was laid up on the sand and had been badly pounded. He searched the beach in both directions frantically for a considerable distance but found no trace of his Father. He started to make his way back to Bunbury, but after half a mile he couldn’t go on leaving his Father behind and turned back.

He realised it was hopeless. He was exhausted by this stage and set off for Bunbury along the beach. The wind was terrible, and he had to walk, crawl and at times drag himself on his stomach to reach Bunbury.

The next day two mounted Police Constables H. Whitfield and M. Kellow and a party of eight persons patrolled 26 miles of beach. Howard’s hat was found half a mile north of the wreck and a lid from the icebox was found a further mile and a half along. The beached vessel was 25 yards above the water mark. When patrolling the beach with friends on Sunday, Walter found the great-coat, which he had cut from his Father.

Attempts were made to remove the engine and other fittings from the boat and Walter was hopeful that the boat could be salvaged. On the Monday, both Constables rode 46 miles on horseback in search of the body, finding only a spar from the boat several miles north of where the boat was wrecked. Harvey police joined the search and patrolled the beach north of Myalup.

On the night of 22 October, Howard’s son-in-law, Tom Doust, found his body washed up on the north shore about 12 miles from Bunbury, and four miles north of where the tragedy occurred.

He reported it to Police Constables W. Marriott and M. Kellow. It took both Constables, Tom Doust, and undertaker Robert Hall three and a half hours to carry the body of Howard on a stretcher back to Bunbury. The body had to travel 3.5 miles over swamps, sandhills and along the beach.

On Sunday morning, 13 November, the Nancy Lee was towed back to the Bunbury yacht club.

Nick Soulos and his sons assisted with their boat in pulling the Nancy Lee from the sand, while the work of towing the wrecked vessel back to Bunbury was performed by Mr. B. Olsen.

The boat was slipped and repaired by Walter and his friends. It sailed again in December the following year, and on their first fishing trip returned home early to avoid a storm, catching two sharks and two jewfish in the process.

Howard left behind his wife Elsie Margaret Dunn, and six children Eric Alan, Beatrice Jean, Walter Hamilton, Eva Nellie, Leslie Thomas and Betty. He was at one time, the chief engine driver at the West Australian Government Railways loco sheds in Bridgetown and was well-known and respected throughout the district. His son Eric was also a driver at the local sheds.

The Daily News covered the tragedy in an article appearing on 26 October 1949. The author D.L. Carew-Reid concluded the story with the poignant words, “So, next time you sink your teeth into a tasty piece of fish think for a moment of the man who caught it for you.”

The location of the wreck of the Nancy Lee shares a peculiar connection with the HMAS Sydney. On the 19 November 1941, the largest single loss suffered by the Royal Australian Navy occurred when the cruiser HMAS Sydney was lost in action with the German raider, Kormoran, off the Western Australian coast. None of the Sydney’s complement of 645 men survived and the Kormoran was also sunk in the action.

Two 28-foot steel lifeboats off the Kormoran survived, recovered by the British Merchant Ship, Centaur, after rescuing German survivors. Both lifeboats were purchased in 1946 by Mr. G.J. Baker of Mosman Park from the Department of Navigation. Baker subsequently sold one of the boats to Mr. Spencer (Tiny) Tate of Bunbury, for a price believed to be £20 and a Piano. After purchase, Spencer sailed it to Bunbury and modified it several times to use it as a private fishing boat out of Koombana Bay.

In January 1948, Spencer declared the “hoodoo” boat endangered his life for a second time, after it was blown ashore on Belvedere beach. He survived the mishap and left the unsalvageable wreck behind.

In 1949, Howard’s nine-year-old grandson, Gilbert Foale, was involved in the salvage of the Nancy Lee. He recalled seeing the Kormoran lifeboat “blow out to sea, upside down, nearly buried in the sand with the propeller visible.”

That was the last recording, until January 2002 when Gilbert alerted Tom O’Brien and Greg Harewood. They utilised a magnetometer to survey the wreck site and discovered the lifeboat laying in the sand off Belvedere Beach, where she remains until this day.