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Descendent of Suevic survivor Galen Bartholomew on the 200 Voices podcast
200 Voices an RNLI podcast

‘This extraordinary story captured me and I started researching’

Episode 53 - The Finest 16 Hours: Galen Bartholomew

Five years before the Titanic, the biggest rescue in RNLI history resulted in 456 lives saved. A descendant of one survivor plunges us into towering seas.

Galen Bartholomew sometimes worries his family will get bored of his research into their ancestors. But when he began to investigate a long-forgotten family story of shipwreck, he made a fascinating discovery. Galen’s great-aunt and great-grandmother had been survivors of the Suevic, a White Star Line steamship wrecked off Lizard Point in 1907. From newspaper stories to official reports, Galen reveals the moving new details he is still uncovering – and shares his growing admiration for the RNLI volunteers, steamship crew and Cornish folk who ensured every single life was saved.