Birth year recorded
The Alan Bailey crew note records his birth year as 1937 and includes a research question about whether he was Alan C. Bailey.
Crew biography · Survivor · Spare hand
Alan Bailey
Alan Bailey was a spare hand aboard Arctic Viking and survived the capsize. His evidence preserves the fear below decks as the ship lurched, listed and finally went over.
Life and work
The freelance trawlerman from West Parade
The Arctic Viking Obsidian research vault records Alan Bailey as a spare hand aboard Arctic Viking H452. The crew note gives his birth year as 1937 and his age at the disaster as twenty-four. Newspaper reporting gives his address as 111 West Parade, Spring Bank, Hull.
Bailey described himself as a freelance trawler man. Later court reporting says he had been a fisherman for thirteen years and that the Arctic Viking was his second trip in the vessel.
The note also includes a research caution: he is possibly Alan C. Bailey, but that identification is not yet confirmed. This page therefore keeps to the name and details supported by the Arctic Viking material.
Back to crew"She's going." Charles Kirk's warning cry, remembered in Alan Bailey's evidence
Below decks
Fear before the final capsize
Bailey's evidence is important because it gives the feeling among the men below decks before Arctic Viking finally capsized. Newspaper reports describe him sharing the crew's fears as the vessel lurched. The ship's movement caused men to scramble upward, then go back again when the immediate danger seemed to pass.
In the inquiry reporting, Bailey remembered Charles Kirk screaming that the ship was going. The wording varies slightly between reports, but the meaning is consistent: someone below understood that the lurching had crossed from frightening into fatal.
Those moments show the uncertainty of the disaster. Men were frightened, then reassured, then frightened again. The ship did not announce a single clean point of no return. It lurched, partly recovered, and then finally went over.
Final moments
The dash for the stairway
In the later Waddy court case, Bailey described the crew as terrified on the homeward voyage because of the way the ship listed. He said they had never been in a ship which listed at such an angle. According to that reporting, he told shipmates that another one like that and she would go.
Later, when the vessel gave another heavy lurch to port, a man shouted that she was definitely going this time. Bailey said they dashed for the stairway. By the time they reached the top, the ship was right over, water was pouring in, and everyone was screaming and shouting.
The court reporting also records that the lifeboats were underwater, but Bailey and others cut one away. This detail sits alongside the raft and rescue accounts: survival required action in seconds, with the ship already turning against them.
Aftermath
A survivor whose evidence crossed into court
Bailey's account appears in both the Ministry of Transport inquiry reporting and the later Waddy damages case. That gives his evidence two roles: first, as a survivor describing what happened aboard; second, as part of the later legal argument over whether the loss could have been foreseen or prevented.
The age reported for Bailey differs between these contexts: twenty-four in the 1962 inquiry reporting and twenty-eight in the 1966 court reporting. The crew note follows the 1937 birth year and age twenty-four, while this page records the discrepancy rather than hiding it.
What remains consistent is his role in the story. Bailey gives the reader a view from below decks: the unease, the shouted warning, the rush upward, the water, and the frantic practical work of getting survival equipment free.
Record trail
What the surviving notes preserve
Spare hand aboard Arctic Viking
The crew lists record Bailey as a spare hand on the final voyage.
Survives the capsize
Bailey survived the loss after escaping upward with others as the ship went over and water poured in.
Inquiry reporting
His evidence described the feelings of men below decks as the trawler lurched before capsizing.
Waddy court case
Bailey's account of the port list, crew fear and dash for the stairway was reported during the later damages claim.
Sources used include the Arctic Viking Obsidian research vault note for Alan Bailey, the combined and MOC crew lists, the crew-location note, newspaper reports including "Terror Froze Lost Fisherman" and "Hung on to Wheel like grim death", plus Waddy court-case reporting including "SCREAMS AS TRAWLER WENT OVER" and "CREW WERE TERRIFIED - HULL TRAWLER MAN". Where the record contains uncertainty, the page names it rather than smoothing it away.