Birth recorded
The David Craft crew note records his birth as January 1927. This should be checked against original civil records before being treated as a full birth date.
Crew biography · Lost at sea · Fireman
David Craft
David Craft was the fireman aboard Arctic Viking, one of the men working below decks to keep the trawler alive. He was thirty-four when the ship capsized and was one of the five crewmen lost on 18 October 1961.
Life and work
The fireman from Wansbeck Road
The Arctic Viking Obsidian research vault records David Craft as the fireman aboard Arctic Viking H452. He was thirty-four at the time of the sinking, with his last known address given as 254 Wansbeck Road, Longhill Estate, Hull.
His birth is recorded in the vault as January 1927. The same note records his wife as Florence, with their marriage dated 22 January 1949. These details place David not only in the crew list, but in the ordinary family life that the disaster tore through.
As fireman, David worked in one of the least visible but most essential jobs on a steam trawler. The fireman helped keep steam up for the engine, working below decks in heat, noise and confinement while the weather and fishing work happened above.
Back to crewThe engine-room men were part of the hidden labour of a trawler: out of sight, but never outside the danger. Summary from the Arctic Viking crew and ship-history research
18 October 1961
Below decks in the final minutes
David Craft was among the crewmen lost when Arctic Viking capsized off Flamborough Head. The crew-location notes record him as fireman and lost. Other accounts of the ship's final minutes place the engine-room men below decks while the trawler was struck by heavy seas and rolled over with frightening speed.
The surviving accounts are much fuller for some men than for others. There is no detailed personal testimony from David Craft, because he did not survive. That absence matters. It means the page should not invent his final words, thoughts or exact movements.
What can be said is that the work of a fireman was hard even in ordinary weather, and that on the morning of 18 October 1961 the men below were facing the same sudden disaster as those on deck and on the bridge, but from a more enclosed and dangerous part of the vessel.
Family memory
Tony Craft and the telegraph
David Craft's story returned to public view through his grandson, Tony Craft. Later reporting described Tony's search for more about his grandfather's lost ship and his contact with diver Andy Dowsland, who had dived the wreck of Arctic Viking in 2009.
The recovered wheelhouse telegraph became a bridge between family memory and Hull fishing heritage. According to the newspaper account, Tony felt the telegraph was part of his family history, but also wanted it to be seen more widely. The artifact was therefore loaned to the Hull Trawler Museum, run by the fishing heritage group STAND.
That later story matters because it keeps David Craft from becoming only a line in a casualty list. His death affected his family, and decades later his grandson was still trying to understand the ship, the wreck and the object brought back from the seabed.
Record trail
What the surviving notes preserve
Marriage to Florence
The vault note records David's spouse as Florence and gives their marriage date as 22 January 1949.
Fireman aboard Arctic Viking
The crew lists record David Craft, age thirty-four, of Wansbeck Road, Hull, as fireman aboard the final voyage.
Lost at sea
David Craft was one of the five men lost when Arctic Viking capsized and sank on the homeward passage.
Wreck and telegraph story
The later wreck dive and recovered telegraph brought David Craft's family story back into Hull's public fishing memory through Tony Craft's involvement.
Sources used include the Arctic Viking Obsidian research vault note for David Craft, the combined and MOC crew lists, the crew-location note, correspondence notes relating to Diane Burton, and Hull Daily Mail reporting on Tony Craft, Andy Dowsland and the recovered wheelhouse telegraph. Where the record is incomplete, the page avoids inventing detail.