Louisa the lifeboat and her overland launch 1899

[dukealien]

The sea cats claws had ripped the pier
three masts, full rigged the Forrest Hall,
two thousand tonnes without a steer.

No rescue for the sailors call
Louisa's launch would surely fail
so rope and block and one and all

did drag the boat through rain and hail,
up over Countisbury Hill
and o'er bleak Exmoor horse and tail.

Then down to Porlock slipping still
the boat was launched on dawns next day,
to guide them home above the shrill,

all thirteen strong to light their way
on board the schooner stepped the crew
safe anchors dropped by Barry's bay.

They steamed her back to Lyntons pew,
refurbished now for all to view.

I see the images, and the rhyme scheme is intriguing - sort of a compressed or stripped-down Spenserian [probably a formal name for it, but new to me].  Suggestions:  if Barry's is "on the maps," perhaps "bay" could be capitalized with it (since Contisburry Hill is), but if it's just a bay belonging to Barry, stet.  A similar niggle in L1 - needs an appostrophe positioned somewhere in or after "cats" to indicate whether the claws are possessed by one or (more likely) several.

L3 leaves me slightly adrift - presumably what's missing is wheel, rudder, or timoneer.  Just a suggestion - "two thousand tonnes but could not steer," or the like.  "[H]orse and tail" might also be replaced by "at the trail," but the former may be as specialized a term in cartage as the latter is in the handling of musket and pike.

Very enjoyable poem.