Arthur John Lewis was one of the best know of Fleetwood's skippers to emerge from the early 1900's. Born into a fishing family in Boston, Arthur began his seagoing career in the engine rooms of trawlers owned by the Boston Deep Sea Fishing and Ice Co.

Shortly after 1926 Arthur moved to Fleetwood and, at the age of 24, gained his skipper's ticket, sailing continuously from the port until 1940 when the war intervened. Trawlers were forced to sail in convoys. Due to the threat posed by submarines, the lead vessel was armed with a 12 pound gun as well as several Lewis machine guns. On more than one occasion Arthur was forced to use the weapons to fend off submarines.

1940 saw Arthur aboard Evelyn Rose and heading for Dunkirk to assist in the evacuation of British troops where he took aboard 317 soldiers and ferried them safely to Ramsgate before returning to Dunkirk once more. This time he berthed alongside a burning pier and took off 403 men. His services were rewarded with the French awarding him the Chevalier de L'Ordre Nationale du Merite Maritime. In 1967 he was awarded the OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List and the Danish Government awarded made him Knight of the Danneborg

Arthur died on Christmas Day in 1986. On January 22 1987, in accordance with his wishes, his family took his ashes out to Lune Deeps and scattered them across the waters.

Arthur is seen here with a very young Joseph Parkinson in the early 1930s, sailing as Brassie. Sadly, the relationship ended on a sour note and Joseph never sailed for Boston again after the war.