A series of bay grape wreaths were placed in the waters off St David’s yesterday as relatives remembered a group of pilots who drowned 85 years ago.Barbara Wade, whose uncle George Brangman was among those lost, said she felt the ceremony was a touching tribute to the six men lost at sea.“I thought it was a lovely ceremony. It was quite touching,” she said.“This was my first time taking part. My mother usually takes part, but she wasn’t feeling well.”She said her uncle was just one of a line of pilots in the family, with both his father and younger brother making a career in the craft.“It runs in our family,” she said. “All my brother wanted to be growing up was a pilot, but unfortunately just before he had a chance to join they changed the requirements.”Mr Brangman, along with Edgar Smith, Irving Pascoe, Goulrich Richardson, Robert Gibbons and Ernest Tucker drowned in 1927 after their pilot gig, Ocean Queen II, capsized in high seas off the coast of St David’s.The group had rowed out from St Catherine’s Beach to rendezvous with a merchant ship.While their boat washed ashore at Elbow Beach days later, the men’s bodies were never found.Dr Derek Tully said that the Guild of Holy Compassion have marked the sailor’s death every year since the tragedy.“We used to have the service with all the pilots at the seamen's plot,” Dr Tully said. “But in December 1988, when the Lloyd Bermuda was lost, we took the survivors of the Lloyd Bermuda on board the pilot boat and held a ceremony off St David's Head, dropping wreaths into the sea at Five Fathom Hole.“We have continued this tradition ever since.”This year, the ceremony took place aboard the pilot boat St David’s, while passengers aboard the cruise ship Veendam looked on from the ship’s balconies.After meeting with the departing cruise ship to collect two pilots, a prayer ceremony was held on the stern of the pilot vessel and four wreaths were placed overboard.While occasional showers soaked the East End yesterday afternoon, the sun was out for the brief ceremony.