Relatives paid tribute to five pilots who drowned in 1927 in a “touching” ceremony held yesterday afternoon in St George’s.Sylvia Polly Smith attended the Guild of Holy Compassion ceremony in honour of her uncle, Edgar Smith.He was one of the men lost at sea when their pilot gig Ocean Queen II capsized in heavy seas.The group which also included Goulrich Richardson, George Brangman, Robert Gibbons and Ernest Tucker was attempting to rendezvous with an incoming merchant ship when tragedy struck.The pilot boat itself was found days later floating upside down near Elbow Beach, but the men’s bodies were never recovered.Ms Smith never got the chance to meet her uncle, but said family members spoke highly of him as a nice and kind man.The 70-year-old said the ceremony was “really touching”.“I wish I could have known him. Just being out there ... It’s my first time I have been for [the ceremony] so it was really special.”The ceremony served as a reminder of the potential dangers faced by sailors, said National Museum of Bermuda director Dr Edward Harris. “Many Bermudians have been lost at sea and the Guild of Holy Compassion exists to honour those individuals, care for their graves (and those of others here buried) and since the sinking of the Lloyd Bermuda, the Guild, with the assistance of the Bermuda Pilot Service, has conducted a ceremony of wreath-laying on an annual basis.”Reverend David Raths, from St Peter’s Church, led a prayer in honour of the lost men.The ceremony was previously held at the Guild’s cemetery in St George’s, which exists as a memorial to those lost.However in 1988 another vessel, Lloyd Bermuda, went missing during a violent storm on its way here. A service at sea was held in honour of the sailors on that boat and the Guild has carried on the tradition ever since.