Lost off Trevose: The Shipwrecks of Cornwall's Trevose Head
By Brian French
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Lost off Trevose - Brian French
LOST OFF
TREVOSE
LOST OFF
TREVOSE
THE SHIPWRECKS
OF CORNWALL’S
TREVOSE HEAD
BRIAN FRENCH
To the Watchkeepers of NCI Stepper Point
First published 2011
The History Press
The Mill, Brimscombe Port
Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG
www.thehistorypress.co.uk
This ebook edition first published in 2013
All rights reserved
©Brian French, 2011, 2013
The right of Brian French to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
EPUB ISBN 978 0 7509 5346 7
Original typesetting by The History Press
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Iwould like to acknowledge the help and advice received in producing this book from the following:
Derek Lindsey, NCI Stepper Point and former Station Manager
John Buckingham and George Barnes of the Padstow Museum
The Libraries at Bodmin and Truro
Kim Cooper and staff at the Cornish Studies Centre, Redruth
John Puddicombe of the HMS Warwick Association
Ness Towndrow for her spectacular cover photo
Moira Gill of St Merryn for her HMS Warwick input
I have acknowledged the sources of photographs in the text. Unacknowledged photographs, sketches and maps are the author’s own work.
And, of course, to my editors, Amy Rigg and Emily Locke of The History Press.
TERMS OF REFERENCE
In order to give some reasonable boundaries to this account I have followed roughly the work of Noall & Farr (1964) and Larne (1995) and taken for my geographical parameters the area between latitude 50.30.00N and 50.51.00N and longitude 05.00W and 05.38W. On the coast this covers the shore from Park Head in the south, round Trevose Head to Harlyn Bay in the east. Even with these arbitrary boundaries there are many losses to record and in the maps I have tried to plot each vessel’s last location as near to the given point as possible.
The narrative will be supported by detailed tables listing vessel, date lost, location, crew saved/lost, tonnage, cargo, captain and maps showing the last known position of all vessels. Photographs, sketches and diagrams will illustrate the text. Where a vessel was positioned outside this ‘rectangle’ I have included it where historical significance or interest demanded.
The scope of this book.
PREFACE
The book Wrecks and Rescues around Padstow’s Doom Bar (2007) focussed predominantly on maritime activity within Padstow harbour limits. This second book now takes Trevose Head, the ‘Lizard’ of the north coast, as its focal point and tells the stories not only of those better-known ships wrecked on Trevose Head itself, but also those recorded as simply ‘lost off Trevose’. This inhospitable coast has seen many disasters over the centuries, from ocean-going sailing ships blown off course or badly navigated, to coastal vessels bound for Wales and the Bristol Channel foundering, colliding, and ‘colliers’ blowing up. Both world wars saw intense activity off Trevose as German U-boats attempted to prevent supplies from reaching the UK and Europe. This book tells the story of these disparate events all linked by the location; Trevose Head.
In addition, the narrative attempts to come to terms with the question, ‘Why did these disasters happen – at least the peacetime ones?’ As a landsman, this author was initially baffled by the number of collisions occurring in these waters. Wasn’t the sea big enough for everybody? This question leads us to the development of safety at sea, starting with the erection of Trevose lighthouse in 1857, a project strenuously opposed by most seafarers, and covering improvements in navigation (the discovery of longitude), International Sailing Law (‘rules of the road’) and the prevention of the overloading of cargo (Plimsoll Line).
CHAPTER 1
THE IRON SHORE AND
THE LIGHTHOUSE
The ship that will not obey the helm must obey the rocks.
Old Cornish Proverb
The north coast of Cornwall is famed today for its tourist potential with wide sandy beaches and excellent conditions for the relatively recent sport of surfing. Holidaymakers flock to the region throughout the year to take part in or watch this ever-growing pastime. This industry is flourishing on the pounding Atlantic waves which race into land unchecked after a journey of some 2,000 miles, these selfsame waves that in years before pounded ships to matchwood on Trevose’s lee shore.
Ships on these waters are now monitored constantly by sophisticated radio, radar and computer systems operated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s regional headquarters at Falmouth, which is also the International Distress Centre. Immediate protection is afforded by the RNLI’s latest and most powerful lifeboat, Spirit of Padstow, operating from its state-of-the-art boathouse on Trevose Head. The entire coast is signalled by a succession of lights and daymarks all the way from the Longships lighthouse off Land’s End to Hartland Point light in the north. The newest recruit to sea safety is the National Coastwatch Institution, which has re-established visual watch stations in north Cornwall at Boscastle, Padstow, St Agnes and St Ives.
Yet even today the Nautical Almanac gives fairly bleak advice to the sailor:
The N coast of Cornwall and the SW approaches to the Bristol Channel are very exposed. Yachts need to be sturdy and well equipped since if bad weather develops, no shelter may be at hand … Bude dries and is not approachable in W winds… Boscastle is a tiny harbour (dries) … Padstow is a refuge but in strong NW winds the sea breaks on the Bar and prevents entry … Off Trevose Head beware the Quies Rocks… Newquay dries and is uncomfortable in N winds … off Godrevey Light are the Stones, a drying rocky shoal extending 1.5 m offshore … St Ives to Land’s End is rugged and exposed…
From our relatively safe (and sane) vantage point of the twenty-first century it is astonishing to read that when in 1619 Sir John Killegrew of Arwenack, Governor of Pendennis Castle, petitioned the King that a lighthouse be built at the Lizard Point, Trinity House, the present controller of our lighthouses, opposed the erection, stating ‘It is not necessary or convenient to erect a lighthouse there, but per contra, inconvenient having regard to pirates and enemies whom it would direct