Ertach Kernow - Storm Darragh a reminder of dangerous days of sail
The Cornish seas can be beautiful in good weather and bad and the recent Storm Darragh encouraged me to view the Gazzle at Newquay from near the Huers Hut. I thought about the many shipwrecks that have taken place during the age of sail just along this short coastline as it stretches out towards Trevose Head and round to Padstow. Many took place before the construction of the lighthouse there in 1846, which in due course would save many lives. Later in the day I thought about the sailors who battled intense winds to reef in the sails as they tried, often in vain, to save their ship and their own lives. The sea is part of Cornwall’s wider heritage and its maritime history an important part of that.
That came at a point as I tried with my niece and old friend Steve Camps, pulled from his artist’s studio painting whales, to put a tarpaulin over my garden conservatory office which had lost its roof. Just trying to tie down a tarpaulin in what was apparently a sixty-nine mile an hour gale was shall we say an interesting experience and made me mindful of those sailors. Losing this storage space was at least an inconvenience and a day spent emptying the conservatory of all the books documents, paintings and general ephemera collected relating to my various Cornish heritage projects. My house now resembles something from Steptoe and Son.
As always click the images for larger view
As the Cornish maritime trade expanded during Cornwall’s industrial age during the late 18th and 19th centuries the number of vessels being built and sailing from harbours around the coast grew. This was a time of low regulation and often these ships became unfit for purpose as time passed. Large numbers of Cornishmen sailed on vessels far from home and many were lost. If it were not for my great grandmothers first husband being lost during a storm off Whitby you wouldn’t be reading this article now and I often think of her loss and that of her brother and uncle also drowned at sea. The stormy waters around the Cornish coast, especially around the Lizard and Land’s End are particularly hazardous. This led in time to lighthouses being constructed as a warning of dangerous rocks such as the Manacles and Longships rocks. The well-known story of the loss of the Samaritan in 1846 at Bedruthan Steps is a story of wreck and wrecking brought on through a violent storm.
The Samaritan was a relatively new vessel, a brigantine of 222 tones build in Great Yarmouth in 1840. She was certainly not one of the ships dreaded by sailors, a coffin ship poorly maintained and unlikely to last even a moderate storm. The voyage was to carry a valuable cargo including silk and cotton goods and brassware from Liverpool sailing to Constantinople (Istanbul). via Alexandria. Leaving on Tuesday October 22 1846 there were later reports by Lloyds of London reported accounts of a most fearful storm occurring off the western coast during the following Thursday and Friday. Newspapers reported that the Cornish coast especially near Padstow suffered severely.
The story of the Samaritan has lasted into folklore since the 19th century because it became one of the most notorious examples of the pillaging of a wreck. The fury of the storm was so great that within a few hours the Samaritan was dashed to pieces and utterly destroyed. Captain Davie and eight of the crew were drowned when she broke up on rocks at Bedruthan Steps, with just two survivors making it to the shore. The bay was littered with bales of fabric, kegs and barrels that drew a crowd from miles around, so much so that the authorities took three days to regain control.
Very good weather succeeded the gale and on the following morning people from the countryside thronged the beach to pick up cargo. Many of the iron – bound bales had burst and scattered fine silks and cottons with much brass and silver beside, on the beach. ‘Looting was carried on incessantly,’ according to a local resident quoted by Mr. A K Hamilton Jenkin in his ‘Cornish Seafarers.’ ‘Never before, or perhaps since, have the ladies of the neighbourhood been clothed in such rich silks and other fineries.’ In an attempt to recover the goods the wreck, excise officers searched practically every house in the district. Where much of the spoil was discovered its possessors were arrested and it was reported that Bodmin gaol was half filled with looters from St Eval. But some canny Cornish folk managed to outwit the officers at some houses including hiding places including beneath a bed where a farmer’s wife claimed to be in childbirth and other with hidden cupboards crammed with goods. These were difficult times to live here in Cornwall. The Cornish people were also suffering from food deprivation at the same time as the Irish and the times became known as the ‘Hungry Forties’. The opportunity for rich pickings were taken by the Cornish folk almost as a right although the authorities stamped down hard on those caught plundering wrecks. It was reported that ‘more than twenty persons have been summarily committed to Bodmin Gaol with hard labour from 3-5 months.’
There was a well-known poem written at the time relating to the Samaritan, the best quoted lines being at the beginning
‘The Good Samaritan came ashore,
To feed the hungry and clothe the poor.
With barrels of beef and bales of linen,
No poor soul shall want for a shillin.’
The ‘Samaritan’ rock at Bedruthan Steps by its name still commemorates this famous wreck.
Over a few days of that terrible storm many other vessels were wrecked around the coast of Great Britain including a number around Wales and at Bideford, Devon. The North Cornish coast saw one other wreck, but with a somewhat happier ending as a result of great bravery by another ships crew. The brigantine Spartan, again a relatively modern vessel, was built in Waterford in 1834. She weighed 142 tons and was classified to be in good condition the year prior to her being wrecked. Based at Dartmouth she was carrying a cargo of rail iron from Cardiff to Livorno, an Italian port city in Tuscany often called in Britain, Leghorn. She had left Cardiff on 16th October and until 20th all had been well, when she experienced very strong weather. On the 21st Spartan was some 30 miles north of Cape Cornwall she was caught in a sudden squall, a localised storm, which carried away parts of the upper masts leaving just the main sail.
Cape Cornwall just up the coast from Land's End. Is it no wonder many ships were damaged or came to grief off this coastline often unsuccessfully trying to outrun the storm.
Despite the crew trying to set sails this was impossible and Spartan the following morning found herself at Trevose Head. Further attempts to set a jib to each mast was successful and they hoped to draw eastwards of Trevose, but ultimately the master Captain Gillard thought to run to Constantine Bay and shelter there using both anchors. The anchors held until mid-night when the vessel started to drive towards the shore and later that morning with the seas moderating the crew took to the ships longboat with a view to rowing around Trevose Head. They had rowed for about three hours when they were picked up by the ‘Sir William Molesworth’ a smack of some 60 tons based in Padstow. Their rescuers had seen their plight and gone out to rescue whoever they could. The joint crews then made an effort to get the Spartan off the shore and sails were set and she taken in tow by the smaller vessel. However the winds had veered several points and they found it impossible to weather St Eval Head (Park Head). Further attempts to bring her further eastwards failed and following the tow lines parting Spartan was in the breakers and sank at low water in about 15 feet of water becoming a total wreck. The battering led to Spartan soon being broken to entirely to pieces.
Captain Gillard and his crew were saved with no loss of life. It was reported they extended their ‘sincere thanks to Mr Tippett and those on board the Sir Wiliam Molesworth for the kindness and promptness with which they had hastened to relieve them from their perilous situation so soon after the gale abated.’ Although the vessel was entirely lost the crew of eight was saved and a total disaster averted. Most newspapers just reported that the Spartan had gone to pieces on the rocks, but fortunately an extensive report by the Shipping and Mercantile Gazette included news of the selflessness and bravery of Captain Tippett and the crew of the smack Sir William Molesworth. Whether there were any attempts to salvage any part of the cargo by local wreckers is unknown, but certainly it was not the rich pickings that were had from the Samaritan.
Sixty years later vessels were still going ashore during storms close to Trevose Head.
Following my brief experience of pulling a tarpaulin over my conservatory roof in a raging wind I now have even greater feeling for those sailors of long ago. Pulling weighty canvas often some hundred feet off the deck of a ship rolling in heavy seas in gale force winds shows real hardiness and courage.
Heritage Column
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