Wrecks - GOWER SHIPWRECKS
Gower Shipwrecks 1800 - 1829
Last Updated (Wednesday, 28 December 2011 21:00) Tuesday, 03 November 2009 20:39
GOWER SHIPWRECKS 1800 - 1829
NEPTUNE This vessel, which was bound from Barnstaple to Bristol in March 1802, was driven across the channel and, according to Lloyd's List, wrecked on the Welsh coast drowning her crew of seven. (Early wreck reports were often somewhat vague as to position!!) At about the same time a vessel foundered in Rhossili Bay with the loss of her crew. We cannot be sure but perhaps this was the Neptune. Some weeks later a body, which came ashore at Port Eynon, was found to carry a watch engraved with the name John Cutliffe. The corpse was badly decomposed but Cutliffe's uncle was then in Swansea and recognised the watch. Cutliffe, a native of Combe St Martin, Devon, was buried at Port Eynon.
UNKNOWN A vessel was wrecked in Oxwich Bay on 20 November 1802. The body of Joseph Peters, of Padstow, was recovered and interred at St Mary's Church, Swansea.
TWO SISTERS This Padstow sloop was driven ashore near Whitford Point during a severe gale in January 1804. Her master, George Hawker, and the crew survived. The vessel was wrecked and her cargo of rag slates, from the Delabole quarry on the north Cornish coast, was sold by auction at John Bevan's public house in Frog Lane, Llanmadoc.
Burry Bay, Bar and Harbour by William Morris. Published 1800
UNITY Just to the west of Mumbles lighthouse lies the Mixon sandbank which has been the scene of many wrecks. On the night of 23 April 1804 this sloop, bound from Portreath for Neath with a cargo of copper ore, was driven onto the bank by a strong gale. Huge seas swept the deck and she broke up drowning Captain Walker and the two hands. The wreckage came ashore at Broadslade - for the last hundred years or so we have called this Bracelet Bay which is the way in which Mumbles folk pronounced it.
FANNY Bound from Neath to Cork with a cargo of culm (small coal) this vessel stranded on Skysea at Port Eynon on the night of 22 June 1805. The crew abandoned as she broke up and rowed ashore.
ROSE This sloop struck Port Eynon point on 26 December 1805 and was wrecked drowning her master Sam Davies, his son and two others. Local man Tom Hopkin saw another member of the crew struggling in the water and dashed in to drag John Stephens ashore.
HOPE Wreckage was seen on the Mixon on the morning of 5 June 1806. It was some days before it was identified as coming from this sloop which had been bound from Tenby to Bridgwater. Her master, Reed, and his crew were drowned.
NOVO MORO This ship sailed from Lisbon on 1 December 1806 bound for Amsterdam with a cargo which included cotton, sugar, fruit, wine and hides. Three weeks later her master, Joye de Santos d'Olivera, was unsure of his position due to prolonged overcast weather but had lookouts posted hoping to make landfall at the Lizard on the south Cornish coast. In the early hours of Christmas Day the vessel struck rocks and was wrecked. Her master and crew, nineteen all told, abandoned in the longboat. Hearing the surf thundering on the shore the master steered the boat east looking for a sheltered bay in which to land. A few hours later they got ashore and found themselves in Mumbles. The ship had been wrecked on Port Eynon Point. William Grove, a Swansea merchant who was Portuguese vice-consul, acted for the owners and oversaw the salvage and sale of the materials of the wreck and cargo. The total cost of salvage was a little over £1,300.
This wreck is a very good example of the difficulties experienced in navigation. In overcast conditions when neither sun nor stars can be seen navigation had to be carried out by a process known as "dead reckoning". Beginning with the last known position an estimate is made of a new position by estimating speed through the water (using the log line) and the course steered. The effects of currents and wind could only be guessed at. The errors which occured day to day were cumulative and vessels on long ocean voyages were frequently well off course. We shall see later that ships often ended up in the Bristol Channel when their masters thought they were in the English Channel or sailing up St Georges Channel bound for Liverpool.
Notices advertising the sale of the cargo and materials of the ship NOVO MORO
( The Cambrian , Swansea Museum )
FRIENDSHIP Was another victim of the Mixon. Bound from Ireland to Swansea with copper ore she stranded in the early hours of 26 February 1810. Capt Rees and his crew rowed ashore.
NANCY This Swansea registered brig foundered off Worms Head in April 1811. Roberts, her master, and all the crew were drowned.
BROTHERS This vessel drifted ashore to the west of Oxwich Point in November 1812 and went to pieces. She was bound to Swansea with copper ore and timber when she was abandoned in a sinking condition near Lundy. The crew drifted north in the boat and were picked up by another vessel when in Carmarthen Bay.
ANN & SARAH This 30 ton Ilfracombe sloop, with a cargo of coal from Llanelli, sprang a leak while crossing Rhossili Bay on 8 September 1813. James Irwin, the master, ran her for the shore but she went down. Irwin climbed the rigging which was above water but his mate and the boy took to the boat which capsized as they rowed ashore. The boy was drowned but the man grasped an oar which kept him afloat. Struggling ashore he raised the alarm and local men Moses Gibb, John Thomas and Wiliam Harry launched their boat and rescued Irwin after he had spent some hours on the mast.
ELIZABETH A Portsmouth vessel which sailed from Swansea with a coal cargo. Meeting contrary winds (it was often a very slow process to tack down channel against the westerly wind) she was returning to the roadstead at Mumbles when she stranded on the Mixon on 3 August 1817. She refloated on the flood tide but sank before she could be run ashore.
LA MANCHE There was great excitement in the Oxwich area on the morning of 18 December 1817. A heavy sou'westerly gale had struck the previous evening and this smack of only about 20 tons burthen was found wrecked on Oxwich Point. Naturally the locals were soon on the scene and word spread when it was found to be carrying spirits for she was a smuggler. By chance John Prosser, Commander of District 15 of the Water Guard, arrived that morning at the Port Eynon station for an inspection. The watch came down from the lookout to report seeing the wreck across the bay. Prosser and station officer Bartlett then set out with seven men under arms to the spot. On arrival they dispersed the "intoxicated population" and assisted Francis Bevan, coast officer of the customs, to secure what remained of the cargo. About 300 gallons of gin and brandy were saved and placed under guard by the preventive men until it could be moved to Swansea. The vessel had sailed from Morlaix with 130 four gallon casks "ready slung with small cordage for a run on some part of the coast". The intended customers in the Dartmouth area had to look elsewhere that Christmas for their illicit tipple. Three bodies were recovered including that of the master Guillaume.
BOUNTY HALL This 370 ton Liverpool brig was not wrecked but stranded at Whitford on the night of 19 December 1819. She had been bound home from Calcutta with a valuable cargo which included planks of teak, tobacco, borax, cotton, rice, sugar, saltpetre, galingale, munjeet and ginger but lost her course in thick weather. Tom Prance, the customs boat-sitter who had lost both forearms years before, and sported a menacing pair of hooks, was joined by Edward Bartlett and the preventive crew from Port Eynon. With George Holland, Lloyd's agent, living nearby at Cwm Ivy, Captain John Roberts had all the help he needed to save his ship. Holland contacted his brother John, who lived at Kilvrough, and he sent word to the magistrates. A troop of the Swansea Cavalry was sent down to guard the cargo, which had been unloaded onto the dunes and covered with tarpaulins. The sugar and most of the saltpetre were ruined but the rest saved. Three vessels the Providence, Venerable and Perran took the cargo to Liverpool. The Bounty Hall was refloated and got to Whitford Pill and then towed up to Penclawdd. After repairs she sailed for Liverpool in the last week of February 1820. Whether she arrived I am not sure as she was found to be leaking on the passage and taken into Milford.
List of goods saved from the Bounty Hall and taken to Liverpool.
(Liverpool Mercury, February 1820)
Cargo saved from the Bounty Hall was put up for sale in Liverpool.
(Liverpool Mercury, February 1820)
JOHN A Padstow sloop which sank in Rhossili Bay on 21 January 1820 drowning her crew of two men and a boy. The body of John Slocombe, her master, was recovered and buried at Rhossili Church.
GEORGE A few hours after the John went down this vessel, with copper ore for Llanelli, was driven onto the rocks near the Worm. Two of the crew leapt ashore as she struck but Capt Sincock and a seaman took to the rigging. Word was sent to Port Eynon and Sam Gibbs arrived with Manby's Apparatus - a line-throwing mortar. This was put to good use by Charles Steel, commander of the Water Guard, assisted by the crew of the preventive boat, who managed to get a line to the men and saved them.
UNKNOWN A Lynmouth smack capsized and sank near Port Eynon while dredging for oysters on 2 August 1820. Three members of her crew of four were drowned.
DILIGENCE Registered in Cardigan this sloop was driven ashore in September 1820 near the Worm and wrecked when bound for Bristol with a cargo of oats.
TRAFALGAR Swansea sloop which left port on 12 September 1821 with copper ore for Llanelli. The next day she was off the Worm when overtaken by a strong gale and foundered. John Bevan and his crew abandoned but were badly bruised by the rocks as they got ashore.
SALLY & WILLIAM Rose master, driven ashore in Oxwich Bay by a violent gale in February 1822.
ANGALLY Swansea pilot boat run down and sunk by the vessel she was boarding three miles sou'west of Mumbles on 27 June 1823. Pilot Bevan jumped aboard the vessel but his two assistants spent a long time in the water before being picked up. They were lucky it was June rather than January. [Swansea pilot boats were schooner rigged rather than cutters as at other ports. Also they ran alongside a ship rather than transferring the pilot by boat].
HERO A rare nor'easter with snow squalls drove this Whitehaven brig from her anchors in Mumbles roads on 30 October 1823. She sank near the lighthouse but was raised and taken into Swansea by the shipwrights Meager and Richards.
Chart of Swansea Bay by William Morris. Published 1800.
LAVINIA The roadstead at Mumbles was crowded on 22 November 1824 with over one hundred vessels sheltering from a sou'westerly gale. That evening the wind backed to south east and blew a near hurricane with rain and thunder. There was considerable confusion as vessels parted their chains and drove through the anchorage. Fourteen vessels were driven ashore and others lost masts, yards and bowsprits. The Falmouth schooner Lavinia and a Bideford sloop were wrecked.
MENAI This sloop was owned at Newport, Pembrokeshire and went down off Rhossili in January 1825 with the loss of all hands. Large quantities of oats washed up at Llangennith.
FRIENDS This pilot boat sailed from Swansea on the ebb tide on 8 November 1825. A south west gale was blowing and a fleet of coasters was known to be in the offing. Having put pilot Deusbury aboard a vessel, the boat was "returning too early on the tide, and keeping too near the shore" when she shipped a succession of seas and sank drowning the assistant Sam Hopkins and two boys.
PONSONBY, BONNY KATE The day after the loss of the Friends the gale swung round to the north. Ten vessels including the Bonny Kate, of Barmouth, drove ashore at Mumbles. The brig Ponsonby, of Cork, with a cargo of coal from Newport, sank at her anchors. The brig's cargo was discharged at low water. She was raised and got to Swansea for repairs on the patent slip. It was to be another ten months before she would resume her voyage.
Notice advertising the sale of the BONNY KATE stranded at Mumbles. If it could be "fitted for sea at trifling expence" why was it being sold?
( The Cambrian , Swansea Museum )
UNION This new brig of 300 tons was on passage for Jersey when she met a rising westerly gale. Capt Perchard decided to bear up for Mumbles on the evening of 10 April 1826. It was hazy and the lookouts failed to see Mumbles lighthouse so that she went onto the Mixon. The vessel filled at once forcing the crew to seek refuge on a vessel in the roads.
THREE BROTHERS This Barnstaple sloop was bound from Hayle with copper ore for Swansea when she ran aground on Oxwich Point in fog on 20 March 1827. Her crew got ashore but she became a wreck.
Salvaging a wrecked vessel.
From Volume 4 of Gower the Journal of the Gower Society.
ATLAS This sloop was wrecked at Llanmadoc on the night of 4 May 1827. She was bound from New Ross, Co. Wexford to Swansea with 105 sheep almost all of whom were drowned. Her crew were helped ashore by local men John Bevan and Dick Richards.
GEORGE This Bideford brigantine was bound home from Bristol on 14 February 1828 when caught by a violent sou'easter. Course was changed for Swansea but as they approached in the early hours her crew mistook a light on the shore for that on the breakwater. She struck the beach and filled. As the tide was making and a heavy sea running they took to the rigging from which they were rescued after two hours. Later that day some local men were employed to salvage the wrecks materials but found a jar of whisky and were soon incapable of work. Two were in such a state that tackles were rigged to lift them from the hold. They were then carried home on ladders and the stomach pump administered!
SPECULATOR When this sloop capsized and sank off Mumbles in a gale on 9 August 1828 her crew were picked up by the steam packet Palmerston which ran the regular Bristol - Swansea service.
SEAFLOWER This sloop (of Bannow, Co. Wexford) was anchored at Rhossili attempting to find shelter from the gale of 9 August when her cables parted and she drove onto the sands and was wrecked. Her crew got ashore.
WILLIAM & MARY (of Plymouth, Slocombe master) bound to Neath with copper ore went down in Oxwich Bay on 12 August 1828. Her crew got ashore.
JUNO On the afternoon of 10 October 1828 a brig in a sinking condition was seen heading for the shore near Burry Holmes. The vessel sank before those on the shore could give assistance. She was identified as the Juno, of St Ives, by her boat which went ashore at Rhossili. The two bodies recovered were identified by men from Llanelli, where the vessel was a regular trader, as those of James Kempstone and Charles Richards - they were buried at Llangennith. It was conjectured that the vessel may have struck the western end of the Helwick as the Admiralty survey had shown the bank extended further west than existing charts showed.
JANE This sloop owned at St Clears was on passage from Bristol for Carmarthen with a cargo of freestone and shop goods. She sprang a leak on 4 November 1828 and was being run for the shore when the crew were forced to abandon. She drifted ashore a mile east of the Worm. The crew and customs saved what they could of the cargo.
LIVELY A Sunderland brig which was wrecked on the Mixon on 16 October 1829. The master, mate and boy were swept to their deaths. Three others spent a few hours in the rigging before being taken off by Herbert Blackmore of the Swansea pilot boat Sarah.
( Advert from The Cambrian , Swansea Museum )
IDUS This Whitby registered brig went ashore in fog at Langland Bay on 9 December 1829. She was bound from Miramichi, New Brunswick, to Gloucester with timber.
Notice advertising the sale of the cargo of the IDUS wrecked at Langland Bay.
( The Cambrian , Swansea Museum )