Wrecks - GOWER SHIPWRECKS
Gower Shipwrecks 1850 - 1869
Last Updated (Sunday, 27 February 2011 15:35) Tuesday, 10 November 2009 17:40
OWER SHIPWRECKS 1850 - 1869
MARY This Bideford vessel parted from her cables in a severe westerly gale when anchored at Mumbles on 5 February 1850. She drove out into Swansea Bay and sank on the Greengrounds. It was the third wreck her master had experienced in nine years.
MARY This Port Talbot pilot boat was wrecked on the ledges on Mumbles Head on 21 June 1850. Pilot John Matthews and his crew clung to the rocks until the tide went out.
HOPE On the evening of 7 August 1850 the coastguard at Mumbles (their lookout was then on Mumbles Hill not at the Tutt) saw a small vessel go down on the Mixon. It was the Port Eynon owned Hope with a cargo of oats from Waterford. William Richards, John Richards and Abraham Ace were drowned. William's body was found ten days later near Nash Point.
COURAGEUX The hull and rigging of a schooner were found at Port Eynon in the first week of December 1850. When it was sold a week later it had been identified as the Courageux, of Nantes, inward bound for Swansea in ballast. The vessel and crew were thought to have been victims of a storm which struck on 24 November.
SPRINGFLOWER This Port Eynon oyster skiff was overwhelmed by a sudden gale in December 1851 when dredging on the Bantum haul on the eastern end of the Helwick. Her crew of John Chalk, John Jenkins, James Rees and John Jones were drowned.
Gower's second lifeboat station opened 1852. The stories of the Mumbles and Port Eynon lifeboats are well known. It may well come as a surprise to learn that Gower had another station and that it was opened as early as 1852. A branch of the Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners Benevolent Society had been opened at Llanelli in 1840. The main function of this national body was to reimburse members for clothing and belongings lost in shipwreck, and to support the widows and children of those drowned. The society also formed a lifeboat branch to supplement the work of the older organisation, the RNLI. In March 1852 the society sent the lifeboat Rescue to Llanelli. It was kept on davits on the lightship cum pilot station Ceres which was moored in the Lynch Pool about one mile north of Burry Holmes. All the society's stations (there were a number of them on the Welsh coast) were handed to the RNLI in 1854. This lifeboat was launched on 8 November 1855 to the ship Elizabeth seen to be in difficulties near the Holmes but a change in the wind allowed the vessel to get away without assistance. The boat was crewed by the pilots on duty on the hulk and this made the arrangment unsatisfactory as they would most likely be boarding vessels during bad weather. The RNLI removed this lifeboat in 1863 when a new station was created at Pembrey on the north side of the Burry estuary.
PRETTY MAGGY Registered in Cork this vessel, bound from Ballinacura for Cardiff in ballast, was wrecked on the Mixon on 6 December 1852. Her crew of five and one passenger were lost.
ELLEN This 80 ton Milford smack foundered off Oxwich Point on 15 January 1853. She had been bound for Bristol with a cargo of oats and butter. The sole survivor was picked up by a boat which put off from Port Eynon. The grave of the master, Peter Perkins, may still be seen at Oxwich.
NETTUNO A Brazilian brig which struck the Greengrounds on 6 July 1853 and then sank south east of Mumbles lighthouse. She had left Swansea with coal for Cape Verde.
IRMA This brig, registered in Bayonne, carrying coal from Cardiff drove ashore near the Worm and became a complete wreck.
ANNA CATHERINE A Sunderland brig which was bound to London with coal. On the evening of 25 October 1855 she was sheltering at Mumbles from a west sou'west gale. When the wind rose to hurricane force she parted her cables and drifted onto the Greengrounds. On the flood she rode over the banks and foundered at 2 a.m. next day. The crew took to the rigging and were rescued at daybreak by the tug Beaufort. Griffith Rosser, the tug skipper, was awarded the Thanks of the Lifeboat Institution inscribed on Vellum and a sovereign, and his crew received ten shillings each.
CATHERINE JENKINS This Swansea registered barque was sailing home from Cuba with copper ore when she ran ashore in poor visibility at Lucas Cove to the west of Oxwich Point well before dawn on 8 February 1856. The crew of eleven abandoned in the gig but it capsized and only four survived.
Notices advertising the sale of the hull and materials of the Swansea barque Catherine Jenkins wrecked at Lucas Cove, Gower.
( The Cambrian, Swansea Museum )
Storm of 27 September 1856 The south-west gale, which had been blowing during the day, backed to south-east during the evening and increased to storm force. The vessels anchored in Mumbles roads were now exposed to the full fury of the wind and the short steep seas which build up from that quarter. Eight vessels sank at their anchors, nine parted their cables and stranded on the shore, and a further five were damaged.
A coastguard boat, manned by chief officer Dillon, William Evans bo'sun, William Griffiths and James Sullivan, saved the crews of the schooners Monkey, and Western Star, while a shore boat manned by brothers Jenkin and William Jenkins and Tom Michael, saved the crews of the Emmet, Pioneer and Happy Return. "Ships sunk, ships ashore, ships damaged met the eye to whichever quarter it turned".
JUANITA This lugger was sheltering in Mumbles roads from a gale when she sank at her anchors on 15 March 1857. She had recently sailed from Swansea bound for Seville. Her hull and masts were salvaged and put up for auction four months later.
LOUIS This smack was bound from Llanelli for Rouen with coal when she lost her mainsail in a squall on 2 January 1858 and driven up channel. Her crew of five abandoned and were picked up by a Tenby fishing smack. The Louis drifted ashore and was wrecked at Port Eynon.
BUSY Though a bell buoy had marked the Mixon shoal since 1856, the bank continued to claim victims. This Beaumaris vessel, bound from Barrow to Neath with iron ore, struck the bank on 11 june 1858. She sank as she was being run for the shore.
Gale of 2 October 1858. Two vessels were lost during this gale. The Emily, of Bridgwater, was driven ashore at Port Eynon with only one survivor and the Hazard, of Westport, Co. Mayo, went down off Oxwich. Her crew of four were picked up from their boat.
North-east gale on 19 October 1858. The anchorage at Mumbles was vulnerable to northerly and easterly winds. A gale blew all day driving a schooner onto the middle head. In the morning the Swansea pilot boat Neptune lost her cables and was wrecked on the beach. Later that day the pilot boat Sarah also drove ashore. She was scuttled by her crew to reduce damage as she worked on the stony beach. Five of the Mumbles oyster skiffs too went ashore and were wrecked.
FRIENDS Originally built as a trow but later decked and given a ketch rig she foundered on the Helwick on 28 September 1859. All six hands were lost.
Gale on 25 October 1859. This is known as the Royal Charter gale after the ship wrecked at Moelfre, Anglesey, with the loss of over four hundred lives. The Gower peninsula escaped lightly: four vessels drove ashore at Mumbles, the smack Eliza, of Llanelli, being wrecked. The sloop Union, Bridgwater to Llanelli with railway sleepers, drove ashore at Worms Head. The weather remained stormy for more than a week and the schooner Robert Henry, of Hayle, foundered four miles off Pennard on 31 October - her crew rowed ashore.
WILLIAM & MARY Bound from Swansea for her home port of Youghal, this brigantine was caught in a squall on 28 December 1859 and driven onto Mumbles Head where she broke up.
CAMILLE This la Rochelle brig was leaking badly and slowly sinking three miles south of the Helwick in January 1861 Her crew were exhausted from spending hours at the pumps. Her distress signals were seen by the Austrian brig Andrina which lowered a boat and saved the crew of six.
ZOE The wreckage of this Austrian ship were found near the Helwick lightship in March 1861. She had sailed from Cardiff for Venice some weeks earlier.
VILLIERS This brigantine was bound from Cardiff for Alicante with coal when she ran into a freshening SW wind and turned back to seek shelter at Mumbles. She struck the Mixon on 2 September 1861. Four of the crew abandoned in the boat which capsized drowning two. The other two were plucked from the sea by the pilot boat Rival. The next morning the tug Beaufort went to the wreck and found four in the rigging. Philip Deusbury, master of the tug, backed his vessel between the masts of the wreck and rescued them. Both the RNLI and Board of Trade made monetary awards to the tug crew.
VICTORIA & ALBERT Thomas Powell of Newton was in Langland bay on the afternoon of 5 March 1862 when he saw a schooner founder off shore. He alerted the coastguard who launched their galley which was joined by two pilot boats. When they reached the scene the mastheads were visible but the crew had drowned. She was inward bound for Swansea with copper ore.
LACONIC This barque had sailed from Swansea with coal for Tenerife. A day later on 19 February 1863 she stranded on the Helwick in thick fog and a flat calm. She was abandoned as she broke up her crew rowing ashore at Rhossili.
PERI This Port Talbot brigantine was bound home fro Plymouth in ballast when she missed stays and ran onto the rocks of Skysea at Port Eynon at 4 o'clock on the morning of 10 February 1864. The crew scrambled onto the reef and were rescued when they were seen at dawn and a boat went off to them.
INDUSTRIOUS This brig had just sailed from Llanelli with coal for Malta when she was caught in a gale and driven up the coast. She went ashore and was wrecked at Nackershole, Port Eynon on the morning of 19 September 1864.
Heavy SW gale 18 November 1864. Three vessels were lost in this gale:
The Conway schooner HECTORINE, on passage from Cork to Llanelli, was riding at anchor inside Worms Head when she parted her cables and drove up the bay. She grounded at Llangennith and broke up. Her crew scrambled ashore.
The smack DESIRÉE, of St Vaast, Swansea to le Havre with coal, ran back before the gale and anchored in Oxwich Bay during the night. At eight in the morning she parted her cables and drove towards the shore. The crew abandoned but their boat capsized. Three got ashore leaving the master and boy struggling in the breakers. John Clement of Penmaen, and brothers John and William Bevan of Nicholaston, dashed in and dragged them to safety. The five were taken to Clement's house where Capt Thomes and the boy were put to bed to recover. The rescuers received the bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society and the silver medal of the French Merchant Marine.
A few days later wreckage which included the stern board of the LADY OF THE LAKE, of Bristol, was found at Caswell. More wreckage washed up at Oxwich and the vessel's boat was picked up offshore. Two weeks after this gale a letter was received by Mumbles coastguard from Braunton, North Devon, making enquiries of the vessel, Reed her master and the crew.
FRANCIS & ANN This wreck was found ashore in Overton Mere on 26 January 1865. George Gibbs, Lloyd's agent, arrived to find her breaking up and scattering her cargo of oranges and lemons along the tide line. Working against time he landed what he could of her cargo and materials. Gibbs had then to get to Killay to telegraph Lloyd's with the news and to report there was no sign of the crew. A day later news came from Milford that Capt Vibert and his crew of Jerseymen had been landed there. The schooner had left Palermo on 22 December bound for Bristol but had struck the Helwick in a snowstorm. Her crew had abandoned and taken refuge on the lightship before being taken to Milford by a passing steamer.
EMMANUEL ADRIEN This smack was inbound with a cargo of potatoes but stranded at Llanmadoc on 22 November 1865 and became a total loss.
ELIZA JANE foundered off the Worm on the evening of 20 March 1866. The crew of six were picked up by the schooner Equity, of New Quay, and landed at Swansea.
Heavy sou'west gale 23 March 1866. The schooner ELECTRIC FLASH, of Hayle, with a cargo of coal loaded at Porthcawl, was driven ashore at Port Eynon and became a total loss. Her crew were saved by a boat which put off from the village. The brig VESTA, of Whitby, was anchored in Mumbles roads when she parted her cables and drove onto the Greengrounds where she sank. The lifeboat Martha & Anne was launched and Cox'n Jenkins took her in over the wreck to snatch the crew of seven from the fore rigging. This was the first service of the Mumbles lifeboat - the two earlier rescues had been performed by lifeboats stationed in Swansea.
CHASSEUR A brig registered at Nantes. She sailed from Swansea with coal for Barcelona but put back, in the face of bad weather, to shelter at Mumbles. On the evening of 10 September 1866 she parted in a strong gale and went down near the Greengrounds. The crew spent an uncomfortable four hours in the rigging before rescue by the crew of the tug Tweed. Capt Withers, the tug skipper, was awarded a presentation telescope by the French merchant marine.
Severe westerly gale 8 January 1867. The Pembrey lifeboat City of Bath was launched during the morning to a lugger seen beating over the middle spit of the Lynch sandbank off Whitford. The Pembrey men got alongside and snatched the crew from the rigging. The lugger was the ESPOIR, of Nantes, with a cargo of coal from Swansea. She broke up and washed ashore at Llanmadoc. Within a short time of landing the rescued at Pembrey the coxswain was told that a brig could be seen anchored in a dangerous position near Burry Holmes. The lifeboat was again launched but when she got to the brig, the ZENITH, of Sunderland, found her to be almost submerged and abandoned. Later that day the Zenith's boat and bodies of her crew were found on Broughton beach.
FORTUNA This brig, registered at Blankenese near Hamburg, was bound from Puerto Cabelo for Liverpool with cotton and sugar. She was caught in an Atlantic storm and struck by a succession of heavy seas, which swept her decks and brought down her masts. She was driven before the storm and stranded in Broughton Bay on 6 February 1867. Capt Breckwoldt and his crew survived and much of the cargo was salvaged, though the vessel was a wreck.
Notice advertising the sale of the materials of the brig FORTUNA wrecked in Broughton Bay.
( The Cambrian, Swansea Museum )
ANEMONE A Whitstable brig which was bound from Newhaven to Cardiff in ballast. She was wrecked at Port Eynon on the night of 10 March 1867 in a stiff east wind with snow squalls. The master, crew of seven and the pilot stayed in the village for four days until arrangements for the sale of the hull and materials had been made.
ALBION Soon after dawn on Monday 13 January 1868 this Cardiff brig was seen stranded on Whitford Point. She was homeward bound with a cargo of copper ore and esparto grass from Spain. Customs officers from Llanelli boarded and found the galley fire alight and a cat aboard but no sign of the crew. Later that day the bodies of the mate, John Nicholls, and seaman Carl Zaschob, were found on the beach. The next day a farmer found five more bodies on Llanrhidian marsh. The crew had evidently drowned while trying to get ashore. At the inquest, held in Cheriton, Benjamin Thomas of Newport identified one body as that of his son William a 16 year old ordinary seaman. The wife of David Williams, the master, had come down from Cardiff to view the bodies. Her husband's was not amongst them but she was able to identify those of the mate and cook.
The Whitford Wrecks 22-23 January 1868
Bad weather had prevented vessels sailing from Llanelli for some days, but on the afternoon of Wednesday 22 January there was a light northerly breeze and nineteen vessels left port. Most sailed independently but a string of five was towed down the estuary by the tug Royal Princess. When they rounded Whitford Point the crews could see that though the wind was light there was a terrific ground sea on the bar (the result of the high winds of the previous few days). As they crossed the bar the breeze died away and few were able to make sail and get away. There was considerable confusion with vessels being driven against eachother and others driven onto Rhossili, Broughton and Whitford beaches.
The crews of five vessels abandoned and rowed to the hulk Ceres (the lightship and pilot station moored in the Lynch Pool). At dawn next day there was a scene of devastation with a dozen vessels stranded on the shore. Six of these were refloated undamaged but the other six were wrecked. They were: schooner WATER LILY, of Llanelli ; brig JEUNE CELINE, of Jersey, crew of six drowned; brigantine ONWARD, of Llanelli, four of her crew of eight were lost; schooner AMETHYST, bound to Devon with coal, crew of five drowned; brigantine ROSCIUS; and the Llanelli brigantine BROTHERS.
The schooner MARY FANNY, of Beaumaris, was sold where she lay on Rhossili beach and, after a complete refit, resumed trading. Built at Amlwch, Anglesey, in 1862, she must have been a sturdy craft as she lasted till 1918. On 15 September that year she was on passage to an Irish port when forced to hove to by a German submarine. Her crew were ordered to abandon and she was sunk by scuttling charges.
Notice advertising the sale of the schooner MARY FANNY stranded on Rhossili beach in January 1868.
The buyers had her refloated and she continued to trade until sunk by a German U-boat in 1918.
( The Cambrian, Swansea Museum )
Notice advertising the sale of some of the vessels wrecked after sailing from Llanelli in January 1868.
( The Cambrian , Swansea Museum )
The inquest into the deaths in these wrecks was conducted at the Farmer's Arms in Llanmadoc. The jury returned a verdict of "found drowned" on the fifteen bodies recovered and recommended that a lifeboat be once again stationed on the hulk lightship. They also suggested that a mast should be erected on Cwm Ivy Tor so that the state of the sea on Burry Bar could be signalled to Llanelli. The Lifeboat Institution considered the situation and, at its meeting of 6 February, ordered a new lifeboat to be built. The boat James & Elizabeth was the gift of Miss Anne White of Plymouth. It was built of iron by Hamilton of Liverpool and arrived in April 1869. 26ft long and having a crew of six, pulling five oars, she too was kept on davits on the lightship. The arrangement, however, proved unworkable and the station was closed when a larger boat went on station at Pembrey in 1871.
Following these wrecks the Bristol Mercury commented: "The coast of Gower is now literally strewn for miles with every conceivable fragmentary portion of a ship's wreck, and with coal, with which the ships were pricipally laden, while the exposed and isolated neighbourhood is ever and anon receiving, in the washing ashore of dead bodies, dumb but eloquent monuments, pointing alike to the uncertainty of life as to the tempestuous fury of the sea on the occasion in question." Victorian writers were fond of using many words where a few would tell the tale rather better!
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CAROLINE This smack was bound from Newport to Bideford with coal when she ran into a gale on 9 November 1868. Running for shelter at Mumbles she went down drowning her crew of three.
NUAVO PLAUTO This brig, registered in Trieste, was bound from the Black Sea to Neath with a cargo of wheat. She was anchored in Mumbles roads on 31 December 1869 when she parted her chain cables in a heavy gale and sank on the Greengrounds. Her crew rowed ashore.
Advert in the Western Mail. Whether the wreck was actually sold and salvaged from the Greengrounds I do not know.