Wrecks - GOWER SHIPWRECKS

Gower Shipwrecks 1910 - 1919

Last Updated (Saturday, 12 November 2011 16:55) Monday, 30 November 2009 10:03

Gower  Shipwrecks  1910 -  1919

 

NOTRE DAME de LOURDES  This ketch was bound for Llanelli with pit props when driven ashore near Burry Holms on 15 April 1910. The crew got ashore and were put up at nearby farms. The vessel broke up after a few tides.

 

WILN  This Fowey schooner was bound from Devonport to Llanelli with steel scrap when she arrived off the Burry estuary on the afternoon of 28 January 1911 some hours before the tide would allow her to enter. That evening she was in collision with the steamer Irena, of Liverpool, which was bound from Briton Ferry for Dublin with coal. The steamer launched her boat and picked up three men from the water but one died of exposure. The master and two others had gone down with the vessel. 

 

SICIE  A furious gale was blowing on the afternoon of 30 October 1911 when the Helwick lightship sent up distress signals. Both the Tenby and Port Eynon lifeboats launched. When they arrived at about 6 o'clock they were told that at about three o'clock a vessel had been seen to founder two miles to the south. Both boats searched the area and found a good deal of wreckage but no sign of life. Later two bodies and a seaman's chest were recovered and helped to identify the vessel as the brigantine Sicie which had sailed from Swansea with coal for Lorient two days earlier.

 

CHARIOTEER  This Swansea tug was lost with all hands off Port Eynon when in collision at night with the 2,000 ton Veria of the Cunard Line which was bound for Swansea on 17 February 1912. The men drowned were:  Fred Evans of Orchard Street, master;  R. Pritchard, Odo St, Hafod, mate; Tom Gow, Bond St, engineer; R. Williams, fireman and W. Griffiths, Rodney Street, deckhand.

 

ESPÉRANCE  The trawler Picton Castle (Joseph Rust, of Mumbles, skipper) was returning to Swansea on 5 September 1912. A strong gale was blowing and when off Oxwich they saw a schooner swamped by huge seas and capsize. The trawler hove to and lowered her boat which rescued Capt Birzonarn, four hands and the dog from this vessel which had been bound from Boulogne to Swansea with pitprops. Skipper Rust and his men were honoured by the French government for their swift action.

 

EPIDAURO  This 1,200 ton steamship was registered at Lussin Piccolo (then in Austrian Italy, now Croatia) and was bound from Livorno for Swansea in ballast when she went ashore at Washslade to the west of Overton on 13 February 1913.  The vessel dried at low water allowing her crew to walk ashore. The ship was seriously holed on the rocks and scrapped where she lay in a long drawn out operation. Melville Clare, the Mumbles photographer, took many pictures of the scrapping and published them as postcards.

 

S.S. Epidauro on the rocks at Washslade, Overton, 13 February 1913.

 

 

S.S. Epidauro

Works for scrapping the Epidauro.

 

 Rail road over the hill for carrying the scrap away.

Scraps off Epidauro.  Notice the foreman at centre of the picture with dog, gun, and rabbits.

Above are some of the postcards produced by Melville Clare of this wreck.

This photo of the Epidauro is the work of Henry Chapman of High Street, Swansea.

 

BLUEBELL  Just two days after the stranding of the Epidauro  Charles Bevan, who lived at Milan Cottage, Overton, and was the Honorary Secretary of Port Eynon Lifeboat station, was roused from sleep by a ship's siren. Investigating, he found a ship ashore near Culver Hole. The lifeboat Janet was launched in thick fog and saved all twelve crew of the Bluebell, of Manchester, bound from Partington for Swansea with 600 tons of coal for the Swansea Gas Company. Later that day Bevan, who was also local agent for the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society, sent the crew to Swansea by motor bus. The Bluebell  became a total loss.

The S.S. Bluebell  wrecked near Culver Hole.

(Photo courtesy of Gareth Mills.)

 

 

LEONORA   This Barnstaple ketch was bound home on 19 November 1913 with a cargo of coal from Swansea when she was in collision with the Cardiff tug Atlas. The badly damaged vessel was abandoned and drifted ashore at Rotherslade. She broke up in a gale the next day. 

 

 

Postcards by Melville Clare showing the Leonora  ashore at Rotherslade on 19 November 1913 and breaking up in a gale next day.

 

S.S. CORUNDUM  On the evening of 17  October 1914 his vessel was bound from Burry Port for Rouen with 1,600 tons of coal when she was in collision near the Helwick Lightship with the S.S. Kyleness, Swansea to Liverpool with 6,000 tons of coal. The Corundum  sank and its crew were picked up by the Kyleness which returned to Swansea with its bows stove in. 

 

THE WRECK THAT NEVER WAS.        WELL NOT OFF GOWER ANYWAY !

The internet is full of misinformation on any topic you care to mention and naturally the ever popular subject of shipwreck comes in for its share. One does not, however, expect to find it in Shipwreck Index of the British Isles  - Volume 5 West Coast and Wales   (Lloyd's Register of Shipping 2000).  The following entry naturally caught my eye:  

SERBINO 16/08/1915 Torpedoed and sunk offshore Worms Head L/h, Bristol Channel, when on a voyage Riga to Petrograd. The vessel was British and she was attacked by the German submarine U 9. 

Now you would think that the person who noted this incident would think "Hang on - Riga to Petrograd? Why was she in the Bristol Channel?"  Well of course she wasn't. Nor was there a lighthouse on Worms Head. The Worms where the Serbino was sunk was in the Baltic of course. Get your atlas out and you will see that on a voyage from Riga (Latvia) to Petrograd (rather better known as St Petersburg) a vessel will pass near Worms. It is an island off the coast of Estonia   -  Worms was its German name, but it is now known as Vormsi. Until 1939 it had a largely Swedish population and they called it Ormsö which means snake island. Ring any bells? Our Worms Head and the Great and Little Orme at Llandudno? Those Vikings certainly got about.

As my father repeatedly told me "Believe nothing you are told, and little of what you read, until you have checked it for yourself". That, after all, should be the point of education.

 

ELIZABETH  JANE  This Wexford schooner had been in Mumbles roads for a few days when she fired distress signals on the evening of 27 December 1915. A heavy gale was blowing and the steam pilot cutter Beaufort and Mumbles lifeboat Charlie Medland were quickly on the scene. They found the vessel sinking in huge seas. Lines were thrown to men in the rigging but they were overwhelmed and there were no survivors from the crew of three.

 

MERCIA   A Swedish ship bound from Bilbao to Briton Ferry with iron ore. She ran aground at Pennard during a blinding snowstorm on 29 February 1916. The combined effort of the Beaufort  and tug Trusty failed to refloat her and she was abandoned to the underwriters when she broke up.

 

OLGA  This Russian schooner was bound from USA to Swansea with pitprops when she was driven onto Mumbles Head in a snow storm on 28 March 1916. The crew were helped ashore by the lighthouse keepers. The vessel was refloated but declared a constructive total loss and sold for breaking.

 

TRIDONIA  This London registered barque was a former German vessel seized in a British port at the outbreak of war. On a voyage from Dublin to Buenos Aires in ballast she ran into a severe gale and was damaged and driven back into the Bristol Channel. She was anchored off Port Eynon on 29 October 1916 where the Beaufort put pilot William Davies aboard. The cables parted next day and she drove ashore at Lucas Cove to the west of Oxwich Point. Charles Bevan was quickly on the scene and messages sent for the rocket companies from Oxwich, Rhossili and Mumbles. During the night the decks were swept by heavy seas and three of the crew, including the master, drowned. Four men attempted to bring a line ashore but their boat was capsized and they were lucky to get to the beach. The rocket crews eventually got a line over the ship and the twenty survivors, including the master's wife, came ashore by breeches buoy.

The barque Tridonia was wrecked at Lucas Cove to the west of Oxwich Point.

 

The grave in Oxwich churchyard of Patrick Russell drowned in the wreck of the Tridonia.

"Erected by his Mother, Brother and Sisters in Loving Memory of Patrick Russell of Limerick, Ireland who was drowned in the wreck of the Tridonia near Oxwich on the 30th day of October 1916."

 

ST. CHRISTOPHE  This schooner was anchored in Mumbles roads when bound from Blaye, near Bordeaux, for Swansea with pitwood. On the evening of 16 November 1916 a sou'east gale blew up and next morning she began to drag and by midday was on the Cherrystone at the lighthouse. With the tide on the ebb she began to settle and break up. John Thomas and Charlie Cottle, the keepers, organised the garrison of the fort in a rescue effort. The Frenchmen floated a line ashore and this was retrieved by a human chain who then hauled a heavier cable from the wreck.  Capt Francis Poquet and the crew of seven came hand over hand along the cable. They had given their dog a piece of wood and he swam ashore with it in his mouth.

 

SAINT  LOUIS   The crew of three were drowned when this vessel, bound from Bordeaux to Swansea, was believed to have struck a mine on 26 December 1916 as she came up channel towards Mumbles.

 

FRANKLIN  This 500 ton steamer was at anchor in Mumbles roads on the evening of 24 October 1917 when she capsized in a nor'west gale with a very heavy sea. The master and eight hands were pulled from the water by the crew of the pilot cutter Beaufort, but four others were drowned.

 

SEAFORTH  On 5 December 1917 this steamship of 575 tons struck the submerged wreck of the Franklin and foundered in ten minutes. She had been bound from Barry for St Malo with coal. Her master and ten crew were picked up and landed at Swansea.  In April 1918 both the Franklin and the Seaforth were raised, beached at Mumbles, and got to Swansea for repair.

 

Raising the FRANKLIN.

 

The salvage crew with their work boat Nil Desperandum and the SEAFORTH.

 

 Divers and support team who raised the FRANKLIN  and SEAFORTH.

(Photographs taken by Melville Clare)

 These photos were given to the late George Owen of Uplands, Swansea, by Clare's daughter Mildred.  George Owen, who was interested in all matters maritime but particularly paddle steamers, gave them to me in 1993.

 

TREBISKIN  Wreckage was seen on the Mixon on the morning of 7 November 1918. There was no sign of the crew of five of this Padstow ketch which had been bound from Swansea for Youghal with coal.

 

NANSET  This Norwegian steamship stranded in fog on Oxwich Point on 26 November 1918. She was refloated and beached on Oxwich sands but then capsized and was scrapped.

 

 

 The Nowegian steamer NANSET on Oxwich beach.

 

TOURS  It is often ships which were stranded, rather than wrecked, which made the greatest impression on those onshore and this was very true of this steamship. She stranded in Deepslade Bay (rather better known as Hunt's Bay) in fog, when bound from St Nazaire for Swansea, on 2 December 1918.  The Loss Book at Lloyd's carries the comment "not much damaged, expect to get off". Tugs failed to refloat her and she was sold where she lay to C.M. Peel & Co. for just  £1,200. She was then sold for £4,500 to a salvage syndicate. The long drawn out operation was followed by hundreds of people through the winter and spring and some wag penned a new verse to a popular wartime song:

                               The Tours is on the Gower rocks, parlez vous

                               The Tours is on the Gower rocks, parlez vous

                               The Tours is on the Gower rocks,

                               We don't give a damn if they don't get her off !

                               Inkey, pinkey, parlez vous.

Rocks around the vessel were blasted away and timber ways laid. Eventually on the evening of Sunday 29 June 1919 she was refloated and towed away to the cheers of a huge crowd on the cliffs of High Pennard.

 

The TOURS in Hunt's Bay, Pwll Du Head in the background.

TOURS on the rocks,

 

Timber ways are placed under the ship.

 

The salvage gang whose months of hard work refloated the TOURS.

 

 

TYNE  This Royal Mail Line steamship was bound to Swansea in fog when, on 19 April 1919, she struck and sank the brigantine Fleur de Marie. In picking up the French crew the ship lost her course and, some hours later,  stranded on Rother's Sker (better known as Crab Island) a little to the east of Rotherslade. Some of her cargo of cement was jettisoned and she was refloated after ten days.

 

The Tyne  aground on Rother's Sker.    Langland in the background.

 

 

The Tyne  high and dry at low water.