Wrecks - GOWER SHIPWRECKS
Gower Shipwrecks 1890 - 1909
Last Updated (Tuesday, 06 December 2011 21:17) Monday, 30 November 2009 10:03
Gower Shipwrecks 1890 - 1909
BENAMAIN A London registered steamship which left Swansea on 28 March 1890 bound for le Tréport with a general cargo which included 50 tons of copper ingots produced by Vivian and Sons. That afternoon she was steaming at six knots when she stranded in fog on the east side of Lundy. She refloated next morning but foundered about seven miles off Mumbles Head while returning to Swansea. Her crew of twelve were picked up by the pilot boat Rival. The Board of Trade Inquiry found that she was insufficiently manned and that the master had not made due allowance for the ebb tide setting the ship towards the island. In 1990 a team of divers located the wreck and recovered many of the ingots of copper.
A copper ingot recovered from the wreck of the Benamain which sank off the Gower coast in March 1890. The grade A copper was smelted by Vivian and Sons of Swansea. I was given the ingot, which weighs about 14 lb, by Richard Rimmer one of the team of divers.
SARSFIELD This Cork brigantine, bound for Newport, lost her course in thick fog on 11 January 1891 and ran ashore near the stream known as Diles Lake on Rhossili beach. Capt Macdonell, his wife and crew got ashore and were able to save their belongings and some of the vessel's materials, but she became a wreck.
H.L.C. This brigantine registered at le Havre sailed from Port Talbot with coal for Pornic on 1 March 1891. That evening she stranded on the Mixon in fog. Her crew got ashore but she broke up on the next tide.
FELICITÉ Port Eynon lifeboat was launched two days before Christmas 1891 when a brig was seen aground on Oxwich Point. When Sam Gibbs and his crew arrived they found the brig's crew safe ashore. Bound from Nantes for Swansea with pitprops she became a total loss.
FAVOURITE This Milford ketch was disabled by a heavy gale on 16 November 1893 and sank the next day when she had drifted to a position about three miles off Worms Head. The mate had left in the boat and was picked up by Port Eynon lifeboat, whereas her master and a seaman were taken off by a French schooner shortly before she went down.
ALTHEA This Norwegian barque, Swansea for Christiania with coal, had been windbound in Mumbles roads for almost two weeks. She was able to leave on 13 December 1893 and got as far as Lundy before being driven back by a heavy gale. She drove into Oxwich Bay and went ashore at Nicholaston Pill. The Port Eynon lifeboat was alerted and launched with great difficulty due to huge seas breaking on the shore. After a struggle at the oars they were able to make sail and arrived to find the barque a wreck. The crew of eleven were in the boat which pitched and rolled alongside. All were taken aboard and landed at Port Eynon where they were found lodgings by Charles Bevan who was both the lifeboat Honorary Secretary and Agent for the Shipwrecked Mariners Society. The hull and materials of the wreck and her cargo of over 600 tons of Gwaun cae Gurwen anthracite were sold by auction on Boxing Day.
GLENRAVIL MINER This Barrow schooner went ashore at Longhole Gut to the west of Overton on 22 March 1894. Port Eynon lifeboat was launched and, as they approached, were hailed by the schooner Jane Shearer, of Greenock, which had picked up the crew as they abandoned and pulled out to sea away from the seas which broke against the cliffs.
VENNERNE Registered at Sønderho, Denmark, this iron-hulled barque was in ballast from Aberdovey for Swansea when she sought shelter at Rhossili on 24 October 1894. After straining at her cables for some hours they parted and she drove ashore. The Rhossili rocket crew were soon on the scene but Capt Aare, his wife, child and crew of seven left in the boat. As there was every chance of capsizing in the surf, the master made a line fast to the wreck and veered the boat onto the beach where the coastguard helped them ashore. A tug failed to refloat the vessel and it became a wreck. An auction sale was held and the hull went to Barlow of Swansea for just £54. Parts of the wreck still lie in Old Castle corner. [Jack Beynon in his booklet on Gower Shipwrecks published in the 1960s called this vessel VERNANI and so it remained until I looked it up in Lloyd's List.]
The remains of the iron barque Vennerne which lie on the beach at Old Castle corner, Rhossili.
WASP This tug was in collision, to the west of the Mixon, with the Glasgow steamer Severn outward bound from Swansea on 20 April 1895. There were no survivors. The wreck was raised and beached in front of the George Hotel, Mumbles, one June evening. Crowds were drawn to the scene, some waded out to get a better view and Mumbles boatmen did a roaring trade at sixpence a trip. By dark the bodies of the engineer and fireman had been recovered and taken to the stables of the George to await an inquest. The bodies of other members of the crew were not found.
SMILING MORN and MARIA These pilot cutters were anchored in Rhosili Bay - the former was the Llanelli pilot and the Maria the cutter for Burry Port. In the early hours of Wednesday 2 October 1895 a strong gale blew in and caused the vessels to drag their anchors. The Smiling Morn drove across the Maria's bows and the vessels collided. Smiling Morn sank after her crew abandoned and landed on the beach in their boat. The tug Mabel got a line aboard the Maria but she too sank. The tug picked up the crew and landed them at Llanelli.
ZOE A few minutes after midnight on the morning of 4 October 1895 the maroons were fired at Mumbles to summon the lifeboat crew. The alarm had been raised by the wives of the lighthouse keeper and assistant keeper who had seen a vessel on the Mixon. The women had been able to cross the sounds as it was low water. The tug Privateer towed the lifeboat to the western end of the bank and as they approached Coxswain John Williams saw the fore and main masts go overboard. There was wreckage everywhere but no sign of survivors. After as thorough a search as conditions allowed the boats returned. A few days later William Jenkins of Clifton Terrace found a body floating through the moorings. The inquest held at the Pilot Inn were told it had been identified as that of Patrick Colford, master of the Waterford brigantine Zoe bound from Liverpool to Swansea with pitch.
IMBROS This 1,272 ton steamship, registered in Hull, stranded on the Helwick in fog on 2 February 1897. Bound from the Black Sea for Swansea with grain, she was beached at Mumbles where her cargo was discharged into lighters. Lloyd's surveyor declared the vessel a constructive total loss and she was towed to Cardiff for breaking.
THREE SISTERS This Cardigan ketch sailed from Port Talbot on the morning of 5 July 1899 with coal for Llangranog. Her master, John Thomas of Trevor, Aberporth, put into Mumbles roads to wait for the ebb and left there at 3.30 p.m. As they were beating down channel, the weather became thick and they put about to return to Mumbles. Off the Greengrounds buoy, the weather became very thick and they were in collision with the S.S. Tweed which had just left Swansea for the Clyde. The master was picked up by a boat lowered by the Tweed but the ketch sank drowning the master's 16 year old son David and 19 year old David Mathias of Ty Mawr, Aberporth.
DUISBERG A 969 ton barque, of Christiania, Norway which was sixty days out of Parrsboro, Nova Scotia, bound to Mumbles for orders with a cargo of timber when she stranded on Oxwich Point on 11 November 1899. The vessel had been leaking for weeks and the windmill pump (often fitted to Scandinavian vessels) unable to cope. The crew were exhausted by their exertions at the pumps, and by the dwindling provisions on the prolonged crossing. When Port Eynon lifeboat arrived they found the fore and main masts gone by the board and the crew ashore. The cargo was salvaged but the vessel became a total loss.
The barque DUISBERG wrecked on Oxwich Point on 11 November 1899. The windmill pump which was unable to cope with her leaks stands on the deck.
(Photograph courtesy of Gareth Mills)
TIVYSIDE A steamship of only 67 tons owned by the Bacon Line, of Liverpool, she stranded at Overton in thick fog on 15 June 1900. She was bound in ballast from Carmarthen to Bristol under the command of Capt Harvey. Her crew of six and seven passengers got ashore in the boat. By high water only her funnel and mast tops could be seen.
BRISTOL PACKET This ketch had discharged part of her cargo of fertiliser onto the beach at Port Eynon, and was due to sail around to Oxwich when a gale blew in on 12 April 1905 driving her ashore on the evening tide. She became a wreck.
INDEFATIGABLE This Swansea tug ran aground on the rocks below Whiteshell Point in thick fog on 23 January 1906. The crew were in no danger and were able to get ashore at low water. She was found to be holed and abandoned to the underwriters.
TILLY This Gloucester ketch had a cargo of crushed granite and was bound from Falmouth for Sharpness when she sprang a leak on 21 December 1906. Capt Jones, his son and seaman Joseph Tandy worked at the pumps but were forced to abandon when the water gained on them. The vessel went down a mile or so off the Helwick and the crew were picked up by the S.S. Ragusa.
MARIE THERESE Bound from Arcachon for Swansea with pit props this brigantine struck the western end of the Helwick in fog on 19 January 1907. She was abandoned in a sinking condition while her crew rowed to Tenby.
BOUGAINVILLE A schooner bound from Swansea to Mortagne sur Gironde with patent fuel. Sixty miles sou'west of Lundy she began to leak and put back pumping continuously. The crew were forced to abandon on the evening of 9 June 1907 and watched as she sank about four miles off Oxwich Point. Capt Duval, his wife, three men and the boy then rowed all the way to Swansea docks arriving there after six hours at the oars.
JANE This Aberystwyth ketch was bound from Aberaeron to Port Talbot in ballast when driven into Pwll Du bay by a southerly gale on 22 November 1907. Master and mate got ashore but the vessel broke up.