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    Lost off Trevose: The Shipwrecks of Cornwall's Trevose Head
    Lost off Trevose: The Shipwrecks of Cornwall's Trevose Head
    Lost off Trevose: The Shipwrecks of Cornwall's Trevose Head
    Ebook132 pages1 hour

    Lost off Trevose: The Shipwrecks of Cornwall's Trevose Head

    By Brian French

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    About this ebook

    The ship that will not obey the helm must obey the rocks. Trevose Head, the land mass jutting out into the Atlantic from North Cornwall's shore, has been called the Lizard of the North Coast. This beautiful but inhospitable coast has seen many disasters over the centuries, from ocean-going sailing ships blown off course to coastal vessels bound for Wales and the Bristol Channel foundering and colliding, and colliers blowing up. Both world wars also saw intense activity off Trevose as German U-boats attempted to prevent supplies from reaching the UK. The torpedoing of HMS Warwick in February 1944 deeply affected the whole community. This illustrated history reveals the many shipwrecks to plague the notorious Trevose Head and considers the development of safety at sea, starting with the erection of Trevose Lighthouse in 1857, a project strenuously opposed by most seafarers at the time as it was believed that lighthouses attracted pirates like moths to a flame. A must for all shipwreck and local historians and those with a love of the Cornish coastline.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe History Press
    Release dateFeb 24, 2011
    ISBN9780750953467
    Lost off Trevose: The Shipwrecks of Cornwall's Trevose Head

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      Book preview

      Lost off Trevose - Brian French

      LOST OFF

      TREVOSE

      LOST OFF

      TREVOSE

          THE SHIPWRECKS

        OF CORNWALL’S

      TREVOSE HEAD

      BRIAN FRENCH

      To the Watchkeepers of NCI Stepper Point

      First published 2011

      The History Press

      The Mill, Brimscombe Port

      Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

      www.thehistorypress.co.uk

      This ebook edition first published in 2013

      All rights reserved

      ©Brian French, 2011, 2013

      The right of Brian French to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

      This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

      EPUB ISBN 978 0 7509 5346 7

      Original typesetting by The History Press

      CONTENTS

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      Iwould like to acknowledge the help and advice received in producing this book from the following:

      Derek Lindsey, NCI Stepper Point and former Station Manager

      John Buckingham and George Barnes of the Padstow Museum

      The Libraries at Bodmin and Truro

      Kim Cooper and staff at the Cornish Studies Centre, Redruth

      John Puddicombe of the HMS Warwick Association

      Ness Towndrow for her spectacular cover photo

      Moira Gill of St Merryn for her HMS Warwick input

      I have acknowledged the sources of photographs in the text. Unacknowledged photographs, sketches and maps are the author’s own work.

      And, of course, to my editors, Amy Rigg and Emily Locke of The History Press.

      TERMS OF REFERENCE

      In order to give some reasonable boundaries to this account I have followed roughly the work of Noall & Farr (1964) and Larne (1995) and taken for my geographical parameters the area between latitude 50.30.00N and 50.51.00N and longitude 05.00W and 05.38W. On the coast this covers the shore from Park Head in the south, round Trevose Head to Harlyn Bay in the east. Even with these arbitrary boundaries there are many losses to record and in the maps I have tried to plot each vessel’s last location as near to the given point as possible.

      The narrative will be supported by detailed tables listing vessel, date lost, location, crew saved/lost, tonnage, cargo, captain and maps showing the last known position of all vessels. Photographs, sketches and diagrams will illustrate the text. Where a vessel was positioned outside this ‘rectangle’ I have included it where historical significance or interest demanded.

      The scope of this book.

      PREFACE

      The book Wrecks and Rescues around Padstow’s Doom Bar (2007) focussed predominantly on maritime activity within Padstow harbour limits. This second book now takes Trevose Head, the ‘Lizard’ of the north coast, as its focal point and tells the stories not only of those better-known ships wrecked on Trevose Head itself, but also those recorded as simply ‘lost off Trevose’. This inhospitable coast has seen many disasters over the centuries, from ocean-going sailing ships blown off course or badly navigated, to coastal vessels bound for Wales and the Bristol Channel foundering, colliding, and ‘colliers’ blowing up. Both world wars saw intense activity off Trevose as German U-boats attempted to prevent supplies from reaching the UK and Europe. This book tells the story of these disparate events all linked by the location; Trevose Head.

      In addition, the narrative attempts to come to terms with the question, ‘Why did these disasters happen – at least the peacetime ones?’ As a landsman, this author was initially baffled by the number of collisions occurring in these waters. Wasn’t the sea big enough for everybody? This question leads us to the development of safety at sea, starting with the erection of Trevose lighthouse in 1857, a project strenuously opposed by most seafarers, and covering improvements in navigation (the discovery of longitude), International Sailing Law (‘rules of the road’) and the prevention of the overloading of cargo (Plimsoll Line).

      CHAPTER 1

      THE IRON SHORE AND

      THE LIGHTHOUSE

      The ship that will not obey the helm must obey the rocks.

      Old Cornish Proverb

      The north coast of Cornwall is famed today for its tourist potential with wide sandy beaches and excellent conditions for the relatively recent sport of surfing. Holidaymakers flock to the region throughout the year to take part in or watch this ever-growing pastime. This industry is flourishing on the pounding Atlantic waves which race into land unchecked after a journey of some 2,000 miles, these selfsame waves that in years before pounded ships to matchwood on Trevose’s lee shore.

      Ships on these waters are now monitored constantly by sophisticated radio, radar and computer systems operated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s regional headquarters at Falmouth, which is also the International Distress Centre. Immediate protection is afforded by the RNLI’s latest and most powerful lifeboat, Spirit of Padstow, operating from its state-of-the-art boathouse on Trevose Head. The entire coast is signalled by a succession of lights and daymarks all the way from the Longships lighthouse off Land’s End to Hartland Point light in the north. The newest recruit to sea safety is the National Coastwatch Institution, which has re-established visual watch stations in north Cornwall at Boscastle, Padstow, St Agnes and St Ives.

      Yet even today the Nautical Almanac gives fairly bleak advice to the sailor:

      The N coast of Cornwall and the SW approaches to the Bristol Channel are very exposed. Yachts need to be sturdy and well equipped since if bad weather develops, no shelter may be at hand … Bude dries and is not approachable in W winds… Boscastle is a tiny harbour (dries) … Padstow is a refuge but in strong NW winds the sea breaks on the Bar and prevents entry … Off Trevose Head beware the Quies Rocks… Newquay dries and is uncomfortable in N winds … off Godrevey Light are the Stones, a drying rocky shoal extending 1.5 m offshore … St Ives to Land’s End is rugged and exposed…

      From our relatively safe (and sane) vantage point of the twenty-first century it is astonishing to read that when in 1619 Sir John Killegrew of Arwenack, Governor of Pendennis Castle, petitioned the King that a lighthouse be built at the Lizard Point, Trinity House, the present controller of our lighthouses, opposed the erection, stating ‘It is not necessary or convenient to erect a lighthouse there, but per contra, inconvenient having regard to pirates and enemies whom it would direct

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