Browse Items (2856 total)

Crabber Pluie de Rose ( France) was wrecked at Trevedran Point, St Loy. The skipper swam ashore to raise the alarm at a farm. Two men were saved by breeches buoy and four men were picked up by the Penlee Lifeboat ( Royal National Lifeboat…

The 827-ton steam coaster, Yewcroft, bound from the Thames to Bristol with cement, wandered off course in dense fog and grounded near Cudden Point. A few hours later, as the tide ebbed from beneath her, she broke in half.

Description from Richard…

The French trawler Vert Prarial had left Brixam at 6pm on the 13th March 1956. Nothing more was heard from her, other than a weak distress signal prefixed by the call sign "Dieppe 1517". At 5.45 am on the 14th the Coastguard received a telephone call…

Lowestoft Drifter crew about to be rescued by Penlee lifeboat 1930

David M was trying to negotiate the River hayle - later refloated

HMS Wave broke her moorings in a storm in the early morning hours of 30th September 1952. The crew were evacuated by breeches buoy.

steamship Liberty ( Liberia) hit the rocks under Pendeen Watch while on voyage from Newport to La Goulette. All the crew was saved and the wreck was salvaged. Wikipedia

King Harry Ferry was being transported back to the River Fal via sea after refit.
Driven ashore by fierce gales.

Spanish coaster wrecked at Black Head Rock later drifted to Lowland Point, near Coverack, The Lizard
According to Spanish newspaper report (6th November 1951 - Google translation) " The Spanish ship ran aground on the Cornish coast. The ship began…

The salvage boat Barnet ( United Kingdom) standing guard overnight under the Warspite's bows, at Prussia Cove was holed in the engine room, towed off and eventually drifted ashore at Long Rock, a few miles to the west.
Wikipedia

Eleven years passed, and the tragedy of the Vierge Marie was repeated. Again, it was the usual 'wreck weather' for the western cliffs: hazy with heavy ground seas, the aftermath of a hard south-west gale. Shortly after one o'clock in the morning of…

HMS Diomedes anchored in Mounts Bay

Wreck off Gurnards Head

HMS Warspite (03) was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship launched in 1913. She served in the First World War and in numerous operations in the Second World War, earning the most battle honours of any Royal Navy ship. She ran aground on her way to be…

HMS Warspite (03) was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship launched in 1913. She served in the First World War and in numerous operations in the Second World War, earning the most battle honours of any Royal Navy ship. She ran aground on her way to be…

steamer sail ship Aida Lauro ( Italy) on voyage from Liverpool to Hull went aground near Cape Cornwall in dense fog. All seventeen crew saved by the St Ives lifeboat

Account taken from the RNLI Website RNLI.org
Thomas Cocking, Coxswain of the St Ives lifeboat hurries to the lifeboat station and fires two maroons to summon the rest of the crew. The lifeboat, Caroline Parsons, launches in record time and rounds St…

The only visible wreckage on the Doom Bar is the bottom tanks and plating of the minelayer HMS Medea, wrecked on January 28th 1939 during the hurricane which destroyed the Glasgow Collier Winston near Zennor. The 540-ton Medea, launched in 1915 by…

Le Vieux Tigre", which went on to Bass Point, The Lizard, in fog 27 March 1935

The wreck of the SS Clan Malcolm off Lizard Point in Cornwall is of particular interest to me because my grandfather Captain Lawrance Wilfrid Gibbins went on board her when he was a junior officer with the Clan Line in the 1920s. Launched in November…