Aida Lauro, wrecked at Kenidjack, June 30th 1937.
The last large steamer wrecked at Cape Cornwall fell to the 4,538-ton Aida Lauro of Naples. She had been launched in July 1923 by the Richardson Dock Company of Stockton as the Randor, for the Cardigan Shipping Company, and was a steel screw steamer, engined by Blair & Co, 412.7 ft long, 52 ft in beam and with a draft of 24.3 ft. She subsequently became the Welsh-owned Treharris, before being sold to Alfredo Laura of Naples early in 1937. She left Liverpool at noon on June 29 1937, bound for Hull to complete discharge of her cargo of cotton seed, linseed, and peanuts from West Africa. On the following night, off Godrevy, fine weather gave way to thick fog and at 01:00 am on July 1st she struck below Kenidjack Castle, in the same place as Malta. Fifteen of the crew, accompanied by the ship's cat, rowed themselves ashore. Forty-eights hours later the Aida Laura parted forward of the bridge, and in a week had gone. Today her boilers still stand out of the water at low tide below Kenidjack Castle. Description from Clive Carter, Cornish Shipwrecks: The North Coast (London: Penn Books LTD, 1970), p.26-27.
Air-raid warden in front of bomb damaged buildin
Air-raid Wardens and bystanders clearing rubble
Clearing up after bomb attack in Penzance
Alacrity , cargo ship aground thick fog Portheras Cove, Lands End. 1963
carrying coal from Swansea to Brussels no lives lost
Alacrity aground at Portheras Cove . 1963
Alacrity aground at Portheras Cove, 1963
Alacrity aground at Portheras Cove. 1963
double neg carrying coal from Swansea to Brussels
Porthmeor Beach, St Ives RNLI Lifeboat 'Caroline Parsons' in foreground.