Title
Alexander Yeats stranded at Gurnard's Head, September 25th 1896
Subject
Shipwreck
Description
The largest sailing ship lost anywhere between Land's End and St Ives was the Liverpool ship Alexander Yeats, launched in 1876 by D. Lynch of Portland, New Brunswick, as a wooden full-rigger of 1,589 tons.
Towards the end of her career she was bought by Liverpool shipowner G. Windon, who cut her down to a barque. On September 17th 1896, laden with deals and pitchpine from Sable, Savannah, she received orders from a pilot-boat off Port Lynas to discharge at Devonport dockyard.
Three days later she broke away from the tug Gamecock in a gale in SSW gale suddenly increased again, driving the Alexander Yeats back to the northward of Godrevy. The storm eased towards dawn, but the deck cargo had now shifted and the ship had developed a bad list to port.
Throughout the day Portreath coastguards kept a vigilant watch on her attempts to wear off the land, and at dusk, as she wallowed past under small sail, they alerted Hayle lifeboat. But both she and the St. Ives lifeboat failed to reach the crippled ship, which, just before midnight, struck heavily in high seas under Gurnard's Head.
Nineteen sailors, Irish, British, and Swedish were landed by breeches-buoy though not before a near-disaster when the landward anchor of the hawser came adrift. Apart from a broken forestopmast, the Alexander Yeats was not badly damaged, and by January 1897 a squad of traction engines, the first seen in the district, were hauling her pitchpine cargo to Penzance.
Description from Richard Larn and Clive Carter, Cornish Shipwrecks: The North Coast (London: Penn Books Ltd, 1970),p. 38.
Towards the end of her career she was bought by Liverpool shipowner G. Windon, who cut her down to a barque. On September 17th 1896, laden with deals and pitchpine from Sable, Savannah, she received orders from a pilot-boat off Port Lynas to discharge at Devonport dockyard.
Three days later she broke away from the tug Gamecock in a gale in SSW gale suddenly increased again, driving the Alexander Yeats back to the northward of Godrevy. The storm eased towards dawn, but the deck cargo had now shifted and the ship had developed a bad list to port.
Throughout the day Portreath coastguards kept a vigilant watch on her attempts to wear off the land, and at dusk, as she wallowed past under small sail, they alerted Hayle lifeboat. But both she and the St. Ives lifeboat failed to reach the crippled ship, which, just before midnight, struck heavily in high seas under Gurnard's Head.
Nineteen sailors, Irish, British, and Swedish were landed by breeches-buoy though not before a near-disaster when the landward anchor of the hawser came adrift. Apart from a broken forestopmast, the Alexander Yeats was not badly damaged, and by January 1897 a squad of traction engines, the first seen in the district, were hauling her pitchpine cargo to Penzance.
Description from Richard Larn and Clive Carter, Cornish Shipwrecks: The North Coast (London: Penn Books Ltd, 1970),p. 38.
Creator
Gibson
Date
1896-08-25
Rights
Morrab library
Format
Print
Identifier
RGN.038
Coverage
Gurnard's Head
Physical Dimensions
8" x 10"