Khyber wreckage from beach-level, figures in background
Khyber, wreckage on Tol'pedn beach. 1905
Khyber, another beach-level view of wreckage, with numerous figures
Iron Barque Noisel, wrecked in gale, Praa Sands, 1905
Iron barque Noisel, 440t, wrecked in gale while on passage from Cherbourg to Savona, Italy with cargo of naval armour-plate scrap, on Praa Sands 7 Aug 1905. View or ship engulfed in surf CSI 180-2
Steamer James Spier in Penzance harbour with collision damage, 1906
Steamer James Spier in Penzance harbour, showing collision damage aft on starboard side, with boat and workmen alongside
James Spier: closer view of damage, 1906
View of damage to James Spier, both to hull and inboard. Full-rigged sailing ship in background
Socoa, French full-rigged ship, wrecked on Craggan rock, Cadgwith, July 31st 1906
The Steel masted, Socoa, of Bayonne stranded near Cadgwith in thick weather while on passage from Stettin to San Francisco. She was carrying cement intended for the rebuilding of that earthquake-shattered city and 50,000 barrels of it had to be jettisoned before she could be reflected. Later re-names the 'Theirs' she surveyed another twenty-one years before being broken up. Description from Richard Larn and Clive Carter, Cornish Shipwrecks: The South Coast (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1971), p. 126.
Socoa from Bayonne, French full-rigged ship that wrecked on Craggan rock, Cadgwith, July 31st 1906
Steamer Highland Fling on rocks near Cadgwith, 1907
The Highland Fling, a large iron steamer of 4,088 tons, went ashore on the Criscan rocks, a little to the west of Cadgwith on January 7th 1907. In going ashore she almost ran down the tug Triton, missing her by less than 200 yards in the fog. She had left the Thames under the command of Captain Purvis on New Year's Day, bound for Buenos Aires with 3,000 tons of cement. An old vessel, launched in 1890 as the Morsayshire for the Scottish Clan Line, she was sold to the Ducal Line in 1998, when her name was changed to Duke of Portland. In 1906 she was finally sold to Messrs H W Nelson, who renamed her the Highland Fling. Soon after leaving the Thames, a serious leak developed beneath a boiler and she put in to Falmouth where a diver found a cracked plate. It was decided that she would go into dry-dock at Cardiff, so she sailed again in the thick fog on January 7th and within a very short time of leaving the harbour was hard and fast on the Criscan rocks. The crew lowered the boats and were about to abandon ship when the Triton appeared out of the fog and assured them they were in no danger. A towing hawser was transferred to the tug, but the steamer refused to budge: even the combined efforts of two more tugs could not refloat her. On January 8th, lighters arrived from Falmouth and her cement cargo was unloaded, but still the stranded ship could not be moved. The Western Marine Salvage Company then took over the task of salvage and, after the ship's crew had been sent ashore, the remaining cargo was jettisoned along with a number of deck fittings. That nigh the Highland Fling began to bump and grind as the weather deteriorated. The plates in No.2 hold gave way, the forepart of the ship flooded up to the engine and boiler room bulkhead, and she began to break in two. On January 12th, a final effort to tow her off failed, despite the efforts of four tugs and assistance from the ship's own engines. The decision was then made to separate the from portion of the ship from the as yet undamaged stern section. Dynamite charges were placed around the hull and within a week the job was so far advanced that only a single charge of explosives was needed to sever the keel plate and divide the Highland Fling into two sections. But the final charge was never fired: an easterly gale blew up during the night of January 19th, the sea parted the last iron plate and the stern portion drifted out to the sea. By daylight, the tugs Triton and Eagle had managed to secure hawsers to the floating section and after the bulkheads of the engine room had been shored up, they towed the half vessel to Falmouth. With the section becoming steadily deeper in the water and in imminent danger of sinking in Falmouth harbour, it was put on to a sand bank at high tide and lightened by unloading the coal from the bunkers. That same night, a north-westerly gale reduced the shattered bow section, still on the rocks of Cadgwith, to a pile of twists iron. A great deal of wreckage came ashore, the complete foremast finishing up at Parnvoose. At the Board of Trade enquiry it was discovered that the deviation card for the ship's compass had been left behind in London when she sailed. It was also established that she was travelling too fast in the fog, and Captain Purvis, held responsible for the loss, had his master's certificate suspended for six months. The salvaged rear section of the Highland Fling was eventually manoeuvred into dry-dock, but it proved too badly damaged to warrant the fitting of a new bow and was broken up for scrap metal. Description from Richard Larn and Clive Carter, Cornish Shipwrecks: The South Coast (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1971), p.103-104.
Highland Fling's salvaged after section in dock at Falmouth, 1907
Highland Fling's salvaged after section at Falmouth, 1907
White Star liner Suevic on Clidgas Rock, Maenheere Reef, Lizard, 1907
The Suevic was homeward bound from Australia, carried a crew of 141, plus 382 passengers, and one stowaway; her cargo was general, and included frozen meats, butter, and copper bars. She was on her way to Liverpool via Plymouth when an error of navigation and bad visibility combined to put her ashore on the Maenheere rocks. Two days after she went ashore, a railway company steamer arrived alongside to disembark the passengers, luggage, and was followed later by every available lighter and coaster in the West Country. On March 20th, in calm conditions, unloading of the cargo into the smaller vessels began and was completed exactly one hour before the weather deteriorated on March 27th. Divers inspected the hull, but the Suevic was so badly damaged in the forepart that explosives were used to detach the bow section from the remainder. The after portion, containing all the valuable machinery, boilers, and passenger accommodation, then floated free and virtually undamaged, was towed to Southampton and dry docked. A new bow section was built at Belfast, then towed to Southampton where the two ends were malted and the Suevic was re-born to sail again. So confident of success were the owners that they advertised her next sailing for January 14th 1908, while the bow section was still on the stocks at Belfast. During the First World War the Suevic served as a troopship, and in 1929 she was sold to a Norwegian whaling company. Re-named the Skyttern, she survived as a whale factory ship until April 1st 1942 when her crew deliberately scuttled her in the Skagerrak rather than let her fall into German Hands. Description from Richard Larn and Clive, Cornish Shipwreck: The South Coast (Newton Abbot: David & Carter, 1971), p.127.
Salvaged after section of Suevic at Southampton, 1907
Steamship Jebba, Bolt Tail, S. Devon, 1907.
Steamship Jebba (1896), 3,813 t., wrecked on passage from W. Africa to U.K. on Bolt Tail, S. Devon in fog, 18 March, 1907. Cargo of palm oil and rubber. 155 passengers and crew rescued by life saving apparatus. Ref: DSA i, 358
Another clifftop view of Jebba wrecked at Bolt Tail 18th March, 1907. 155 passengers and crew rescued by life saving apparatus. Tug and sailing vessel visible on starboard (seaward) side. Ref: DSA i, 358
Mary Barrow and Lizzie R. Wilce, St.Ives, 1908
The Lizzie R. Wilce was en route from Swansea for St. Malo with coal. Constructed of wood in 1876, she was a sailing vessel, it was carrying a cargo of anthracite. On Tuesday 7th January at about 9.15pm during a heavy north-west gale, a vessel was seen running for the harbour, but on nearing the entrance, the vessel was driven ashore, first striking heavily on Penolva Point. At about 9.30 pm, the lifeboat James Steven was launched and proceeded to the distressed vessel, and after much difficulty succeeded in rescuing her crew, and in the teeth of the gale landed them safely in the harbour about 10.30pm. Owing to the heavy swell, the lifeboat could not be housed until 2am. Part of a lamp recovered from the wreck of the Lizzie R. Wilce was sold at auction in 2002. Description from Shipwreck Index of the British Isles: St. Ives RNLI. Records
SS. Huddersfield, wrecked near Hartland Point, 27th January 1908.
Ketch Ystwyth of Cardiff, stranded in a NNE gale in Carbis Bay, 28th January, 1908.
Gunvor, 3 masted-barque wrecked at Black Head, April 6th 1912.
The 1,491 ton three masted, steel barque Gunvor of Fredrickstadt, Norway. The Gunvor was lost at Pedn Boar on April 6th 1912, while on passage from Caleta to Falmouth with nitrates. So close inshore was she that her bowsprit overhung the rocks and the crew had only to lower a rope ladder over the bow to gain the shore. he Times reported that all the nitrate dissolved and the empty bags were floating out of the ship [The Times, 11 April 1912, p.19]. The ship was reported to have broken its back late on Saturday 6 April 1921 [Western Daily Mercury, Monday 8 April 1912] and, by mid-day the same day, the main royal mast had snapped [Cornishman, Thursday 11 April 1912]. Main description from Richard Larn and Clive Carter, Cornish Shipwrecks: The South Coast (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1971), p. 101.
The Plympton of London, a Commercial Steamship Company Vessel went ashore in the thick fog on August 14th while carrying maize in bags from Villa Constitution to Dublin, via Falmouth. Built for Furness, Withy & Company of West Hartlepool in 1893, the Plympton was 314ft in length and 2, 869 tons gross was declared a total loss, her value for insurance purposes being set at 16,000 with her cargo at an additional £25,000. Her arrival was not exactly unannounced, since she steamed headlong onto the rocks with her fog siren going full blast. An old gig, the Dolly Varden, was launched from Porth Cressa and after searching around Gugh and Wingletang area, found the Plympton with her boys hard and fast ashore, listing heavily to port. After her crew of 23 had been landed, the islanders set about the age-old practise of stripping the wreck. That afternoon, whilst work was still in progress, the flood tide gently lifted the steamer off the rocks and without warning she turned right over and sank, leaving only the bow section above water. Two local men, Charles Mumford of St. Marys and Charles Hicks of St. Agnes, were sucked down by the wrecked and drowned. Several others had lucky escapes: one in particular , a visitor to Scily named Ormrod, was actually inside the deckhouse when the steamer capsized. He went down with her but managed to escape through a porthole and reached the surface still clutching his trophy, the saloon stewards dinner bell. A remarkable coincidence occurred when in 1920, a German steamer Hathor, 7060 tons gross, sank right across the wreck of the Plympton on the base of the Lethegus Rock. Richard Larn, Cornish Shipwrecks: Isles of Scilly (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1971), p.76-79.
Schooner Mildred half submerged at Gurnard's Head, 1912
Schooner Mildred awash at Gurnard's Head after striking rocks in fog, 7 April 1912