Title
SS Ansgir, Wrecked at Penzer Point, December 12th 1920
Subject
Steamer
Shipwreck
Wreck
Description
One of the largest ships to wreck on the Cornish Coast, the Ansgir, was one of many vessels of the German Merchant Marine.
Completed a dew weeks after the Armistice of 1918, she was created by A K Ges Neptune of Rostock, on the Baltic. She was a large, single funnelled, two masted steamer of 6,483 tons gross, 4,068 tons net, with a deadweight capacity of around 9, 500 tons. She measured 438.5ft in length, 57.1st in beam and 28.1 ft in depth, and her single screw was driven by a four cylinder diesel engine of 476 nhp.
At the end of the war, she was taken over by the Ministry of Shipping, who placed her under the management of Gow, Harrison & Company of Glasgow. Her German crew brought her over to Leith Roads where, on August 12th 1920, the Ansgir hoisted the 'red duster'.
Captain James D Gemmel took command of her and she went out to Hampton Roads, Virginia, where she loaded coal for Rotterdam. This safely delivered her next port of call was Dartmouth and here on September 29th 1920 her crew were paid off. As customary, they all signed on afresh next day, and the Ansgir crossed the Atlantic again and at Baltimore took on coal for La Pallice.
On arrival at the French port, Captain Gemmel was informed that the Ansgir had been awarded to the Japanese as part of their war reparations and he was ordered to proceed to Barry and take on bunkers for the voyage to Japan.
On the morning of December 12th 1920 the Ansgir sailed from La Pallice in water ballast for Barry. The weather was hazy, with a blustery south-west wind which promised to freshen strongly before nightfall. Ushant was sighted at two o'clock in the afternoon and an hour later Captain Gemmel set course for the Wolf Rock light. The wind increased to a hard quartering gale towards dusk and visibility was seriously impaired by heavy rain and patches of foggy drizzle. At 8pm the third mate joined Captain Gemmel on the bridge for the eight twelve watch and both men and the lookouts kept constant watch for the Wolf and the Longships lights.
The steamer rolled on through the heavy seas, gradually getting closer to the Cornish Coast, but by eleven o'clock no lights had been sighted. Half an hour later, the captain decided to put about, but hardly had the order been given to turn to port than the watch below were hurled from their bunks as the Ansgir struck the rocks a few hundred yards west of the coastguard lookout on Penzer Point, near Mousehole.
Captain Gemmel rang down for hard astern, but the steamer was driven broadside to the cliffs within minutes, the waves breaking over her as high as her funnel. She rolled so violently that it seemed as if she would turn right over, and the boats could not be launched.
A long wooden hold ladder was put over the side and down it went 19-year-old Geoffrey Davis, an apprentice from Birmingham, clad in lifejacket and with a rope about his waist. Two more volunteers followed him and hung on to the line while he jumped clear of the side and struck out for the rocks.
Waiting for him were three Mousehole fishermen who had been tending their boats in the harbour when, seeing the steamers lights heading towards Penzer Point, they had raised the alarm in the village and then run all the way up the steep Raginnis Hill and along the clifftop lane to the scene of the wreck.
The Mousehole men had a hard struggle to haul him out and one nearly swept into the sea, but they managed to regain the rocks and pull Geoffrey Davis in with them.
More men arrived from the village and the line the apprentice had brought ashore was used to haul in a stouter rope, one end of which was secured to Ansgirs poop and the other looped around a pinnacle of granite. The the crew started to come ashore one by one, handing themselves along the line. Meanwhile the Mousehole LSA company had left their rocket-cart by the coastguard lookout and were manhandling their apparatus down the cliffs. They reached the rocks to find that twenty of the crew had already come ashore along the line and soon rescued the remaining twenty-five by means of a quickly rigged line for the their breeches buoy.
Dawn found the Answer still broadside on to the cliffs, listing heavily to port, with her bows facing Lamorna. She was badly damaged and in spite of the being almost new had to be sold for scrap, and was broken up by the Western Marine Salvage Company of Penzance. In April 1921, she took a severe pounding from a westerly gale, but it was not until the late winter of that year that the Ansgir finally vanished from below the Penzer cliffs. It is still possible to find her plates and steel work jammed in the rocks below the point, and diligent search at low water can produce the occasional memento of one of the largest steamers ever wrecked between Penzance and Land's end.
Description from Richard Larn and Clive Carter, Cornish Shipwrecks: The South Coast (Newton Abbot: Charles and David, 1971), p. 196-198.
Completed a dew weeks after the Armistice of 1918, she was created by A K Ges Neptune of Rostock, on the Baltic. She was a large, single funnelled, two masted steamer of 6,483 tons gross, 4,068 tons net, with a deadweight capacity of around 9, 500 tons. She measured 438.5ft in length, 57.1st in beam and 28.1 ft in depth, and her single screw was driven by a four cylinder diesel engine of 476 nhp.
At the end of the war, she was taken over by the Ministry of Shipping, who placed her under the management of Gow, Harrison & Company of Glasgow. Her German crew brought her over to Leith Roads where, on August 12th 1920, the Ansgir hoisted the 'red duster'.
Captain James D Gemmel took command of her and she went out to Hampton Roads, Virginia, where she loaded coal for Rotterdam. This safely delivered her next port of call was Dartmouth and here on September 29th 1920 her crew were paid off. As customary, they all signed on afresh next day, and the Ansgir crossed the Atlantic again and at Baltimore took on coal for La Pallice.
On arrival at the French port, Captain Gemmel was informed that the Ansgir had been awarded to the Japanese as part of their war reparations and he was ordered to proceed to Barry and take on bunkers for the voyage to Japan.
On the morning of December 12th 1920 the Ansgir sailed from La Pallice in water ballast for Barry. The weather was hazy, with a blustery south-west wind which promised to freshen strongly before nightfall. Ushant was sighted at two o'clock in the afternoon and an hour later Captain Gemmel set course for the Wolf Rock light. The wind increased to a hard quartering gale towards dusk and visibility was seriously impaired by heavy rain and patches of foggy drizzle. At 8pm the third mate joined Captain Gemmel on the bridge for the eight twelve watch and both men and the lookouts kept constant watch for the Wolf and the Longships lights.
The steamer rolled on through the heavy seas, gradually getting closer to the Cornish Coast, but by eleven o'clock no lights had been sighted. Half an hour later, the captain decided to put about, but hardly had the order been given to turn to port than the watch below were hurled from their bunks as the Ansgir struck the rocks a few hundred yards west of the coastguard lookout on Penzer Point, near Mousehole.
Captain Gemmel rang down for hard astern, but the steamer was driven broadside to the cliffs within minutes, the waves breaking over her as high as her funnel. She rolled so violently that it seemed as if she would turn right over, and the boats could not be launched.
A long wooden hold ladder was put over the side and down it went 19-year-old Geoffrey Davis, an apprentice from Birmingham, clad in lifejacket and with a rope about his waist. Two more volunteers followed him and hung on to the line while he jumped clear of the side and struck out for the rocks.
Waiting for him were three Mousehole fishermen who had been tending their boats in the harbour when, seeing the steamers lights heading towards Penzer Point, they had raised the alarm in the village and then run all the way up the steep Raginnis Hill and along the clifftop lane to the scene of the wreck.
The Mousehole men had a hard struggle to haul him out and one nearly swept into the sea, but they managed to regain the rocks and pull Geoffrey Davis in with them.
More men arrived from the village and the line the apprentice had brought ashore was used to haul in a stouter rope, one end of which was secured to Ansgirs poop and the other looped around a pinnacle of granite. The the crew started to come ashore one by one, handing themselves along the line. Meanwhile the Mousehole LSA company had left their rocket-cart by the coastguard lookout and were manhandling their apparatus down the cliffs. They reached the rocks to find that twenty of the crew had already come ashore along the line and soon rescued the remaining twenty-five by means of a quickly rigged line for the their breeches buoy.
Dawn found the Answer still broadside on to the cliffs, listing heavily to port, with her bows facing Lamorna. She was badly damaged and in spite of the being almost new had to be sold for scrap, and was broken up by the Western Marine Salvage Company of Penzance. In April 1921, she took a severe pounding from a westerly gale, but it was not until the late winter of that year that the Ansgir finally vanished from below the Penzer cliffs. It is still possible to find her plates and steel work jammed in the rocks below the point, and diligent search at low water can produce the occasional memento of one of the largest steamers ever wrecked between Penzance and Land's end.
Description from Richard Larn and Clive Carter, Cornish Shipwrecks: The South Coast (Newton Abbot: Charles and David, 1971), p. 196-198.
Date
1920-12-01
Rights
Morrab Library
Format
Negative
Type
Photograph
Identifier
COLLINS.013A
Coverage
Penzer point
Mousehole