Title
Jeanne Gougy, Wrecked at Lands End, November 3rd 1962.
Subject
Trawler
Shipwreck
Wreck
Description
Shortly before 5 am and on November 3rd 1962, the coastguard on watch at Cape Cornwall saw the navigation lights of the 250-ton Dieppe trawler, Jeanne Gougy, about two miles offshore.
She was steering southwards and he was expecting the lights to vanish behind the Land's End headlands when she suddenly altered course towards the land and he could see that she would pass very close to the cliffs beyond Sennen.
His warning lights brought no apparent response, but the trawler stopped shortly afterwards, almost as if her crew had suddenly realised their danger. The coastguard sent a colleague to investigate and minutes later a red distress flare soared up from Land's End and rescue services closed in on Gamper Bay, a small rocky inlet tucked into the headland.
A fresh northerly wind and frequent sharp rain squalls buffeted the coastguards and LSA men as they were assembled on the clifftop, where the air was already heavy with the stench of fuel oil.
Below them lay the Jeanne Gougy, rolling and lurching as an immense ground swell swept over her decks. Parachute flares were fired, and in their glare five to six men could be seen crouched in the starboard wing of the bridge balcony.
A line-carrying rocket was fired, but it fell in front of the shattered glass of the wheelhouse windows and several arms were thrust through the jagged shards, grabbing wildly at the line. Another rocket was fired, but the man ho tried to retrieve it was swept overboard and the same great wave ripped away one of the wheelhouse doors and the sea poured into the superstructure.
More lines were fired, but every one fouled a wire stay which ran from the foremast to a corner of the bridge. Minutes after the sixth rocket soared across, the Jeanne Gougy crasher over on to her port side. By dawn the Jeanne Gougy lay swept by the seas, a dead ship, on her sides in a tangle of net and ropes.
Hope that there might be survivors dwindled through the morning as the trawler rolled lifelessly in the surf. Sennen Lifeboat picked up a body offshore and a whirlwind helicopter stayed on the cliffs. Suddenly, at eleven o'clock, a woman on holiday who had motored over from Coverack to see the wreck, saw a hand waving weakly from the battered wheelhouse and cried "There's someone alive in there!'
Though the trawler had been under water for the best part of six hours, rescue efforts were at once resumed. Another rocket line fouled the wire forestay but the LSA men were able to manoeuvre it within reach of the man in the wheelhouse who secured it but was took weak to climb into the breeches-buoy which followed.
Then a second near-miracle occurred. Four bedraggled figures crawled out of the trawler forepeak, clambered up the vertical decks and hung on the guards rail, their faces upturned to the cliff. While they were being hauled to safety on ropes manoeuvred over them by the coastguards above, the helicopter returned and hovered over the wreck. A belt was let down to the man in the wheelhouse but again he was too weak to grasp it and FLT SGT Eric Smith was then lowered on to the deck, looped the strop over the man's shoulders and both were hauled up to the helicopter, which landed the man on the clifftop.
Believing more men might still be trapped, FLT SGT Smith made a second descent on to the trawler and found a young boy crouched in a passage behind the bridge. He too was winched up and landed, after which the Flight Sergeant made yet a third visit to the trawler but, seeking no one and getting no reply to his shouts, he was ordered back to the helicopter.
Eleven men, included the captain, lost their lives in the wreck, which was inexplicable as it was tragic. The Jeanne Gougy had left Waterford the evening before and the weather had been rough all the way across. She ran ashore during a particularly bad squall but she had been built to withstand far worse conditions.
Flt Sgt Smith was awarded the George Medal for his bravery. The men he saved, as well as the four others, owed their lives to their good fortune in finding an air pocket in the hull and their tenacity in keeping themselves afloat and refusing to give up hope of survival.
Description from Richard Larn and Clive Carter, Cornish Shipwrecks: The South Coast (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1971), p.241-243.
She was steering southwards and he was expecting the lights to vanish behind the Land's End headlands when she suddenly altered course towards the land and he could see that she would pass very close to the cliffs beyond Sennen.
His warning lights brought no apparent response, but the trawler stopped shortly afterwards, almost as if her crew had suddenly realised their danger. The coastguard sent a colleague to investigate and minutes later a red distress flare soared up from Land's End and rescue services closed in on Gamper Bay, a small rocky inlet tucked into the headland.
A fresh northerly wind and frequent sharp rain squalls buffeted the coastguards and LSA men as they were assembled on the clifftop, where the air was already heavy with the stench of fuel oil.
Below them lay the Jeanne Gougy, rolling and lurching as an immense ground swell swept over her decks. Parachute flares were fired, and in their glare five to six men could be seen crouched in the starboard wing of the bridge balcony.
A line-carrying rocket was fired, but it fell in front of the shattered glass of the wheelhouse windows and several arms were thrust through the jagged shards, grabbing wildly at the line. Another rocket was fired, but the man ho tried to retrieve it was swept overboard and the same great wave ripped away one of the wheelhouse doors and the sea poured into the superstructure.
More lines were fired, but every one fouled a wire stay which ran from the foremast to a corner of the bridge. Minutes after the sixth rocket soared across, the Jeanne Gougy crasher over on to her port side. By dawn the Jeanne Gougy lay swept by the seas, a dead ship, on her sides in a tangle of net and ropes.
Hope that there might be survivors dwindled through the morning as the trawler rolled lifelessly in the surf. Sennen Lifeboat picked up a body offshore and a whirlwind helicopter stayed on the cliffs. Suddenly, at eleven o'clock, a woman on holiday who had motored over from Coverack to see the wreck, saw a hand waving weakly from the battered wheelhouse and cried "There's someone alive in there!'
Though the trawler had been under water for the best part of six hours, rescue efforts were at once resumed. Another rocket line fouled the wire forestay but the LSA men were able to manoeuvre it within reach of the man in the wheelhouse who secured it but was took weak to climb into the breeches-buoy which followed.
Then a second near-miracle occurred. Four bedraggled figures crawled out of the trawler forepeak, clambered up the vertical decks and hung on the guards rail, their faces upturned to the cliff. While they were being hauled to safety on ropes manoeuvred over them by the coastguards above, the helicopter returned and hovered over the wreck. A belt was let down to the man in the wheelhouse but again he was too weak to grasp it and FLT SGT Eric Smith was then lowered on to the deck, looped the strop over the man's shoulders and both were hauled up to the helicopter, which landed the man on the clifftop.
Believing more men might still be trapped, FLT SGT Smith made a second descent on to the trawler and found a young boy crouched in a passage behind the bridge. He too was winched up and landed, after which the Flight Sergeant made yet a third visit to the trawler but, seeking no one and getting no reply to his shouts, he was ordered back to the helicopter.
Eleven men, included the captain, lost their lives in the wreck, which was inexplicable as it was tragic. The Jeanne Gougy had left Waterford the evening before and the weather had been rough all the way across. She ran ashore during a particularly bad squall but she had been built to withstand far worse conditions.
Flt Sgt Smith was awarded the George Medal for his bravery. The men he saved, as well as the four others, owed their lives to their good fortune in finding an air pocket in the hull and their tenacity in keeping themselves afloat and refusing to give up hope of survival.
Description from Richard Larn and Clive Carter, Cornish Shipwrecks: The South Coast (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1971), p.241-243.
Date
1962-11-03
Rights
Morrab Library
Format
Print
Type
Photograph
Identifier
COLLINS.091A
Coverage
Land's End
Original Format
Print and negative