Title
Minnehaha
Subject
Ship (wooden)
Guano
Shipwreck
Wreck
Description
The Minnehaha of Liverpool wrecked at Peninnis Head, between the point and Pulpit Rock on January 18th 1874.
This was the wooden, 845-ton vessel, was carrying a cargo of guano. Master Jones had reached Falmouth on January 16th 1874 from Peru. It was making route to Dublin the next day to discharge goods the following day.
On January 18th 1874, the vessel falsely assumed that a light seen through the murky fog was Wolf Point, but instead the vessel struck the south-east corner of Peninnis, amongst the Jolly Rocks. She went ashore with all sail set, almost on top of the tide, and thumped the rocks so hard that a large hole was made in the port bow, into which the sea poured. Within two minutes she was under water, and those who had not been swept away took to the rigging.
Amid this, Captain Jones undressed in the mizzen-top and then, shouting "With God's help I will save your lives," sprang into the sea and was last seen swimming for the shore. Robert Thomas, the first mate, led the nine remaining survivors from the mizzen to the main shrouds, down the forestay and over the jib-boom onto the rocks. Shortly afterwards they met one of the islanders, Israel Pender, in Peninnis lane and told him of the Wreck.
Description of wreck, from Richard Larn, Cornish Shipwrecks: The Isles of Scilly (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1971), p.87.
This was the wooden, 845-ton vessel, was carrying a cargo of guano. Master Jones had reached Falmouth on January 16th 1874 from Peru. It was making route to Dublin the next day to discharge goods the following day.
On January 18th 1874, the vessel falsely assumed that a light seen through the murky fog was Wolf Point, but instead the vessel struck the south-east corner of Peninnis, amongst the Jolly Rocks. She went ashore with all sail set, almost on top of the tide, and thumped the rocks so hard that a large hole was made in the port bow, into which the sea poured. Within two minutes she was under water, and those who had not been swept away took to the rigging.
Amid this, Captain Jones undressed in the mizzen-top and then, shouting "With God's help I will save your lives," sprang into the sea and was last seen swimming for the shore. Robert Thomas, the first mate, led the nine remaining survivors from the mizzen to the main shrouds, down the forestay and over the jib-boom onto the rocks. Shortly afterwards they met one of the islanders, Israel Pender, in Peninnis lane and told him of the Wreck.
Description of wreck, from Richard Larn, Cornish Shipwrecks: The Isles of Scilly (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1971), p.87.
Date
1874-01-18
Rights
Morrab Library
Format
Print
Type
Photograph
Identifier
COLLINS.125
Coverage
Peninnis Head, Isles of Scilly