Title
Cromdale, wrecked on Bass Point, Lizard, May 23rd 1913
Subject
Shipping
Description
The Cromdale came ashore at at Bass Point, after a one hundred and twenty-dour day journey from Taltal, Chile with a cargo of Nitrates. She was already a week overdue at Falmouth when, nearing the Lizard, she ran into dense fog on the evening of May 23rd 1913.
Her master, Captain Arthur, had earlier been able to check his position with a passing steamer and was not unduly worried until several hours had passed without sight and sound of the Lizard and St. Anthony Lighthouses. Then, at 21:30 pm it was the helmsman and not the look-out who first saw a blurred flash in the murk dead ahead. Seconds later, breakers were seen grounded on the rocks below Bass Point.
Badly holed, she settled rapidly by the stern and in less than ten minutes had to be abandoned. The first distress rocket, fired from a boat by the first mate, explored almost in front of the coastguard's lookout and the Lizard and Cadgwith lifeboats were soon afloat and helping in the rescue. Next morning, when the fog lifted, the Cromdael was an awesome spectacle, poop deck under water and bows on the rocks below the high cliffs, every sail set but hanging limply from the yards in the still air. At low water, her crew boarded her and managed to recover some personal belongings and the ship's instruments.
The wreck was later put up for auction but, with a ruined cargo, she was of little value apart from her sailing gear and Harris Brothers of Falmouth bought her £41, later reselling her to a third party. A week after she came ashore, the Cromdale broke up in a heavy SSW gale and very little salvage work was ever carried out on the remains.
Description from Richard Larn and Clive Carter, Cornish Shipwrecks: The South Coast (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1971), p.131.
Her master, Captain Arthur, had earlier been able to check his position with a passing steamer and was not unduly worried until several hours had passed without sight and sound of the Lizard and St. Anthony Lighthouses. Then, at 21:30 pm it was the helmsman and not the look-out who first saw a blurred flash in the murk dead ahead. Seconds later, breakers were seen grounded on the rocks below Bass Point.
Badly holed, she settled rapidly by the stern and in less than ten minutes had to be abandoned. The first distress rocket, fired from a boat by the first mate, explored almost in front of the coastguard's lookout and the Lizard and Cadgwith lifeboats were soon afloat and helping in the rescue. Next morning, when the fog lifted, the Cromdael was an awesome spectacle, poop deck under water and bows on the rocks below the high cliffs, every sail set but hanging limply from the yards in the still air. At low water, her crew boarded her and managed to recover some personal belongings and the ship's instruments.
The wreck was later put up for auction but, with a ruined cargo, she was of little value apart from her sailing gear and Harris Brothers of Falmouth bought her £41, later reselling her to a third party. A week after she came ashore, the Cromdale broke up in a heavy SSW gale and very little salvage work was ever carried out on the remains.
Description from Richard Larn and Clive Carter, Cornish Shipwrecks: The South Coast (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1971), p.131.
Publisher
Morrab Library
Date
1913-05-23
Rights
Morrab Library
Format
35mm Slide
Type
Photograph
Identifier
M.2071
Coverage
Lizard