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St Ives Bay may look a peaceful and tranquil
place hardly needing a lifeboat at all but looks can be
misleading. Not only do boats approaching Hayle have the
vagaries of tide and weather to contend with but also the rocks
at Godrevy and the treacherous Hayle Bar a natural sandbank where
the Hayle River enters the sea.
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Hayle Lifeboats
Hayle first acquired a lifeboat in
1866 but today no longer has one of its own. The area
under Hayle Viaduct, the site of the first Hayle Railway
Station was converted into the RNLI 'Isis'
garden to commemorate the first Hayle Lifeboat of which the town was
very proud.
Hayle's first lifeboat 'Isis' was donated to
the town by Oxford University over a period of about 20 years saved more
than 50 lives. Three other lifeboats followed and a plaque in
the garden displays their proud record:-
'Isis' 1866-1887 - Saved 51 Lives
'New Oriental Bank' 1887-1892 Save 3 Lives
'EF Harrison' 1892-1906 Saved 11 Lives
'Admiral Rodd' 1906-1920 Saved 10 Lives
Hayle's lifeboat station was closed in in 1920
favour of the station at St Ives. |
The Isis Garden Plaque |
Godrevy
Lighthouse
Godrevy
Lighthouse was built in 1858-9.
The rocks beyond the island had always been a hazard to
shipping and a lighthouse has been considered in the
past but nothing ever came of any plans. The crunch came
when the Nile was wrecked in 1854 with the
loss of all on board.
The lighthouse is a white octagonal
tower, 86 feet (26m) high and made of rubble stone and
mortar. The original light was a revolving white one,
with a fixed light red below the white main light, which
could be seen over a 45 degree arc when a ship was in
danger of the reef. This was later replaced by a
red sector on the main light itself.
The light used to be manned by three
men at a time, but by 1934 the lighthouse was made
automatic. The light flashes white/red every 10 seconds
with the red sector only being visible in the arc of
danger from the reef. The range of the light is around
12 miles.
Godrevy's claim to fame is that it was
apparently the inspiration for Virginia Woolf's book 'To
the lighthouse' although in the book she re-located the
lighthouse to another part of Britain . |
Godrevy Lighthouse |
Wrecks
Many vessels have been stranded or wrecked
on the notorious sandbank of Hayle Bar or have foundered on the rocks of
Godrevy.
Enterprise
The schooner Enterprise
was lost off the coast at Hayle in 1846 with the loss of four
crew members.
Nile
Nile was wrecked
on the Stones Reef off of Godrevy on 30th November 1854 with the
loss of all on board. The ship was making its way from
Liverpool to Penzance when a storm blew up and forced it onto
the reef. The tragedy went unnoticed until wreckage was washed
ashore the following day.
Bessie and Drumhendry
Ships which have been fallen victim include Hayle-owned vessels,
like the brigantine-rigged collier Bessie, a veteran of
the Bristol packet service, which managed to hit the Bar on her maiden voyage in 1866 and
then repeated her feat again
in 1878. Others came from further a field, like the steamer Drumhendry
from Glasgow, which lost power and was driven onto the sands
near Black Cliff.
St George
The steam ship 'St
George' took on water in a storm and sank off of Hayle in 1882.
Some have speculated that the heavy cargo that it was carrying
led at least in part to its demise, for the vessel was loaded
with around 10,000 copper ingots on its way from the Cornish
Copper Company in Hayle to South Wales. Some of the recovered
ingots bearing the mark CCC mark of the Cornish Copper Company
are now on display in local museums. (Not in Hayle of course as
it has no museum!)
Cheerful
SS Cheerful was shipwrecked
off Hayle on 20 July 1885. Tin ingots have been recovered from
the wreck bearing the marks of the smelting houses of Treloweth
- St Erth, Carnvedras - Truro, Trethellan - Truro, and Tamar -
Bere Ferres
Hayle and Marena
Harvey's
coaster Hayle, (the third of that name), launched in
1893, seemed to make a habit of running onto Hayle Bar, but going one
better was the coaster Marena before grounding off
Black Cliff in 1913 and being nearly wrecked in a gale she almost annually
ran into Hayle Bar while bringing coal from South
Wales to the Power Station in the 1930s.
The Gale of 1893 - Cintra, Vulture,
Rosedale, Bessie Boy Philip and Hampshire
By far the
most devastating event though was in 1893. A gale sprang up on
17th November and continued for several days. It was so sever
that is was impossible for the lifeboats from either Hayle or St
Ives to be launched. The first casualty was the Liverpool based
Cintra which was driven ashore by the wind at Carbis Bay
with the loss of five lives. The collier Vulture was also
swept ashore and the London Registered Rosedale was
driven into Porthminster Beach at St Ives. The Bessie (yes
the same one), and the Boy Philip were unable to reach the
shelter of the harbour and were battered into the rocks
and beach at Gwithian and began to break up. The greatest loss
of life however came when the Glasgow registered Hampshire
was lost off of Godrevy with the loss of all 15 hands.
Kintuck
The steamship Kintuck was
lost of Hayle on 2nd December 1917 as it made its way from
London to Wales. It is though to either have hit a mine or was
torpedoed about 2 miles north of Godrevy. The 58 crew were able to
make it to shore although one life was lost while trying to land
the boat.
Zone
The vessel Zone with a cargo of frozen meat was
torpedoed by the German U boat U-110 and sank 4 miles from Hayle
on 30th December 1917. The crew was able to make it to shore
Lutece
The French vessel Lutece was
making its way from Swansea to Rouen in France on 3rd
February 1918, with a cargo of coal when it fell victim to a
torpedo from German U Boat U46 west of Godrevy.
St Chamond
In April 1918 the St Chamond,
set sail from Glasgow loaded with at least 5 (some say as many
as seven) railway locomotives on deck. The plan was to deliver
them to St Nazaire in France. The First World War was drawing to
a close and the engines were intended to replace engines lost in
the hostilities ready for the allied advance.
However On April 30, 1918, the St
Chamond was torpedoed and sunk by German U boat U60
offshore from Hayle. The ship and cargo was lost but it appears
that the crew managed to make it to shore and there was no loss
of life. The wreck with its unusual compliment of locomotives is
in quite shallow water and is popular with divers.
Vesuvius
The torpedo vessel Vesuvius broke away from
her tow en-route to Newport where she was o be broken up. She
sank off Hayle in 1924
Other Wrecks
If anyone has any information on any of the
wrecks listed below or indeed any other ships lost in the Hayle
area please let us know at
mail@HayleEye.co.uk
- The Bard
- The Pandora
- The Dux
- The Princess Royale
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