The tragic deaths, including that of a Plymouth man, led to the first parish-funded burial for shipwreck victims in Cornwall and even a new national law
The memorial to the 10 sailors who died in the shipwreck in December 1846 when their boat was wrecked on Tregurrian Beach now known as Watergate Bay Beach near Newquay
Should you take a stroll through the grounds of St Mawgan in Pydar churchyard you will come up an unusual wooden boat cut-out gravestone marker.
Engraved with the names of mariners who died nearly 200 years ago after their ship, The Hope, was wrecked at Tregurrian Beach, it marks the site of one of Cornwall’s worst but least-known maritime tragedies.
On December 13, 1846, the frozen bodies of Jacob Williams and nine others were discovered on what what is now known as Watergate Bay beach just outside Newquay. Their boat had been set adrift off the coast of Ireland some days before after they broke their oar.
It then drifted across the Irish Sea and came ashore on the north coast of Cornwall onto what was then known as Tregurrian Beach (Tregoryan means Coryan’s farm in Cornish) in a small cove called Beacon Cove.
The official verdict was that the mariners perished from the effects of starvation and intense cold.
The tragedy led to the first parish-funded burial for shipwreck victims in Cornwall, with a memorial using the stern of the boat at the nearby St Mawgan churchyard.
It was this event which prompted the implementation of the Dead Bodies Interment Bill, introduced by the MP John Hearle Tremayne, requiring burial for shipwreck victims.
The boat-shaped plaque reads: “Here lie the bodies of Jacob Williams, David Roberts, Owen Hughes, Thomas Collins, Charles Cawley, Richard Cutler, William Loyd, William Eliott, Thomas Brown, Jemmy who were drifted ashore in a boat, frozen to death at Tregurrian Beach in this Parish on Sunday 13th December 1846.”
St Mawgan in Pydar church near Watergate Bay beach(Image: A Church Near You)
The General Register Office records Jacob Williams as being a Swede. His ill-fated companions were from England including Plymouth, Wales and Scotland. One of the mariners was American.
The tenth man, Jemmy, wasn’t really known, which is why his full name is not given in full on the memorial. His death was registered as ‘unknown male aged 21’. Another, David Roberts, from Liverpool, was only 16.
The tragedy and the unusual memorial in St Mawgan Church were mentioned in Rambles Beyond Railways by Wilkie Collins in 1861, although he does not mention that the sailors had shipwrecked off Ireland before drifting across the sea but says they were local fishermen.
He wrote: “Within the church-yard, the bright colour of the turf, and the quiet grey hues of the mouldering tombstones, are picturesquely intermingled all over the uneven surface of the ground, save in one remote corner, where the graves are few and the grass grows rank and high.
“Here, the eye is abruptly attracted by the stern of a boat, painted white, and fixed upright in the earth. This strange memorial, little suited though it be to the old monuments around, has a significance of its own which gives it a peculiar claim to consideration.
“Inscribed on it, appear the names of ten fishermen of the parish who went out to sea to pursue their calling, on one wintry night in 1846. It was unusually cold on land – on the sea, the frosty bitter wind cut through to the bones. The men were badly provided against the weather; and hardy as they were, the weather killed them that night.
“In the morning, the boat drifted on shore, manned like a spectre bark, by the ghastly figures of the dead – freighted horribly with the corpses of ten men all frozen to death. They are now buried in Mawgan church-yard; and the stern of the boat they died in tells their fatal story, and points to the last home which they share together.”
Over the years the original memorial rotted away. What you see today is the permanent memorial that replaced it.
The unusual memorial is not the only gem within the churchyard at St Mawgan. The church, dedicated to St Mawgan and St Nicholas, dates back to the 13th century, is also home to a 15th century Lantern Cross.
The church was endowed by the Arundells of Lanherne who lived here from the 13th to 18th centuries. Within the church itself are many items of interest, including the carved pulpit of 1553, 42 bench ends and a rood screen from the 15th century.
Rood screens are decorative partitions, usually wood or stone, separating the nave (congregation area) from the chancel (altar area) in medieval churches.
St Mawgan Church also contains many 16th century Arundell brasses and a 15th century Pentewan stone font.
The Tregurrian Beach tragedy was not the only fatal shipwreck in Cornwall that year. In the months before at least four ships met their doom after running aground on Cornwall’s coast.
On October 21, 1846, the Eliza of Liverpool was stranded under Stowe Cliffs at Warren Gutter near Bude. She was heading for Valparaiso carrying a general cargo worth £80,000 including wine, cloth and tea. One man was shot and wounded during the plundering of her cargo.
The next day, a British West or East Indiaman stranded at Marsland Mouth during what was described as “one of the severest gales that has been known for a great many years on the north coast of Cornwall”. Some of the crew were saved.
On November 20 – Elizabeth, a Norwegian ship, was wrecked at Gunwalloe beach. The master and three of the crew were saved by breeches-buoy but two men and the boy were lost. Five crew drowned according to the Royal Cornwall Gazette.
The brig Good Samaritan was also wrecked at Bedruthan Steps during a severe storm that month.
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