The Cordelia, a West Country smack embayed in the Bristol Channel (1874)

For this blog we welcome my colleague Tanja Watson, Maritime Research Specialist, Historic England, who introduces us to the loss of the Cordelia in the Bristol Channel in 1874 and the specific wreck process of embayment on a lee shore.

Tanja writes:

The hazards of the Bristol Channel

Today’s blog explores the hazards faced by sailing vessels in the Bristol Channel. Sailing smacks such as the Cordelia were a common feature of 19th-century coastal commerce in Britain, particularly in the Bristol Channel. These vessels were typically small, single-masted, and fore-and-aft rigged – designed to be sturdy and versatile for both fishing and the transport of goods. Some larger smacks were ketch-rigged, while smaller ones retained the traditional gaff cutter rig.

These smacks, though modest in size, represented a type of vessel essential for the local economy. They could navigate the Channel’s strong currents, unusually large tidal ranges (12-14 metres) [1], and frequently unpredictable weather with small crews, achieving average speeds of 4 to 7 knots (nautical miles per hour), depending on wind conditions.The Bristol Channel is known for having one of the highest tidal ranges in the world, second only to the Bay of Fundy in Canada. [2] It has a complex, irregular coastline, creating conditions in which vessels can easily become embayed or trapped in a bay or coastal recess.

The combination of tides, winds, and coastal geography in the Channel can quickly limit a vessel’s manoeuvrability and push it towards a lee shore – a stretch of shoreline lying downwind of the ship, where wind and waves drive it steadily closer to land. The term lee denotes the side of a vessel sheltered from the wind, as opposed to the windward side, which faces into it, and thus a ship being driven onto a lee shore is being driven by the wind onto the shore.

The loss of the Cordelia

On 30^th November 1874, the Barnstaple-registered Cordelia set off from Ilfracombe Harbour for what should have been a routine voyage up the Bristol Channel to Newport on the River Usk, to collect a cargo of Welsh coal. This West Country smack, built around 1855 and with a tonnage of 32 register tons, was crewed by two men and a boy (the captain’s son). [3]

At first, conditions seemed favourable, with a light north-north-westerly breeze. But as the Cordelia passed the hamlet of Watermouth, just two miles east of Ilfracombe, the wind veered sharply to the north-east, catching the crew off guard. Several attempts to tack failed, and the decision was eventually made to return to port. Nearing Beacon Point, however, the wind shifted once more – this time to the north-west – before dropping away altogether. Unballasted and at the mercy of the tidal currents, the ship began to drift helplessly toward the rocky shoreline.

Contemporary newspapers describe the unfolding crisis:

‘[The Cordelia] proceeded some distance, but the wind having shifted, they let her drift back with the tide. Late in the day she was observed from the shore to be off Lantern Hill. After this, with a turn of the wind, she again went up Channel, but not far, for she was next seen in Hele Bay, and from this spot appeared unable to get clear, being ‘embayed.’ . . .

‘The course taken appears to have been too close in—too short a cut in fact was attempted. The Cordelia struck on Beacon Point, and there stopped. It was seen that nothing more could be done, and that it must be abandoned. A very heavy sea was running, but the men providentially were able to effect their escape in Stephen Brown’s boat.

‘When the fact of the smack having gone ashore became known at the quay—it was between seven and eight o’clock when it struck—the three gigs, the Try, the Tiger, and Brilliant, were at once manned and pulled out to the point, but they could give no assistance, as they were unable to tow the vessel off the rocks; indeed they could not get within any reasonable distance because of the heavy swell which was continually breaking around her.

‘[The Cordelia] soon fell over on her side, and held that position for a while, one of her lights being seen after the crew had landed. In about an hour’s time, the light had disappeared, and nothing was afterwards visible in the black darkness from the pier.’ [4]

An account from another newspaper:

‘Floating like a bladder on the water, there being no ballast in her, she was quickly carried by the flowing tide and ground sea on to the west of Beacon Rock [Point], when, seeing there was no hope of saving her the crew got into the boat, and shortly afterwards the timbers of the smack were floating about like an upset box of matches. Had the smack been in ballast there is every probability that the disaster would not have occurred. It is not at all unusual for vessels to run between Ilfracombe and the Welsh coast without ballast, and it is to be hoped owners will now see the folly of this penny wise and pound foolish economy.’ [5]

(At this period coal was sufficiently profitable that it did not require trading for an exchange cargo, so it was common for ships to run ‘light’ (without cargo and ‘in ballast’) to collect a cargo of coal. The lack of ballast is almost unheard of in the wreck record.)

Fortunately, Captain Thomas Vound and his crew were rescued from their night-time ordeal by lifeboatman Richard Souch in the Olive Branch shortly before the vessel struck at about 9pm. All their belongings were lost. [6]

One week earlier, storms had struck the nearby Hele Bay with considerable force, and had this incident occurred then, their chances of survival would have been far slimmer, as pointed out by the newspapers.

Services interrupted

Cordelia’s owner, John Tucker Bament (1840–1876), a local coal merchant in Ilfracombe [7], lost his entire investment that night. He had just paid for Cordelia’s refitting with new sails and repairs in preparation for the winter season. However, he had decided not to, or could not afford to, pay for either the ballast she should have carried, or the insurance of the vessel. It is possible Bament supplied coal to Ilfracombe or Barnstaple, or the newly opened Barnstaple and Ilfracombe Railway, which had begun operation just four months earlier (20 July 1874). [8]

(The strong links between maritime and rail transport have recently been covered in this blog in a three-part special by my colleague Serena Cant, see Railways 200: a maritime perspective.)

In the master’s own words

Further slight variations on these reports were published in contemporary newspapers, including the captain’s report, which was published five days after the event:

‘CORDELIA – Report of Thomas Vound, Master of the smack CORDELIA, of Barnstaple, 32 tons, from Ilfracombe for Newport: On Monday, the 30^th November, at1 P.M., tide half ebb, weather fine, wind N.N.W., light breeze, the ship was about half a mile N.E. of Capston[e] Hill [Ilfracombe]. We proceeded as far as Watermouth, when the wind shifted to the N.E., with a fresh breeze. The vessel missed stays on several occasions. Bore up for Ilfracombe at 7 P.M. Reached as far as Beacon Point, the wind then shifted to N.W., with a light breeze. Heavy ground sea on. The vessel drifted ashore at 8 P.M. on Beacon Point on the rocks, and immediately began to fill with water, the water being over the cabin sheets. The vessel began to break up when I left her, about 8 30 P.M. – Ilfracombe, Dec. 1.’ [9]

And so we conclude with an insight into the processes of wreck, with specific reference to the combinations of wind, tide and sea state: a local vessel lost on her local shores, compounded by an unusual and locally-adopted cost-cutting measure, which ultimately cost her owner more money.

Footnotes:

[1] Generally cited as mean spring range12.2m to 12.3m at Avonmouth but reaches 14m in the Severn Estuary specifically: Associated British Ports (nd) ‘Bristol Channel Tides’ ABP South Wales; HM Government, Department of Energy and Climate Change, 2010: Severn Tidal Power: Feasibility Study Conclusions and Summary Report gov.uk

[2] Gao, C and Adcock, T 2017 ‘On the Tidal Resonance of the Bristol Channel’ International Journal of Offshore and Polar Engineering 27(2): 177-183 https://users.ox.ac.uk/~spet1235/ijope-27-2-p177-as19-Gao.pdf

[3] Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, 05 December 1874, p10

[4] Ilfracombe Chronicle, 05 December 1874, p9

[5] Western Morning News, 02 December 1874, p3

[6] Moore, J (nd) On the Hele Shipwrecks. https://johnhmoore.co.uk/hele/shipwrecks.htm; Western Times, 04 December 1874, pp7–8; Lloyd’s List, 03 December 1874, p8

[7] Find a Grave: John Tucker Bament (1840–1876). https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/227351890/john-tucker-bament; North Devon Advertiser, 04 December 1874, p4

[8] Spong, G, ‘Combe Rail’, Ilfracombe Branch Project. http://www.combe-rail.org.uk/history/#:~:text=The%20Ilfracombe%2DBarnstaple%20line%20was

[9] Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, 05 December 1874, p10