Wales Feed

Thisbe - the Welsh Gospel Ship

2013-03-25T13:00:57+00:00

The Victorians were the most pragmatic of people. Nothing that was usable was ever thrown away or disregarded. Old buildings, worked out coal mines, ancient buildings and ruins, they were all used at some point when their sell-by date had long passed. In particular, there were ships.

The Victorian age saw the advent of iron and steel as the new building materials, both for men-of-war and merchantmen. Consequently, the old woodenwalls that for years had protected the coast of Britain from invasion were suddenly obsolete. But rather than condemn them to the breakers yard, many old vessels found new careers.

There were prison ships, reformatory ships, receiving ships for men wanting to join the navy, even hospital ships. But in the port of Cardiff they found one further use for an out-of-date vessel of war. This was the Thisbe and in the second half of the 19th century she became a church or gospel ship.

The Thisbe was a 46-gun frigate launched from Pembroke Dock in 1824. She spent most of her service life in the Plymouth and Devonport areas and by the early 1860s she was lying, hulked, ready for breaking.

Thirty years earlier, in 1835, an Anglican clergyman by the name of John Ashley had founded the Bristol Channel Mission. This was an organisation dedicated to provide religious ministry to the seamen and lighthouse keepers of the Bristol Channel. For several years Ashley rowed or sailed out to ships moored in the Penarth roads off Cardiff and conducted services for the sailors on the ships waiting to come into port.

He even found time to venture out to Flat Holm and Steep Holm islands, offering his voluntary help and spiritual guidance to the farmers and fishermen who lived there.

When, in 1858, Ashley's organisation became a national body - under the name Missions to Seamen - it was clear that some sort of permanent base was now required, particularly in the thriving and developing port of Cardiff. The Mission requested a ship, on which they could base a church and the Admiralty happily donated the redundant Thisbe.

In 1863 the old frigate was towed to Cardiff and moored in the East Bute Dock. Conversion of her hull began at once, a church building being erected on her quarter deck. Soon the gospel ship was up and running.

Church services were held three times each week on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday, a necessary arrangement as the sailors who attended might well be at sea if the mission had limited services to just one a week. The Sunday services, inevitably, proved the most popular and it has been estimated that sometimes as many as 600 people thronged the deck of the tiny (151 foot by 40 foot) frigate.

The congregation was made up mainly of sailors and their wives. But there were also Bristol Channel pilots, dock workers, boatmen and people from the immediate locality. The Thisbe, under the energetic and able leadership of Mr Gale, was clearly meeting a need.

Daily newspapers were provided on the ship, a reading room having been created below deck. There was also a small library - with the emphasis, not surprisingly, being on religious tomes. Pens, paper and ink were provided to enable sailors far from home to write to their families. A post box was located on the upper deck and it has been estimated that in 1877 alone over 4,000 letters were sent from the ship.

It was not all religion or spiritual sustenance, however. Magic Lantern Shows were also staged on Tuesdays and Fridays, the performances starting at precisely 7.30pm. On Thursdays the Thisbe held a "concert entertainment" or occasionally choral singing of sacred songs. Each Wednesday evening at 5pm there were games tournaments.

Under Mr Gale the number of conversions - always the aim of Victorian muscular Christianity - in the docks area of Cardiff grew considerably. Visiting sailors regularly used the ship, one of the few places where they could get comfort and companionship - outside the public house. And, of course, the locals continued to flock on board.

Soon, there was just not enough room on the old frigate and, in any case, she was now nearing the end of her days. Seams were leaking and it was certainly not the most hygienic of environments for the young children who came to the ship with their parents.

Mr Gale began to look about for alternative premises. He found them, just two rooms, in Stuart Street. Before long the mission had moved again, this time to Ebenezer Place where the it soon became known as the Seamens' Bethel. Over the years it grew and developed, eventually becoming Ebenezer Church.

And the Thisbe? In 1892 she was sold to the firm of WH Caple and scrapped, her timbers cut away and anything of value being sold on to interested buyers. It was something of a sad end for Cardiff's gospel ship but she had performed sterling work in the docks area of the port and will always be remembered for this.

My Christmas: the Royal Navy sailor

2012-12-20T09:05:34+00:00

It is one thing to be working over Christmas but quite another to be doing so aboard a ship at sea almost 8,000 miles away from home.

And for Royal Navy sailor John Emberton from Rhosddu, Wrexham, this Christmas will be especially poignant as it will be the first he has spent away from his two young children, Seren aged seven and Finlay aged three.

Royal Navy sailor John Emberton

"This is the first time I've been deployed at Christmas since I've had children," explains John, 42, who is a petty officer serving on HMS Edinburgh, which is on a six-month deployment in the South Atlantic.

"It will be hard because we usually have a really nice family Christmas with my parents, Brian and Elizabeth Emberton, in Rhosddu.

"It will be strange not seeing them but I plan to Skype them on the day if I can and then I can see what they got for Christmas and join in with their day as much as I can."

If you thought Christmas shopping was tricky enough on land, then imagine the added headache involved for a sailor at sea.

Happily, says John, his wife Meryl has done the lion's share this year.

"I've ordered a few things online for my family but the main bulk has been sorted out by my wife," he says.

John, who went to Groves High School in Wrexham, joined the Royal Navy in 1990, and works as a gunner, maintaining and operating the ship's 20mm gun. He is also qualified to fire the Sea Dart missiles.

HMS Edinburgh

HMS Edinburgh is the last of the Royal Navy's Type 42 destroyers which will make way for the new-generation Type 45 destroyers.

On its current deployment the ship, says the Royal Navy, will "provide reassurance" to UK territories and dependencies and "support counter narcotics efforts" in the West African region.

It doesn't sound, though, as if Christmas Day will be a complete washout for John and his 259 shipmates.

"We'll be having a turkey dinner on board," he says, "and the lads are dressing up in various outfits so there will be lots of festive cheer on board to get us all through."

The lighthouses of south Wales

2012-12-18T15:08:21+00:00

There are over 20 lighthouses, plus several lightships, in south Wales and for some reason these warning lights seem to fascinate tourists and locals alike. The light at St Ann's Head in Pembrokeshire and the one at Nash Point have for years been two of the most visited lighthouses in the United Kingdom.

Most lighthouses stand in splendid isolation, high on the cliff tops and it is easy to see why the country had such a proliferation of beacons.

Wales has water on three sides of its land mass and the coastline is rocky and hazardous. For old sailing ships, in particular – always at the mercy of wind and tide – it was essential that the final stages of their journeys home were as safe and as guarded as possible.

The approaches to major ports lay – and still lie - along the southern and northern coasts. To the north is Liverpool while to the south, along the reaches of the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary, sit Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea and Newport.

Lighthouses are now maintained and governed by Trinity House, which was granted a royal charter by Henry VIII in 1514. Despite this, many lighthouses were private enterprises for some considerable time afterwards – something that caused anger and, occasionally, disaster.

South Wales might be able to boast many lighthouses but several of them are virtually inaccessible. The light on Black Rock, for instance, is located on a small island – little more than a lump of rock – east of Portskewett and almost underneath the second Severn crossing. Access is only by boat but few people ever venture out to this little known beacon.

Flatholm Island

Flatholm Island (photo: Gale's Photographs)

The light on Flatholm Island is much more accessible and, as a consequence, is visited more regularly. Trips out to the island are run from Barry, although trippers do need to take careful note of weather conditions – being marooned out on Flatholm is not everyone's idea of a good experience.

The light on Flatholm was originally privately owned. It was purchased and re-built by Trinity House in 1819. The foghorn adjacent to the lighthouse was de-activated in 1988 but is still occasionally sounded on special occasions.

Nash Point

Nash Point lighthouse (photo: Henrhyde)

Nash Point has always been one of the most stunning of all lighthouses and is one that is open to the public. A climb to the top floor of the beacon is exhausting – particularly the final stretch up a vertical ladder – but the views are something quite special and it is more than worth the effort.

Built in 1832, after numerous shipwrecks on the shoals and reefs off-shore, the lighthouse is just three miles west of Llantwit Major.

Porthcawl lighthouse

Porthcawl Lighthouse (photo: Tim Wood)

A curious lighthouse that does not require much effort to reach is the one that sits on the end of Porthcawl Breakwater. Built in 1860, this tiny warning light guards access into the harbour and was, for many years, powered by gas.

Mumbles lighthouse

Mumbles lighthouse (photo: Lorraine Parker)

Mumbles lighthouse is located on a small island off the town of Mumbles, a few miles to the west of Swansea. In 1883 the lighthouse keeper was Abraham Ace.

That year his two daughters, Jennie and Margaret, saved the lives of two Mumbles lifeboatmen who had been thrown from their lifeboat into the sea during a rescue mission.

The two girls tied their shawls together as a lifeline and waded into the waves that were pounding onto the Gower coastline. They managed to pull the men to safety and in doing so created a legend that has gone down in local story and poem as The Women of Mumbles Head. And yet, strangely, their courage has never received the same attention as that of the famous Grace Darling.

Two lightships are available to visit in south Wales and both of them, for a while, served as the Helwick Lightship off the Gower coast. The first of these vessels now lies in Cardiff where she operates as a Christian Fellowship centre and is open to the public all year round.

The second lightship is moored at Victoria Quay in Swansea's maritime quarter. Having previously served in the Humber area she was brought to Gower in 1971 but was decommissioned six years later.

Caldey Island

Apart from walking around the monastery, visitors to Caldey Island might wish to take in a quick look at Caldey light. Built in 1829, this short, squat lighthouse was designed to withstand the wild winds from the west.

The light at St Ann's Head remains a well-visited location. Built in 1714, the light itself was removed during World War Two and replaced by an observation room where a lookout could be maintained for German U Boats.

Skokholm Island

There are several other lighthouses around the coast, on the islands and rugged rocks of the area. These include lights at places like Skokholm Island, the Smalls and South Bishop – the latter being accessible only by helicopter. For anyone interested in the development of such warning beacons they remain fascinating places to visit and look at.

The Pandora, Welsh exploration ship

2012-12-04T10:41:50+00:00

The 19th and early 20th centuries were a time of exploration, of pushing back the restrictions of the known world and reaching for new heights, new lands. The explorers of the time ignored the climate and often hostile native populations, braving all for the sake of discovery.

Arctic iceberg

Despite the dangers, people journeyed across Africa, through the Australian bush and, in particular, along the frozen wastes of the Arctic and Antarctica. These ardent and intrepid explorers had one thing in common: they were all eager to push at the boundaries of knowledge.

Exploration or survey ships were often a part of this exercise. The more famous ones such as Discovery, Terra Nova, Erebus and Terror, have gone down in history and folklore. Often they gave their names to some remote island or mountain that had been glimpsed by mankind for the very first time – and were sometimes destroyed in the course of carrying out their duties.

But there were many more ships that are nowadays all but forgotten or ignored. One Welsh-built ship was typical of the age and of the work involved.

The Pandora

The Pandora was a wooden hulled Philomel Class gunboat, launched from Pembroke Dockyard on 7 February 1861. Her career in the Royal Navy was uneventful and in the early 1870s she was sold to Sir Allen Young. He used her for a series of voyages to the Arctic in 1875 and 1876, private expeditions with little or no government backing.

At the end of 1877 the Pandora was sold again, this time to the rich and eccentric New York newspaper magnate Gordon Bennett. An enthusiast for exploration – he was the man who engaged Henry Morton Stanley to go hunting for Dr Livingstone – Bennett felt that the ship's name was not manly or dramatic enough. He promptly re-christened the Pandora, giving her the name Jeanette. For some reason this strange and enigmatic tycoon felt the new name was altogether more appropriate.

Exploring the North Pole

The newly named Jeanette was immediately fitted out for a trip to the North Pole through the Baring Strait, her hull being strengthened to withstand the power of the Arctic ice pack. Under the command of Lt Commander George De Long, she was still privately owned by Bennett but she sailed under the orders and flag of the US Navy.

The ship left San Francisco on 8 July 1879 and by the end of August was moored in St Lawrence Bay in Siberia. Slowly, steadily they headed north. And then disaster struck. Near Wrangel Island the Jeanette became caught in the ice and nothing the sailors could do would free her. For 18 months they simply drifted northwards, caught in the crushing grip of the ice flow, being dragged closer and closer to the pole.

In the days before radio communications nobody knew what had happened to the ship and her crew and it was simply a case of waiting until she turned up again. As the months dragged on several new islands were discovered and named by De Long – Jeanette, Henrietta and Bennett – which were duly claimed for the United States.

Finally, on the night of 12 June 1881, pressure of the ice began to crush the ship's hull. In haste, De Long and his crew unloaded provisions and supplies onto the ice, along with three of the long boats carried by the Jeanette. On the morning of 13 June the ship's wooden hull splintered and she disappeared for ever under the ice.

Ice trek to the Siberian coast

De Long and his men were now faced by the terrifying prospect of a trek over the ice to the Siberian coast, pulling the long boats and their supplies behind them.

It was a hard and brutal journey but, eventually, they reached open water. Jubilant and confident that the worst was over, they promptly ran into a storm, the like of which none of them had ever encountered before. Tragically, one of the boats capsized and eight crewmen were drowned. The other two boats were separated in the gale.

In De Long's boat the tragedy continued unabated. Short on supplies, sick in body and despairing in their hearts, the men died one after the other, De Long amongst them. Only two of the sailors managed to eventually reach safety.

In the other boat, commanded by the chief engineer from the Jeanette, things went a little better. Eleven men survived the elements to make it home.

The story of Gordon Bennett's attempt to reach the North Pole is one of tragedy and pain. But it is also one of great courage, a testament to human endurance. No amount of rationalisation can ever explain just why people would put themselves through such agony. Perhaps it is best to simply remember the words of the climber George Mallory when asked why he wanted to conquer Mount Everest: "Because it's there."

And, of course, there is still a frisson of pride when one considers that a tiny ship, built in a Welsh dockyard, had a huge part to play in the enterprise.

The world's first passenger hovercraft

2012-07-19T08:04:36+00:00

Half a century ago the future of transport appeared on a beach in north Wales. The hovercraft service from Rhyl to Moreton beach, Merseyside - the first of its kind in the world - was unleashed to masses of enthralled onlookers. This was the way forward - or so it seemed.

The Vickers-Armstrong VA3 hovercraft on Rhyl beach. The world's first passenger hovercraft service. Photo: Brian Whitehead.

On 20 July 1962 a large crowd gathered on Rhyl beach and marveled as the newly developed Vickers VA3 hovercraft, or hovercoach, as it powered up its two roaring engines. The machine signalled a new chapter in the future of transport, making sci-fi dreams reality.

The hovercraft was a huge technological leap forward. As it was being developed in the 1950s the Patent Office was unsure whether to class it as aircraft or boat. Prior to this, various attempts were made to build a craft capable of traversing land, water and anything in between, using a cushion of air and a skirt that lifted the craft above the terrain. In 1959 a hovercraft crossed the English Channel and, like the recent advances in jet-engine technology, enthusiasm was huge.

Half a century ago, traversing the Dee Estuary took over two hours by road. The new hovercoach could, it was claimed, carry 24 passengers at up to 70mph, taking 30 minutes with a scheduled 12 trips per day. The journey cost £2 for a return ticket, with a 20 minute turnaround. It was on an overcast August morning the first two dozen passengers made history, encountering a bumpy crossing to the then bustling seaside town of Rhyl.

Weighing in at 12 tons and spanning 54 feet in length and 27 feet in breadth, the Vickers-Armstrong VA3, run by British United Airways, was one of the first commercially viable hovercrafts rolled out for use. From the summer of 1962 it was constantly at the mercy of the weather, operating for just 19 days out of a scheduled 54 and only managing the proposed dozen trips on two of those days.

Ultimately it was the elements that proved the end of this innovative service. On the afternoon of 14 September the VA3 left the Wirral shore to head for Rhyl, and halfway across the 17 mile journey one of the lift engines failed, soon followed by the second. Eventually the craft made its way to Rhyl. For the next three days, the three captains, along with other helpers frantically attempted to moor the craft, but despite limited success the craft broke free and drifted nearly half a mile out to sea.

Brian Whitehead remembers the fateful few days that brought the curtain down on the world's first passenger hovercraft. "I well remember that night in September 1962, a friend and I were returning home from Prestatyn when we saw the maroons go up at Rhyl lifeboat station.

"We decided to drive the car on to the prom by the lifeboat station and were waved by some of the crew to follow them and drive along the prom shining our headlights to where the hovercraft was slamming into the sea wall. When they had finished lashing it to the prom railings, we were thanked and we left. The next day we read about the incident, stating that there was hundreds of gallons of kerosene on board!"

In the hands of the gales and tides of the Irish Sea, the VA3 was smashed into Rhyl's promenade wall, followed by a further pounding from the waves and a heroic intervention from the Rhyl lifeboat crew.

The ordeal signalled a premature end to the world's first passenger hovercraft service. The accident happened a few days before the service's trial period was up, and signalled an end to the prospect of gliding over the waves for the people of Rhyl.

Follow in the footsteps of pirates and smugglers on the Wales Coast Path

2012-05-02T12:00:00+00:00

Anyone walking the new Wales Coast Path - due to be opened in its entirety on Saturday 5 May 2012 - cannot fail to be impressed, even inspired, by the rugged grandeur of the coastline. Towering cliffs, long stretches of golden sand, isolated coves and hidden inlets or bays mark the area as something very special indeed.

However, these very attributes once inspired a somewhat different breed of men from the ramblers and walkers who inhabit the region today. For once, and not too long ago either, these tiny bays and beaches were the haunt of pirates and smugglers.

South Stack lighthouse, Anglesey (Photo: CJ Roberts)

North Wales has always been a smugglers paradise, particularly the remote beaches and landing places on Ynys Mon and on the Llyn Peninsula.

The reason is very simple. In the 18th and 19th centuries, and for many years before, the Isle of Man was not officially part of Britain and was therefore the ideal place to store contraband goods such as brandy, sugar and salt, store them with impunity and without any fear of seizure by the Crown. They could stockpiled and then be brought over to Britain, and to the coast of north Wales in particular, at leisure - and when the price was right!

Anyone walking the coastal path will be within touching distance of these smugglers who brought in the brandy and tobacco that government taxes had put beyond the reach of most ordinary people. They were, however, not the romantic figures of fiction and poetry but, rather, hard, vicious and cruel men who would rob, steal and kill whenever they felt necessary.

Smugglers' caves

William Owen, who came from the Ceredigion area, was perhaps the most noted of all the Welsh smugglers in the early 18th century. A vicious cut throat and rogue who, by his own admission, killed at least six men, he regularly used the beaches of the Llyn to land his illicit goods - until justice finally caught up with him and he was hanged in 1747.

Traeth Morfa Bychan (Photo: Keith Evans59)

The beach of Morfa Bychan lies between Criccieth and Porthmadog. Here, at the northern end of the sand, walkers will find several low lying caves - regularly used by smugglers for the storing of imported goods before they were sold on by the distributors.

Go carefully inside one of these caves and it does not take much imagination to conjure up visions of midnight landings and muttered oaths, the catch the smell of brandy and rum, and to sense the lingering fear of sudden capture - smuggling, of course, being a capital crime.

Culver Hole

In the south of the country, illicit goods came, not from the Isle of Man but from the continent of Europe. John Lucas of Port Eynon was, for many years, the organiser of the smuggling gangs on the Gower. Along with George Eynon and Robert Scurlage he became rich on the proceeds and built himself an impregnable fortress to protect himself from the Excise men.

Culver Hole (Photo: Jo Evans1)

This was Culver Hole, an inlet that reached like a long pointed finger into the land. Lucas simply walled in the back part of the inlet, creating a castle 60 feet high, complete with windows from which he and his men were able to both look and fire. Culver Hole is there to this day and can be seen by anyone walking the Coast Path.

Visitors to the capital city of Wales will probably be unaware that Cardiff was once a centre of smuggling activity. At the end of the 17th century there was something of a clampdown on piracy around the coast of Britain and the people of Cardiff, then little more than a small port and village which, according to government records, had regularly protected Bristol Channel pirates, turned instead to smuggling.

Lundy, Flat Holm and Sully Island

All sorts of goods were smuggled in, either being landed along the muddy banks of the River Taff or carried, with seeming impunity, across the town quays. Much of the smugglers' produce was initially stored on islands in the Bristol Channel, places such as Lundy, Flat Holm or even nearby Sully Island, before being taken ashore at Cardiff.

Flat Holm Island (Photo: Gale's photos)

Amazingly, during Queen Elizabeth's days, guns and ammunition were regularly sold by smuggling gangs to countries such as Spain - despite the fact that Britain and Spain were actually at war!

Smugglers v pirates

The differentiation between smugglers and pirates has always been blurred - they were both pragmatic trades and the men involved would happily turn their hands to whichever was most profitable at that moment in time.

The great Welsh pirates, men like Black Bart Roberts, Howell Davis and Henry Morgan, operated out of the Caribbean and Africa and rarely ventured into Welsh waters. But there were many others who plied their trade around the coast of Wales and locations connected to these villains can still be seen by people on the coast path.

Llanwit Major (Image: welshlady)

John Knight of Lundy Island terrorised the Bristol Channel in a 10 year reign of brutality that lasted from 1780 to 1790. He operated out of several ports on the south Wales coast, most notably Llantwit Major, where he based himself in the Old Swan Inn, and Barry Island - which, in those days, really was an island, just off the coast.

The sudden appearance of Knight's armed brig, the John Combe, was a sight feared by all honest seamen until, finally, he was driven from Barry Island by customs men who fought a pitched battle with the pirate and recovered a huge cache of brandy and port. Knight retired to Lundy, however, and died a wealthy and, so it is said, a happy man.

Tenby attracted pirates from as far away as Turkey (Photo: tony francisrees)

The sea around Tenby was, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, infested by pirates. Amazingly, these ruffians were not just Welsh - there are records to say that pirates in the area came from places as diverse as Turkey, France and Ireland. Chief amongst these, however, was a Welshman, one John Callice who made the Point House Inn at nearby Angle his headquarters. The Inn is still open for business and is well worth a visit from anyone walking the Wales Coast Path.

The ghost of John Paul Jones

Tenby continued to be a popular spot for pirates right up until the 19th century. The American pirate John Paul Jones - although Americans prefer to call him the founder of the US Navy - was active in these waters at the end of the 18th century. He even landed on Caldey Island where there is a beach named after him. His ghost is said to haunt the island.

One of Jones' officers came from the Tenby area, the quaintly named Leekie Porridge - a genuine name, believe it or not - and would certainly have told the American of isolated bays where they could rest and lay up.

Almost any deserted spot on the Welsh coast was liable to be used by pirates and smugglers and there are dozens of fascinating, intriguing stories about these characters. Some knowledge of their activities will make a walk on the new Wales Coast Path so much more interesting.

The great storm of 1859

2012-03-12T11:50:00+00:00

Thousands of storms have pounded the Welsh coast over the years, but none of them was wilder, more magnificent or more deadly than the great storm of 1859.

Holyhead Breakwater (Photo: Al Preston)

In late October that year the weather had been unsettled, the skies grey and brooding. Old men working at their lobster pots or fishing nets would look up at the heavens and declare that there was bad weather on the way. Then, at around midday on 25 October it began to rain, first in Pembrokeshire and Ceridigion on the west coast of Wales.

In the middle of the afternoon there was a sudden increase in wind speed and structural damage began to be reported in the western counties of England.

By tea time the wind had gathered even more strength and soon wild waves were lashing at the beaches and cliffs of the Welsh coast. Out at sea, sailors quickly realised what was to come and began to run for shelter or, wherever possible, get into port. Even the pilot cutters of the Bristol Channel, well used to bad weather, headed for shelter.

Throughout the night of 25/26 October waves and wind battered with unrelenting fury against the coast. By midnight the storm had assumed near-hurricane proportions, wind speeds of well over 100 mph being reported.

Wales, along with Cornwall and Devon, took the brunt of the storm but few parts of Britain escaped unscathed. Nearly 150 ships were wrecked that night, most of them caught against an unforgiving coast, while dozens more were so severely damaged that their owners had little option other than to scrap them.

Well over 800 people died in the storm, 465 of them on the steamer Royal Charter which was driven onto the rocks at Point Lynas near Moelfre on the west coast of Ynys Môn. The ship was returning from Australia, many of the passengers being prospectors from the recently discovered gold fields in Australia.

Tragically, the Royal Charter was lost within sight and sound of rescuers on land. The villagers of Moelfre could do little more than watch as 60 foot waves pounded the ship to pieces before their eyes. There are stories of passengers leaping into the sea, their pockets full of gold and coins and, as a consequence, being dragged down by the weight of the wealth they had earned. Whether or not that is true, divers are still recovering artifacts from the wreck of the ship.

The enormity of the Royal Charter disaster has never gone away. Charles Dickens came to report on the incident and write about it in his book The Uncommercial Traveller while Stephen Hughes, the Rector of St Gallgo Church, wrote over 1,000 letters of sympathy and condolence to relatives of the drowned. In many circles, particularly in Wales, the storm is still known as the Royal Charter gale.

There were dozens of other shipwrecks that night. Included amongst them were the Bideford brig Susan, lost with all hands at Cardiff, and the schooner John St Baube, bound for Gloucester docks. The tiny trading ship went ashore at Lavernock Point, again with the loss of all hands.

At Pembroke Dockyard, the only Royal Naval yard to exist in Wales, the 50-gun Immortalite had been launched only that day and there were very real fears for the safety of what was, at that stage, little more than the shell of a ship. Extra lines were fixed and, to the relief of everyone, the ship swung easily at her moorings all night long. The town of Pembroke Dock was not so lucky, however, as three of the residents lost their lives in the gale.

Clearly, then, it was not just ships that suffered. There were dozens of casualties, injuries and deaths right across Wales. Many of these were caused by falling rocks and masonry as the wind surged inland. Houses were damaged, slates ripped off roofs as if they were just pieces of paper and nobody ventured outside unless it was vital.

Trees were uprooted and, in the minds and opinions of many, the topography of the coastal area drastically changed. It is alleged - although unproven - that the huge pebble bank at the back of Newgale beach in Pembrokeshire was created by the storm, when the pebbles and rocks were thrown up there during the course of the long and dreadful night.

As dawn broke on the morning of 26 October the storm began to abate and people were able to begin counting the cost - but only in some parts of the country. The wind did not reach maximum force on the River Mersey until midday on 26 October and by then many, if not most, of the deaths had already occurred.

In the wake of the storm Captain Robert Fitzroy of the Meteorological Office knew that something had to be done to prevent such a disaster happening again. In 1860 he duly brought in a gale warning service. It would not prevent storms and gales battering the Welsh coast but it did at least warn people to take shelter and, as sailors say, "batten down the hatches".

HMS Warrior, the first iron clad warship

2011-09-02T13:15:29+00:00

HMS Warrior was, for a brief period of ten years, the most powerful warship in the the Royal Navy. Yet she spent her last 50 years of active service as an oil hulk at Llanion on the River Cleddau in west Wales.

HMS Warrior (All images kindly provided by HMS Warrior Preservation Trust)

These days, with the restored Warrior on public display at Portsmouth, the link between the most powerful ship in the world and Wales is barely remembered. Yet from 1929 through until August 1979 she was a common sight, nestled serenely against the wooded bank of the river, a reassuring landmark for anyone who sailed up the Cleddau from Milford or Pembroke Dock.

The Warrior was laid down at the private yards of CJ Mare, the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company as the business was called, as the Admiralty felt that no Royal Naval Dockyard had the skill or capacity to undertake such a job. She was launched on 29 December 1860, just over 18 months after building began.

She was built as a response to the French armoured warship La Gloire, which had been laid down a year before. Rumours of the French design had been troubling the Admiralty for months, nobody daring to believe that Britain's sea power might be seriously challenged.

However, when the design was complete, it was clear that the Warrior was to be bigger, faster, more fully armoured and equipped with better guns than the French vessel, thus easily maintaining Britain's supremacy at sea.

The Warrior was an iron hulled, armour plated battleship, powered by steam engines and armed with nearly twenty breach loading guns of various calibre. She was a frighteningly powerful ship, a vessel that, together with her sister ship Black Prince, soon became the pride of the Royal navy.

The winter of 1860/61 happened to be the coldest winter for half a century, and on the day of her launch the Warrior's iron hull actually froze to the launching ways. Six tugs had to tow the mighty warship into the river.

The Warrior immediately made every other capital warship totally redundant and the maritime nations of the world were soon falling over themselves to follow in Britain's footsteps and build ironclads of their own.

The Warrior had cost £357,000 to build - a figure that, these days, would be translated to the region of £25 million pounds - but, so quickly did technology develop, that within ten years she was out of date and ready to be replaced.

The Warrior saw active service all over the world but never fired her guns in anger. In her later years she became Guard Ship for Osborne House, Queen Victoria's favourite dwelling place on the Isle of Wight, and then on the River Clyde.

In 1904 she was taken to Portsmouth where she became part of the HMS Vernon torpedo school. It was a job she carried out for many years until the school "came ashore" and Warrior was once again redundant.

The admiralty planned to sell her for scrap but no-one was interested, despite the fact that she had armour plating that was nearly four feet thick - or perhaps that was the reason as it would have been the devil's own job to break her up. So she remained at Portsmouth, idle and useless, until in March 1929 it was decided to send her to Llanion on the Cleddau where she would operate as Oil Fuel Hulk No C77.

Over the next 50 years more than 5,000 ships docked against the Warrior's side to receive fuel from the oil tanks that were located further inland. Modifications had to be made to the hulk and tons of concrete were poured onto her upper deck, in order to make transfer of men and oil easier. It was a sad end for one of the most revolutionary and influential warships ever to float.

For the people of south Pembrokeshire the Warrior soon became a common sight as they went about their daily tasks. They sailed their boats past her, fished alongside her and, if they were lucky, were invited for a look around by Watchman who lived on board with his family. She became part of the scenery on that section of the river.

HMS Warror at Llanion on the River Cleddau in west Wales

It was nothing short of criminal, however, to allow such an historic and important vessel to simply rot away. And in 1968 no less a person than the Duke of Edinburgh - himself a navy man - chaired a meeting to discuss the possibility of restoring this once proud ship to her former glory. The Maritime Trust was founded and negotiations continued right through the 1970s. Finally, however, an agreement was reached.

In August 1979 the Warrior was towed away down Milford Haven and brought around the coast to Hartlepool where she was moored in the Coal Dock and an £8 million pound restoration project was begun. It took eight years, one of the toughest jobs being to remove the concrete from her upper deck, but at last the task was complete.

In June 1987 the Warrior was taken to Portsmouth and opened to the public. Along with Nelson's Victory she now holds pride of place in the historic dockyard. And most visitors do not know that for 50 years this wonderful old ship lay as a derelict hulk on a backwater in west Wales.

You can visit HMS Warrior at Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard. See the HMS Warrior website for more information.

Welsh pirates

2010-11-22T09:57:31+00:00

Our image or impression of pirates has, in the main, been shaped by our reading or film watching. Say "pirate" and you immediately think of Long John Silver from Treasure Island or one of Errol Flynn's dramatic film creations.

Pirate flag

Reality, however, is far removed from these idealized versions of piracy. Real pirates were vicious and deadly - and a large number of them were Welsh.

Perhaps the most famous of these men was Sir Henry Morgan who was not so much a pirate as a licensed adventurer for the British government.

Born in about 1635, his origins remain unclear. What is known is that he came from the county of Monmouthshire and before he was 30 he had sailed off to the Caribbean. There he quickly made a name for himself as a bold and ruthless sailor who was as likely to be working for the good of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth as he was for himself.

When the monarchy was restored in 1660, Morgan simply switched his allegiance to Charles II and continued his piratical career.

Fighting against the Spaniards, he plundered the Mexican coast and the Caribbean islands on a regular basis. One of his most famous escapades involved him capturing, looting and putting to the sword the supposedly impregnable town of Camaguey on Cuba in 1667.

In 1671 he burned and sacked Panama, the richest of all Spanish colonies. Unfortunately, a treaty had recently been signed between Spain and Britain and Morgan was brought back to England in disgrace to answer for "his crimes."

Morgan was able to prove that he had no knowledge of the treaty and, instead of being punished, he was knighted and sent back to the Caribbean as Governor of Jamaica.

Old Panama City

Other Welsh pirates were not so fortunate. John Evans was originally an honest enough seaman, sailing out of the Caribbean island of Nevis. In 1722, when he lost his job, he and some colleagues decided to try piracy. They started out by raiding rich houses on the north shore of Jamaica, operating out of a small dug out canoe.

After capturing several Spanish ships, Evans' career as a pirate was short but decidedly successful.

Operating out of Grand Cayman he found himself embroiled in a dispute with his bosun and was challenged to a duel. When they reached port Evans reminded the bosun about the challenge.

The bosun refused to fight, whereupon Evans beat him with a cane. He turned away just as the bosun drew his pistol and shot him in the head. In retaliation the crew promptly killed the bosun and decided to disband. To their amazement they found that they had a total of £10,000 to share between them.

John Callis operated not like so many pirates in the Caribbean but along the Welsh coast. He was hugely successful for many years, terrorising the shipping lanes around the Severn estuary and the Bristol Channel.

He used several houses and inns as his base but most notably the Point House at Angle in Pembrokeshire. When he was finally captured in 1576 he was an old man and tried to buy his freedom by informing on other pirates. It was no use. He was tried and hanged at Newport that same year.

Howell Davis came from Milford Haven and in a piratical career of just one year was hugely successful.

His end came when he attempted to seize the governor of the Portuguese island of Principe with the aim of holding him to ransom. The Portuguese had recognised Davis and his men, however, and ambushed them as they came ashore. In the skirmish Howell Davis was shot and killed.

When Howell Davis was killed his crew promptly elected the best navigator on board their ship to the position of captain - pirates were nothing if not democratic, at least among themselves.

This man was Bartholomew Roberts, Black Bart as he is known, and he was undoubtedly the greatest of all Welsh pirates - if you can use a word like "greatest" when talking about such abject villains.

Like Davis, Black Bart had a short career as a pirate.

Originally an honest sailor who had been captured by Howell Davis, he quickly turned to piracy and in his two short years of terrorising the Atlantic sea lanes he captured nearly 500 ships.

He knew what his eventual fate would be and declared that what he wanted was "a short life and a merry one." He got his wish.

A teetotaller who wore flamboyant red coats during battle and tried to stop his crew swearing, Black Bart was killed when the Royal Navy sloop Swallow ran him to ground on 10 February 1727.

He was killed by grapeshot to the throat and, before the Navy sailors could get aboard the pirate ship his crew had weighted his body, wrapped it in sail cloth and dumped it over board.

With the death of Black Bart Roberts the great age of piracy came to an end. There are still occasional outbreaks, particularly in the Far East, but these days - hopefully at least - Welsh involvement remains minimal.

The great storm of 1908

2010-08-31T08:19:34+00:00

The Bristol Channel is used to storms. Winter or summer, they come sweeping in from the west, hammering at the coastline and playing havoc with shipping in the western approaches.

But no storm was more severe or more dangerous than the great storm of September 1908.

The Bristol Channel is a dangerous area of water because of its strong tides

The storm began on the afternoon and evening of Monday 31 August, when the wind strengthened, the barometer fell and torrential rain squalls began to hit the coast.

By morning of 1 September the gale had increased to hurricane proportions, with winds reaching upwards of 80 and even 90 miles an hour.

All day the storm raged; the winds only finally died away on the Wednesday morning. What they left in their wake was a trail of destruction and disaster that stretched right along the coast of south Wales, from Pembrokeshire in the west to Newport and Gwent in the east.

At places like the steelworks in Port Talbot huge cranes had been toppled as if they were made from a child's building blocks, while trees were uprooted and roofs ripped off the tops of buildings all across the country.

Roads were flooded or blocked by fallen debris while the main railway between Cardiff and Swansea closed because of trees across the line.

Huge hailstones battered at the windows of houses along the coast and enormous flashes of lightning lit up the sky. Terrified farm animals ran for shelter and nobody moved outside their homes unless it was an essential journey.

As might be expected, however, it was at sea that the most dangerous problems occurred. With waves of nearly 60 feet many captains wisely decided to remain in port but for those on voyage when the storm broke there was little option but to brave the elements and trust to fortune.

The Helwick lightship, moored out in the entrance to the Channel, was so badly damaged by the waves that her crew was forced to radio for help. The Tenby lifeboat carried out a courageous rescue, the lifeboat men rowing for over six hours to bring the stranded sailors to shore.

The barque Verajean, running up the Channel before the storm, was caught and driven ashore onto the rocks of Rhoose Point.

Luckily the crew all managed to escape and the unlucky sailing ship lay on the sand and shingle for many weeks, dismasted and abandoned, a sudden and unusual tourist attraction for the Vale of Glamorgan.

A more serious disaster took place on the sands near Margam when the Amazon was also driven ashore. Captain Garrick had tried to ride out the gale, anchored off the Mumbles headland, but at 6am on 1 September the Amazon's cables parted and the ship was driven eastwards.

At 8am she was thrown up, bow first, onto Margam Sands. Pounded by the waves, the stricken vessel swung sideways on to the storm.

Several men tried to swim ashore but most of them were immediately lost in the huge seas. When the Port Talbot Lifesaving Company arrived on the scene only two men were left alive on the ship. Twenty-one of the crew were drowned, including Captain Garrick and five young apprentices. There were just eight survivors.

When the storm finally died on the morning of Wednesday 2 September, it was time to count the cost. Luckily there had been no fatalities on land but damage to houses and industrial plants amounted to a sum well in excess of £200,000.

These days that figure would be in the millions. Dozens of small boats had been tossed up onto shore by the waves and many people had been cut and injured by falling slates and trees.

The Great Storm of 1908 was one of the worst natural disasters to hit the south Wales coast. Small wonder people, when witnessing such fury, would thank their stars they were safe on land and whisper to themselves "God help sailors on a night like this."

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Onedin Line tall ship to revisit north Wales

2010-08-26T10:16:36+00:00

A ship that once appeared in the popular 1970s BBC television drama The Onedin Line will once again be sailing along the north Wales coast.

The ship, called Kathleen and May, is Britain's last three-masted topsail schooner. It was built for Captain John Coppack in 1900 in Connah's Quay in Flintshire, for cargo trading around the Irish Sea.

The Kathleen and May was renamed the Charlotte Rhodes for the BBC Show.

Made of oak and pine, it was found derelict back in 1998 by her owners Steve and Marilyn Clarke, who restored it over a period of two years. It was completed at a cost of £2 million.

From next March, the ship will based at Liverpool's Cannign Dock but will be used for overnight trips along the north Wales coast, as well as making journeys to Cumbria, the Isle of Man and Ireland.

Peter Gilmore as Captain James Onedin and Anne Stallybrass as Anne

The Onedin Line was a popular British television series that ran from 1971 through 1980.

Set in the 1860s, the drama followed the fortunes of James Onedin (played by Peter Gilmore), an ambitious, clever and determined shipowner whose private life was as tempestuous than the seas he sailed.

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