Shipwreck Archives - Explore Cornwall https://explorecornwall.org/tag/shipwreck/ & The Cornish Abroad Sat, 23 Oct 2021 05:14:13 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://explorecornwall.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/cropped-Explore-Cornwall-Colourless-32x32.png Shipwreck Archives - Explore Cornwall https://explorecornwall.org/tag/shipwreck/ 32 32 164779662 The Shipwreck of Booby’s Bay https://explorecornwall.org/the-shipwreck-of-boobys-bay/ Sat, 23 Oct 2021 05:14:05 +0000 https://explorecornwall.org/?p=6082 Mostly buried under the sand of Booby’s Bay are the wonderful remains of the SV Carl shipwreck.  This ship started out its life before 1914, […]

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Mostly buried under the sand of Booby’s Bay are the wonderful remains of the SV Carl shipwreck. 

Shipwreck

This ship started out its life before 1914, at which point it was at Cardiff docks. In October 1917 it was being towed to London for scrap when it broke free during a storm; it quickly ran aground on a reef off the coast and despite attempts to refloat her, she broke free again and headed further inland. One more time they tried to tow her out to sea, this time by the Admiralty. Again this failed and the Carl was in turn too badly damaged to move again.

Shipwreck

Salvage attempts began that same year, but it was soon covered in a thick layer of sand, preventing their efforts. It remained mostly buried until 2014 when large storms stripped the sand back, reviewing the wonderful carcass of the ship.

Shipwreck

The SV Carl was first launched in 1893 from Maryport by Ribson & Co, registering in Hamburg. It was during the outbreak of war in 1914 that she was impounded at Cardiff after being suspected of working for the German’s, laying mines.

Shipwreck

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]]> 6082 Finding the RMS Mulheim https://explorecornwall.org/finding-the-rms-mulheim/ Sat, 21 Nov 2020 10:14:55 +0000 https://explorecornwall.org/?p=4454 At the base of Castle Zawn is the rusted remains of the RMS Mulheim, small former scrap carrying ship.  A little while ago a friend […]

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At the base of Castle Zawn is the rusted remains of the RMS Mulheim, small former scrap carrying ship. 

A little while ago a friend and I ventured to the end of the country in search of a famous Cornish shipwreck. Parking just up the road from Land’s End, we then took the sign post parked for Sennen beach on the right side of the road. The winding path eventually came close to the main coast path and we joined on, following it until we reached Castle Zawn. Here, we peaked over the cliffs, giving us our first view of the wreck. 

It was in March 2003 on a routine voyage from Cork, Ireland to Lubeck in Germany that disaster struck this small vessel. As it headed around Land’s End the chief officer fell and was knocked unconscious when the leg of his trousers caught on his chair. At approximately 5am on the 22nd, as the chief officer came around, the Mulheim was already on route for rocks.

The six-man crew quickly called in the coastguard and were promptly rescued by helicopter and taken to Sennen Lifeboat Station. Efforts were made to try and salvage as much as possible from the now well grounded ship; a conveyer belt was set up to transport large bags of cargo up the cliff, although some was still lost to the sea.

Over the following years the continuous rough seas around Land’s End have broken the ship down to the rusted shell it is today; roughly a third of it appears to still be sat in Castle Zawn, the small cove it now calls home.

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