Shipwreck

Morwenstow, Cornwall’s most northerly parish. Remote and windswept with a rugged coastline that was (and is) notoriously treacherous for shipping. On September 7th, 1842 a Scottish built brig called the Caledonia was en-route to Gloucester (England) from the Russian port of Odessa.

Carrying a cargo of wheat and 9 crew, the 200t brig was caught in a storm off Sharpnose Point, Morewenstow. The captain, Stephenson Peter, who had already launched the ships skiff, instructed the crew to shorten sail (to avoid coming ashore), however it was too late and the ship hit the rocks. Peter ordered his crew to the rigging for safety but the mast snapped and all were thrown into the sea. Eight crew perished, including the captain, however there was a survivor, one Edward Le Dain. Still conscious, Le Dain was found on the shore the next morning by a farm labourer and taken to the nearby vicarage.

The vicar of Morwenstow at that time was the popular, yet rather eccentric Rev Robert Stephen Hawker (1803 – 1875)

Locally renowned for his outlandish clothing (he was often seen walking around the parish wearing fisherman’s boots, yellow jersey and a pink hat) Hawker was somewhat of a celebrity. In 1825 he had published ‘The Song of the Western Men’  – now considered to be the Cornish Anthem – and was recognised for his literary works by others, including Charles Dickens. Morwenstow had not had a clergy for over 100 years [until Hawker arrived] and historic records reveal that the previous ecclesiastical intern was ‘allowed to perish to the sea without an extended hand of safety’ by the notorious smugglers and wreckers of this wild and lawless coastline.

Hawker nursed Le Dain back to health and when fully recovered from his ordeal, Le Dain moved back to his home in Jersey. Hawker’s writings of this episode reveal that every year thereafter, Le Dain would send him one of his finest Jersey cows as a gesture of eternal gratitude.

In the days following the shipwreck, all the crew were found. Some were retrieved from the shores and others from the rocks but all were interned into the graveyard at Morwenstow church (unusual for this era, as oftentimes the bodies of seamen were either buried on the beach or just left in the sea).

Hawker had insisted on a Christian burial for these unfortunates and the bodies were entombed together. To mark the grave, the Caledonia’s figurehead (which was retrieved from the shore and ‘saved’ – commonly, when a ship was wrecked, the flotsam and jetsam would have been collected by locals and either re-used for construction and/or burnt for fuel) was placed thereupon in commemoration.

” We laid them in their lowly rest,

The strangers of a distant shore

We smoothed the green turf on their breast

‘mid baffled ocean’s angry roar!

And there – the relique of the storm –

We fixed fair Scotland’s figured form.

She watches by her bold – her brave –

Her shield toward the fateful sea

Their cherished lady of the wave

Is guardian of their memory!

Stern is her look, but calm, for there

No gale can rend, or billow bear.

Stand, silent image, stately stand!

Where sighs shall breathe and tears be shed

And many a heart of Cornish Land

Will soften the stranger – dead

They came in paths of storm – they found

This quiet home in Christian ground. 

After some years, the figurehead started to suffer from the effects of worm and rot and was eventually removed for restoration. (Successfully restored, it now resides in the church). As an interim marker for the grave (circa early 1900’s) the bow of the Caledonia’s skiff and two crossed oars were installed in its place. Historic recordings get a bit sketchy from this point, however the oars were ‘acquired’ and used for additional structural support to these two principal trusses in a nearby cob and thatch cottage.

Watch the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2VOCHy4Yn0