The Blizzard in the West: Being as Record and Story of the Disastrous Storm which Raged Throughout Devon and Cornwall, and West Somerset, On the Night of March 9th, 1891 — John Shaqi
The Blizzard in the West: Being as Record and Story of the Disastrous Storm which Raged Throughout Devon and Cornwall, and West Somerset, On the Night of March 9th, 1891Unknown
History
The Blizzard in the West: Being as Record and Story of the Disastrous Storm which Raged Throughout Devon and Cornwall, and West Somerset, On the Night of March 9th, 1891
Unknown
Blizzards -- England -- Cornwall (County) -- History; Cornwall (England : County) -- History; Devon (England) -- History
Some trawlers were reported during the week as missing from Brixham,
but in course of time anxiety on their account was removed, and they
either reached home or news of their safety was received from other
ports to which they had run for shelter. Some Plymouth trawlers were
also in difficulties, and it was feared that they had been wrecked, but
in a few days their whereabouts was ascertained, and it was discovered
that they had escaped with somewhat severe damage.
Start Point was on Monday night and again on the succeeding Tuesday a
scene of some heartrending disasters. Many vessels, including the iron
steamer _Marana_, 1,682 tons register, belonging to Messrs. George Bell
and Co. of Liverpool; and the full-rigged ship _Dryad_, 1,035 tons
register, owned by J. B. Walmsley, of Water Street, Liverpool, were
totally wrecked within a short distance of each other, resulting, it is
calculated, in an aggregate loss of over fifty lives. The _Marana_ left
Victoria Dock, London, at 11 A.M. on Sunday, March 1st, with a crew of
twenty-eight. She was bound for Colombo with a cargo of sleepers, but
was proceeding first to Swansea for coal. Whilst going down Channel
on Monday night she encountered the gale which, charged with blinding
snow, was blowing heavily from the S.E., and struck on the Blackstone
Rock, at Start Point. Seeing that the vessel must go to pieces very
shortly, the officers and crew took to the boats, most of them having
life-belts on. The starboard lifeboat, in charge of the boatswain and
with twenty-two men on board, proceeded in the direction of Prawle
Point, and was almost immediately followed by a smaller boat in which
were the captain, the chief engineer, the mess-room steward, and three
seamen. The latter boat was soon separated from the lifeboat, and was
never seen again. The lifeboat got under the coastguard station at
Prawle, but the appearance of the coast was threatening, and the crew
pushed off again. Almost immediately a sea struck the boat and capsized
her. A bitter struggle for life on the part of the twenty immersed
seamen succeeded, and those who had clung to the boat managed to get
her righted, and clambered on board, but soon after she was again
turned over. Once more she righted, and eventually drifted on to the
Mal Rock to the east of Prawle Point, where the four occupants--all
that remained of the crew of the vessel--contrived to get on to the
rocks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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