John Strike, of Porthleven, lantern slide talk on wrecks around the Lizard filled the WI Hall with members and guests.

The slides were collected by John’s father, many taken by the Gibsons, the famous photographers of Scilly. John’s elderly projector, once powered by an oil lamp and now electrified, created great interest. John’s father, a Porthleven coastguard, responsible for firing the rocket rescue apparatus for 30 years, purchased his first projector as a “present” for John, this was a pretence in order to avoid the wrath of his wife!

The journey around the Lizard began in the Fal with slides of famous ships such as the Cutty Sark once owned by a Falmouth Captain, the Pamir and the Foudroyant, a naval training vessel then based at Mylor.

Wrecks on the east side of the Lizard were caused by human error, fog and heavy weather. The Mohegan was an example of human error. The 7000 ton luxury liner with 157 on board was bound down channel for New York on October 14, 1898 when she ran onto the Manacles having been steered on the wrong course for several miles. Only 44 were rescued by the Porthoustock life boat. Those that died are buried in a mass grave in St Keverne Church.

The Suevic, a ship of the White Star Line built for service between Liverpool and Cape Town and Sydney, was wrecked in 1907 off the tip of the Lizard having collided with rocks in the fog. All were saved in the most successful rescue in the history of the RNLI. The vessel was cut in half and a new bow added to the salvaged stern. Later the ship became a Norwegian whaler and was scuttled in 1942 to avoid being taken by the Germans. The Bay of Panama was caught in a storm in Falmouth Bay whilst seeking shelter in March 1898. By morning most of the crew had drowned whilst other were frozen in the rigging. Once the ship was discovered by a local farmer, a few of the crew were saved by the coastguards.

The locals classified ships as good and bad ships depending on the quality of the pickings. The Bardic ran aground in 1924 carrying wool and frozen meat, to lighten the ship the cargo was offloaded. For sometime after there were Bardic pasties made from the lamb. The Suevic had provided tomatoes which drifted ashore in boxes of straw.

On the west coast, heavy weather was often the cause, although one ship came ashore in Gunwalloe Bay because the crew were celebrating the captain’s birthday! HMS Anson, a frigate achieving honours during the Napoleonic Wars, was wrecked off Loe Bar on December 29, 1807 having been trapped in Mounts Bay by a south west gale. All attempts to sail out of the bay to seek shelter in Falmouth had failed. The non Christian burials accorded some of the crew resulted in the Grylls Act of 1811, whilst the loss of life inspired Henry Trengrouse to develop his rocket apparatus which saved 20,000 people. Geoff Roberts, chairman, thanked John for sharing some of his excellent collection.

The group will be visiting Penzance on Friday, May 16 for a guided walk.