Those who go down to the sea in ships ...

Those who go down to the sea in ships * have for centuries been at the mercy of the sea and its unpredictable moods. Although more famous shipping disasters such as the sinking of the Titanic get all the publicity and are imbued with much tragic romanticism, there are a multitude of other shipwrecks that can be just as heart-rending. One of these featured in the life of my late husband Peter’s great-great-grandfather.

He was Joseph Darch, born in Stratton, Cornwall, in 1842. At the age of 9 (1851 Census) Joseph and his family lived in the Catsbridge Cottages, now just Bridge Cottages, Stratton. These houses date from the 17th Century, are still standing and heritage listed.

Bridge Cottages, Stratton

His father was an agricultural labourer and by the age of 18, Joseph seemed destined to follow in his footsteps as in the 1861 Census he is also described as a farm worker, but he was soon to change careers.

Perhaps he was after adventure or had a fondness for the sea and by age 22 he was Mate on board the small coastal trader Uncle John which travelled between Welsh and Devon ports with various cargoes. With only three crew on average, these were very small vessels. As can be seen from this image, the home trade ship the Seaflower carried coal to and from various ports in the region and on which Joseph was again the Mate, the other two men being the Master and an AB (Able Seaman).

In the 1871 Census, Joseph was described as a Mariner, and lived with his 25 year old wife Elizabeth (nee Jewell) and his first-born daughter, also Elizabeth, aged 5, at 26 Irsha Street, Appledore. This terrace house can still be seen today in that delightful Devon village and the whole street seems little changed from what it would have been like in the 19th Century although the colourful paints may be more recent.

Irsha Street about 1905, North Devon Museum Trust Collection

 

Irsha Street today. Copyright Nick Jenkins

Perhaps with a rapidly expanding family Joseph needed greater security of employment and in March, 1877, he officially joined the Royal Navy with the rank of Boatman. He was already registered with the Royal Naval Reserve which consisted of professional seamen employed in the Merchant Navy and fishing fleets around the coast and who could be called upon during times of war to serve in the regular Royal Navy.

His Royal Navy service record gives us a glimpse of what Joseph might have looked like then. He was described as being 5 ft. 7 1/2 ins. tall, with brown hair, a fair complexion and grey eyes. He had no distinguishing scars or tattoos.

Royal Navy sailors' uniform, 1873, The Graphic

Joseph first served on HMS Achilles

After a few months’ service as a Boatman in HMS Achilles, one of the early Warrior-class armoured frigates **, Joseph was transferred to HM Coastguard *** , and for the next 15 years served on various Royal Navy vessels including HMS Resistance, HMS Defence, HMS Hotspur and HMS Neptune, and Coastguard stations primarily on the Gower Peninsula of Wales including Porthcawl, Rhossili, Mumbles and also at Minehead, Devon.  He was invalided out at the end of 1891.

On 27 January 1883, the coast of Wales was hit by a tremendous storm. The Cardiff Times of 3 February carried a full page describing the wrecks and loss of life totalled up to fifty across all the disasters. 

The Mumbles lifeboat was stove in and its crew of four were drowned after trying to rescue a German ship in difficulties. All 24 members of the crew of the James Gray were lost when the ship collided with a rock in the Bristol Channel. And the Agnes Jack got into trouble off Port Eynon.

Joseph was stationed at Rhossili at the time, and when he heard about the ship in distress went to Port Eynon, where unfortunately there was no lifeboat, and there he attempted a rescue of the Agnes Jack using the rocket apparatus ****. 

In spite of being only a few hundred yards off shore, the terrible conditions meant that those watching could do little to save the poor crew of the Agnes Jack, and all 18 of them died. An inquest was held. (See below for the full transcription.) Joseph described how he and his twenty volunteers fired the rocket twice before he managed to get a line onto the fore yard just moments before the mast, to which a number of men were clinging, fell into the sea carrying everyone away.

The Agnes Jack, from Brecon Scuba

To have been so close watching men die and being unable to help would have been traumatic for everyone witnessing it, especially for those who had relatives on board the Agnes Jack. The comments in the inquest about others who seemed unaffected by the disaster are also a interesting observation on attitudes of the time. One can’t judge people who saw tragedy as just a fact of life when going down to the sea in ships was known to be a risky occupation.

Following the event, The Cambrian newspaper published an account of how Joseph led the rescue attempt. (See transcribed extract below the Inquest). A few days later, the newspaper published a scathing letter to the editor disputing the bravery and some facts, stating that there was no risk to the lives of the Coastguard men and sneering that “rocket apparatus men are rewarded for their trouble whether they succeed in saving life or not”. The fact the letter-writer was anonymous makes one wonder at the motivation behind it. Whatever the truth of the matter, for the last two centuries Coastguards have put their lives on the line [literally, in the instance of rocket apparatus] without thought of reward in countless sea rescue operations 

This is the monument at Port Eynon to the men whom Joseph was unable to save and who are buried in the churchyard. The wreck is still there off the coast, and the ship’s boilers can sometimes be seen at low tide.

"Oh! Had there been a lifeboat there,
To breast the stormy main,
These men might not have have perished thus,
Imploring help in vain"

It is difficult to find out what other rescues or events Joseph Darch may have been involved in during his years with the Coastguard, but he was also present in 1887 when the Norwegian vessel Helvetia with its load of timber came to grief on Rhossili sands. All on board that vessel reached shore safely although there was a subsequent disaster with an overloaded salvage operation in which five men drowned.

The bones of the Helvetia are still there today and it is a popular scene with artists and photographers. As they had done for hundreds of years with wrecks, the locals would have been quick to steal away the scattered timber for their own use.

Copyright Explore Gower

The National Trust UK now occupies the Coastguard Cottage at Rhossily, which was rebuilt in the 1920s, but the cottages at The Mumbles are still much the same as when Joseph and his family lived there.

Joseph and Elizabeth Darch had a large family and they have many descendants scattered around the world. A few of their babies didn’t survive and therefore not all are recorded in the various family trees online, but Darch historian Dick Glover found 16 births in total!

When he left the Coastguard, Joseph was employed for a while as Gateman for the Swansea Docks and in the 1911 Census Return he lived in Milton Terrace, his occupation “Naval Pensioner of H M Coastguard Comd. Btm [Commander Boatman].” The Census form had been amended showing the family lived in only 4 rooms rather than 6. Apart from Joseph and Elizabeth, the other two residents were their adult children Samuel, 14, a Blacksmith, and Beatrice aged 20. It is difficult for us today to imagine the type of conditions the Darch family would have lived in over the years, especially with so many children!

This battered but precious old photograph shows four generations of the Darch family, taken most likely not long before Joseph died in 1922. The address in his Probate is given as 6 Clifton Place, Swansea and he left just £320 to his wife, who died three years later. The area is much changed as Swansea was heavily bombed in World War II with subsequent demolition and the construction of new modern buildings, but the Google outlook from Clifton Hill closely matches the photo.

Private collection

Joseph and the imperious-looking Elizabeth are seated in the centre. The child at the front is my husband Peter’s mother, Mabel (1918-2012), with her own mother, also called Mabel (1893-1954), right back row holding another baby and the lady next to her in the middle is in turn her mother, Lily Kate (1871-1952), the third born child of Joseph and Elizabeth.

Peter recalled childhood visits to his great-grandmother (Lily) and being somewhat overawed by her, the Victorian clutter of her home and the number of bluff and hearty male visitors coming and going and all wearing sailors’ Aran jerseys. At the time of our last visit to HMS Warrior, he was very keen on his involvement with maritime heritage projects but had no idea about his ancestral link to Joseph Darch. Subsequently when family research unearthed the story, Peter often said if he’d only known more of Joseph’s life of service in helping those “in peril on the sea” he might have been inspired to follow in his footsteps.

This charming little YouTube video made by the Welsh Haford Primary School tells the story of Agnes Jack. I love the little drawings of the men with beards watching the tragedy and it is easy to imagine one of them would have been Joseph Darch.

Positions of wrecks associated with Joseph Darch:-

Agnes Jack (Some low-life recently stole the anchor.)

Helvetia

The Rhossili Rocket Apparatus crew with their white belts.
This photo dates from early 1900s and after Joseph's time (note horse in background!)
Some of these men would have had relatives who died in the wreck of the Agnes Jack
Copyright Robert Lucas, The Gower Society

*     The opening line of Psalm 107

**    Sister ship to HMS Warrior, Portsmouth 

***  HM Coastguard service was founded in 1822, originally to combat smuggling but to also give assistance to vessels and others in distress at sea.

****  The inventor of the rocket apparatus was a Cornishman, Henry Trengrouse, who had witnessed a similar loss of life from the shore in 1807 and was determined to do something about it.

-o0o-

CARDIFF TIMES
Saturday 3 February 1883

THE WRECK OF THE AGNES JACK

THE INQUEST

The inquest on the ten bodies from the wreck of the steamer Agnes Jack, in Port Eynon Bay, was opened at the Ship Inn, Port Eynon, on Tuesday, before Mr J. Gaskoin, deputy-coroner for the seigniory of Gower.

The bodies were lying in an outhouse on the beach, not far from the scene of the wreck, and the jury first of all proceeded to view them. They were in the same state as when washed ashore, and presented a shocking appearance.

The proceedings at the inquest were watched by Mr Jas. Strick, Lloyd’s agent. The Reve. Wm. Melland was foreman of the jury.

The first witness called was William Thomas, Waunarlwydd, who identified the body of Philip Beynon, the pilot. Deceased was his uncle. He was 63 years of age, married and had a family.

Morris Dowling, a coastguard man, stationed at Oxwich, stated that he found the body of the pilot on the beach, abreast of the place in which it was now lying. Its left leg was broken, and there was a cut on the face.

On Saturday morning, about six o’clock, it was reported that a vessel was ashore just off Skipea Point, and he went there were with a rocket apparatus, and saw the ship on the rocks. Her foremast and mainmast were standing, and there were men on the foreyeard. The rocket apparatus was taken to Port Eynon Point, and one shot was fired, which did not touch the vessel. After waiting some time for the tide to ebb, a second shot was fired from another point, which was also unsuccessful. A third shot was laid and aimed at the foremast, which fell at that moment with all the men upon it. The mainmast had fallen previously. He could not say how many men there were on the yards. After the foremast fell, witness and other men went out on the rocks as far as they could. They saw the men on the yard in the water for about fifteen minutes, but could render them no assistance. When the rocket was fired the vessel was only 200 yards from the shore, but the wind was so high that it carried the line over her. Altogether four rockets were fired: two by the Oxwich men, and two by the Rhossily men. The vessel could not be identified at the time, but it had since been ascertained that she was the steamer Agnes Jack, from the articles, and a lifeboat with the name on it, which were washed ashore.

Joseph Darch, a coastguard, stationed at Rhossily, said he heard at eight o’clock on Saturday morning that a vessel was ashore at Port Eynon. He went there with twenty volunteers of the life-saving crew. The men were still on the yard when they arrived. They approached within about 300 yards of the ship, and fired a rocket, which went too far to windward. Then they went across the Sound, and got within 200 yards. From this point they fired a rocket, and the line fell about four yards over the fore yard-arm. The yard was slightly peaked, and the force of the wind carried the line off into the water. They were preparing another rocket, when the mast fell over the side with the men on it.

William Hopkins, Port Eynon, said he was going to work about a quarter to five on Saturday morning, when he heard cries coming from the sea, and saw a light apparently half a mile from the land. He talked with some other men about it, and they came to the conclusion that there was a vessel in distress, and that the crew had left her in boats. They had no idea she was on the rockets. It was blowing very hard from the south-west, and there was a heavy sea on. When daylight came he saw the two masts of a vessel in the direction in which the cries came in the morning. When he heard the cries he was in the village. He went down to the beach and listened, but did not hear the cries again. He then went to his work.

Mr Strick said he could not understand why this witness did not do something more before going to his work.

A Juryman remarked that there was nothing to encourage the men to work for the sake of humanity. They had taken trouble on many occasions, and had got nothing for it.

Mr Strick said they ought not to expect payment for trying to save life.

William Jenkins, labourer, said he heard cries and saw the light at six in the morning. He then went to Oxwich to the coastguard.

Mr Strick said a watch belonging to Owen had been washed ashore. It had stopped at two minutes to five. The Foreman of the Jury said that would seem to indicate that some of the crew had taken to the boats which were capsized. The watch of Dowse, the second engineer, which had stopped at 8.25, was also produced.

Formal evidence as to the identification of the other four bodies was taken, and the jury returned a verdict to the effect that the deceased came to their deaths by reason of the wreck of the Agnes Jack.

-o0o-

THE CAMBRIAN

16 February 1883

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

A great deal has been made in Swansea and beyond its borders, of the heroism which was displayed in various places by various persons in connection with the recent storms and loss of life. The heroes of the Wolverhampton lifeboat are to have their names carved in stone on the rocky headland which witnessed their bravery and their death. The daughters of the lighthouse keeper are now being celebrated in prose and rhyme as the modern “Grace Darlings”.

But there is one act of bravery which has not yet been mentioned, though its deserts are, we are assured, as high as any.

On the fatal morning when the steamer Agnes Jack went down off Port Eynon Point, efforts were made by the rocket apparatus crews from Oxwich and Rhossily, under coastguards- men Downing and Darch respectively, to shoot the life-life across the sole remaining mast to which several of the unfortunate crew were still clinging. That feat was found to be impracticable from the top of the point, because, if we accept the sworn evidence at the inquest, the distance was too great for the rocket to carry.

The apparatus was taken to other places with a similar result - the mast with its load of precious lives could not be reached.

There seemed to be only one point from which the rocket could be successfully fired, and that was a green hillock-island standing out some distance in the wild stormy sea. To reach that point it was necessary to cross a “sound” or channel, much wider that then “Outer Sound” at the Mumbles Head, and vastly more dangerous because of the terrible ridges of sharp rocks which traverse it. These make it difficult to cross when the tide is out, but the peril is vastly increased when the sea rushes through the Sound, and what it must have been on that fatal morning can only be fairly conjectured by those who know the spot and the ruthless force of the sea on that coast.

However, finding that in no other way could help be brought to the drowning mariners, Joseph Darch pushed out into the angry waters of the Sound with a rope round his waist. The water was up to his shoulders, but in spite of the dissuasive advice of those around him and at the imminent risk of losing his life, he succeeded in crossing and in pulling over the rocket apparatus and some of the crew. From this point of vantage it was that the last rocket was fired which carried a life-line right over the yard arm of the standing mast. Had the mast stood half an hour longer or had the Rhossily men been called to the scene of the wreck sooner than they were, some of the seventeen hands of the Agnes Jack might undoubtedly have been saved. As it is, however, Joseph Darch’s passage of the Sound was a brave act, which we hoped to see acknowledged in the proper quarter.