Ship Wrecks and Strandings between Ladram Bay and Straight Point in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Over the years there have been several incidences of boats coming ashore on the rocks or the beach in the vicinity of Budleigh Salterton. A search of the newspaper archives for the 19th and 20th centuries uncovers at least 18 incidents, the first being in 1830. There would undoubtedly have been many more wrecks before records were kept.

Many of the incidents occurred when coal (or culm) was being landed on Budleigh beach. It was regularly landed by the lime kilns and the procedure was to run the boat onto the beach at high tide, then unload the coal, and re-float the boat at the next high tide. This obviously was very dependent on there being favourable weather. 

Like most events, a vessel that came on shore on the 6th December 1830 was driven there by a severe gale in this case with wind from the South-South East (1). It caused the Marie from Bordeaux to drift onto the Pole Sand at Exmouth and un-named vessels were also ashore at Budleigh and at Sidmouth. It is not clear what damage was done to the boat at Budleigh but a few years later in May 1841 the brig Crown was totally wrecked on the beach but the crew were all saved (2). As in most cases, whatever could be salvaged was, and nearly all the rigging, sails and stores from the Crown were recovered (3) and probably auctioned which was the usual procedure.

In June 1843 the Lloyds List recorded that The British Queen had gone ashore at Budleigh but had been floated off with damage and arrived in Starcross on the 12th of the month. 

The next two records are rather confusing as they probably relate to the same accident. The weather was very unsettled in October 1847 and the brig Caroline was attempting to land a cargo of coal from South Shields onto Budleigh beach and had offloaded all bar 30 tons when the wind freshened to gale force and the vessel drifted into shallow water and the master decided that it was impossible to reach deep water so he allowed the boat to be driven on shore near Ottermouth (4). The boat was driven so high up the beach by the waves that it was thought unlikely that it could be re-floated before the next spring tides. In December there is a further record that Mr G Bence succeeded in re-floating a boat called the   Catherine that had been stranded since the gale on the 28th October (5), therefore it seems likely these two records relate to the same event. Several days later it was towed to Topsham for repairs. 

In 1849 a boat called The Two Sisters from Southampton was driven onto the rocks at Straight Point, the headland between Budleigh and Exmouth (6). It stuck fast and was expected to become a total wreck. Fortunately, all the crew were saved. The incident occurred after she had discharged coal at Budleigh.

There were several instances when small boats capsized resulting in fatalities. One such occurred in 1853 when two boatmen from Shaldon named Ward and Langdon were employed to take two gentlemen across to Budleigh Salterton. They were returning home in the evening after dropping the gentlemen when they were hit by a storm and both men were drowned (7).

A major wreck happened in 1856 about a mile and a half east of Budleigh at Black Head and it was widely reported in the national press. The boat involved was the 800-ton Spanish steamer Independiente. The ship captained by Don Augusta de Cavallos with 25 crew was out of Cadiz bound for London with a cargo of sugar when some machinery failed shortly after it entered The Channel, making the boat unmanageable. The strength of the wind caused the boat to drift inshore. The anchor was lowered but the chain broke about a quarter of a mile off-shore and the boat was driven towards land. The longboat left the ship with 4 hands aboard and got safely to Budleigh beach through heavy surf. Two other boats were launched and landed 4 other men. The ship finally hit the rocks at four o’clock in the morning and broke in half amidships and was eventually a total wreck. Lieutenant Prawle and his men from the Budleigh Lifeboat station, assisted by some local fishermen, had run along the cliff and descended down it to the beach, and several immediately threw themselves into the water to retrieve one of the boats from the Independiente that had settled on some rocks. Even though this boat was filling with water due to a damaged plank, it was re-floated and they were able to use it to save the rest of the exhausted crew and bring them to shore where other men carried them up the cliff. They were taken to Budleigh for hot food and dry clothing and the Spanish Captain recorded that they were received with the utmost kindness in the town (8,9,10). All machinery, boilers, and other fittings salvaged from the wreck were auctioned about 10 days later and raised £280.

In June 1862 there was another disaster when a boat was landing coal at Budleigh. The Kingston from Hartlepool arrived off the beach on 4th June but was driven onto it by strong winds from the south west. It became a total wreck but the crew and a small part of the cargo were saved. 

In November 1865 a gale raged for three days, the most severe weather being on Saturday the 25th when in the early afternoon word spread that a vessel was being driven on-shore at Ladram Bay. Coastguards from Sidmouth and Budleigh Salterton, commanded by Mr Barber and Mr Taylor respectively, rushed to the scene with rockets and life-saving equipment. The vessel involved was the 340 tons barque Clorinda an Italian boat. It had a crew of 11 men and 2 boys and had been bound for Falmouth with a cargo of migio (a seed used for mixing with corn before grinding). The captain Gerolame Avegno had mistaken Exmouth harbour for Falmouth and hove to off-shore. When it was 8 miles from Dawlish a gale drove the boat inshore and the captain looked for a place to run ashore that had few rocks. He unfortunately chose Ladram Bay and the ship grazed the rocks about 150 yards from land, fortunately the deck ended up parallel to the land creating a breakwater which enabled the men to use their boats to get ashore. The men had divested themselves of their clothing in case they ended up in the sea so the almost naked crew were taken to Otterton. None of the cargo was retrieved and the men lost everything on board. The vessel was a total wreck valued at £3000 and the cargo £1000. It was covered by an Italian insurer (11). The captain’s father from Genoa was the owner of the boat which may be why his son was the captain as he obviously wasn’t chosen for his navigation skills.

There was a further incident about 6 months later when a brig called Congo was transporting coal from Exmouth to Budleigh. It arrived on the evening of the 11th March 1866, anchored off-shore, and started unloading on the beach next morning. This took several days and, on the afternoon of the 14th, a southerly breeze blew up and the vessel was put to sea in the charge of a pilot in order to return to Exmouth. Sails were set and the boat was put about but the manoeuvre was mis-timed and the boat started to drift in-shore. Two anchors were laid and a message was sent to Exmouth to the owner asking for a steamer to be sent to pull them off into deep water, but none were available. The gale increased and at 9 pm the pilot and crew took to a boat and came ashore. The vessel eventually dragged its anchors in the early hours of the next morning and was driven up onto the beach and enveloped by the waves. She became partially dis-masted and lay stranded on the beach with considerable damaged to the hull. The newspaper assumed that it would soon go to pieces. Most of the cargo had been landed (12). 

Another wreck of a vessel landing coal came in July 1867 when the brig Ranger from Newcastle was anchored off-shore and in bad weather parted from her anchor. She raised a distress flag but the sea was too difficult for any other boats to reach her. The local coastguards were soon on the scene and Mr John Ford the Chief Boatswain sent a line by rocket to the vessel with his first shot and to great cheers from the on-lookers. Using the rope, the captain and 5 crewmen were brought safely to shore. Shortly afterwards the anchor cable broke and the boat was totally wrecked on shore (13). There then followed a very controversial incident as several of the local people scavenged the 20 tons of coal that had been scattered on the beach and tried to remove it. They were forbidden to remove the coal by the coastguards and warned of the consequences but several ignored the warning. The coal was for Mr Weber a local coal merchant and he attempted to claim the coal from the men as agent for the insurance underwriters who were by then the legal owners. He was threatened and the windows of his house were broken and he was in some danger. Four men were taken into custody for resisting and it was feared that an angry mob might break into the lock-up and release them. Two men were released on bail which calmed the situation. Later, in August, William Pratt, Richard Teed, E. Cowd, Isaac Cowd and J. Alford were prosecuted at Woodbury Magistrates Court for the theft. They had contended in court that it had been the local custom for many years to collect coal that had been washed up on the shore after similar accidents. All the defendants were fined a shilling plus costs (14).

Although not, it would appear, wrecked locally, on the 10th March 1872 the nameplate of the Maiden Queen from Liverpool was washed up on the beach at Budleigh. It had been returning from Hong Kong from what I can deduce, and had last been reported as seen on 4th March. Lifebuoys were also washed up at later dates along the south coast. Wreckage from other boats was occasional recovered at different points along the coast and in one case wreckage was auctioned by Mr Crudge at the life boat station in Exmouth on the 5th February 1873 and the next day at the boat station in Budleigh Salterton (15).

An unfortunate accident befell the smack Industry, the property of Mr. Laurence, of Budleigh Salterton, containing 300 barrels of naphtha oil which caught fire in the Exmouth Bight about noon on 3rd November 1876 and was burned down to sea level (16).

There appear to have been very few wrecks in the latter part of the 19th century. The lime kilns probably fell into disuse sometime between 1875 and 1878 (17,18) and this would account for the lack of incidents surrounding deliveries of coal. More use of steam power in vessels may have been a factor also; however there continued to be tragedies involved sail boats that capsized. I suspect that mainly only those that involved fatalities usually made the local press. One such resulted in the 1867 Regatta being cancelled. Henry Cowd and Howard Williams died when they went mackerel fishing in the bay a few days before the regatta and both died when their boat capsized. 

In 1882 a fishing boat was wrecked at the Ottermouth. Four men, Herbert Mears, John Sanders, John Sanders junior, and John Trayhurn had been night drift-fishing and were put in serious danger by a strong east wind and they ran for cover and attempted to get into the harbour in the river but hit the rocks outside. The boat turned over and the men were thrown out. John Sanders junior jumped from the rocks into the waves and managed to get to dry land. The incident had been witnessed by Richard Dunsford who ran to the town for assistance and ropes were brought by means of which the other men were saved. The boat (a new one belonging to James Ford) became a total wreck (19).

A capsize caused the death of Henry Hillman drowned off Black Head in 1895. Hillman and a fisherman called Henry Sedgmoor had sailed in a 15-foot lug sail boat to the crabbing grounds and the boat was capsized by a sudden squall. Hillman had been using a paddle to assist the boat and this “caught a crab” which was probably the main cause of the accident. Both men went into the sea and it is thought Hillman had been hit on the head because he said he was dazed when he surfaced and said he “couldn’t keep up”; and, although a good swimmer, he was drowned. Sedgmoor was saved by his brothers who were fishing nearby but Hillman sank before they could rescue him (20). 

There were very few wrecks reported in the 20th century. Life buoys with the name “Marcela, Caen” plus a mast and other wreckage came ashore at Seaton in January 1913 and the same day boats were reported to have been washed ashore at Budleigh and Sidmouth but presumably these were small boats. In June 1921 a motor fishing boat Little Annie was wrecked on rocks at Ladram Bay. Messrs Hook and Staddon had been out mackerel fishing with some Sidmouth boats and their motor broke down off Ladram. They tried to hoist the sail but this was hampered by a strong easterly wind and their anchor cable snapped and the boat drifted onto the rocks. The Sidmouth and Budleigh coastguards were alerted and Chief Officer Farrant and Leading Boatmen Wheeler and Gough plus a volunteer crew drove with equipment on their cart to Ladram. When they arrived, they found that the two men had managed to get ashore but the boat was severely damaged by the waves (21).

An unusual event took place May 1922 which had a happy ending when a large naval seaplane going from Plymouth to Sidmouth developed port engine trouble at Sidmouth and was forced landed on the sea while attempting to limp back to Exmouth. It was able to taxi on the water using its starboard engine as far as Budleigh but because of a strong tide it was in danger of drifting onto the beach. Luckily a message had been sent from Budleigh to Exmouth and a motor boat eventually came to tow the aircraft to Exmouth which it attained watched by a large crowd but not before the waves had threatened to overturn the plane en route several times (22); apparently a similar incident had occurred to another naval plane off Beer a few months earlier. A further accident befell this plane when it got back to Plymouth where it collided with a pier.

A minor incident happened in July 1932 when the pleasure steamer Duke of Devonshire arrived at noon off Budleigh Steamer Steps and, as the tide was ebbing, she became grounded and was not able to be re-floated until the 7pm tide. She had been dropping people at Budleigh and was intending to pick up extra passengers for a trip to Teignmouth and Torquay. All the passengers disembarked at Budleigh (23).

The last incident recorded in the Newspaper Archive occurred in 1937 (24). A Yeovil paper, but for some reason not the Exmouth Journal, recorded that three young yachtsmen on a pleasure trip had been forced to anchor their hired motor yacht Jane at the mouth of the river Otter early on a Saturday morning; they had unsuccessfully tried to enter the river and decided to anchor on the west side of the river mouth which was very rocky. There was a fairly heavy sea during the night and early next morning when the tide was receding the boat was being pounded on the rocks below. One of the men used the dingy to row to Budleigh to alert the Coastguard who didn’t think the Exmouth Lifeboat was necessary. Several attempts were made to re-float the craft but it was only later that local boatmen achieved that and were able to move it inside the mouth of the river. The bottom of the boat had been seriously damaged as had some of the fittings on the yacht.

Roger Lendon  

Written November 2021

1. Evening Mail 10 December 1830
2. Morning Herald (London) 24 May 1841
3. Lloyds List 26 May 1841
4. Exeter & Plymouth Gazette 30 Oct 1847
5. Western Times 4 December 1847
6. Morning Post 30 March 1849
7. Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard 3 September 1853
8. Royal Cornwall Gazette 4 January 1856
9. Evening Mail (London) 4 January 1856
10. North Devon Journal 3 January 1856
11. Sidmouth Journal and Directory 1 December 1865
12. Shipping and Mercantile Gazette 24 March 1866
13. Express and Echo, Exeter 16 July 1867
14. Berkshire Chronicle 24 August 1867
15. Exmouth Journal 1 February 1873
16. Sheffield Daily Telegraph 4 November 1876
17. OVApedia “Historical Sketch” of Budleigh Salterton
18. OVApedia “Salterton Lime Kilns” G. Millington
19. Western Times 3 June 1882
20. Exeter and Plymouth Gazette 17 June 1895
21. Exeter and Plymouth Gazette 29 June 1921
22. Western Morning News 9 May 1922
23. Western Morning News 9 July 1932
24. Western Gazette – Yeovil 14 May 1937