A diver's guide to the Shipwrecks of the Lizard
PART 2: THE EASTERN LIZARD.

Concluding our survey of wreck sites off the Lizard Peninsula, in Cornwall, we look at wrecks along the coastline from Cadgwith to the Helford Estuary, nine miles further north. (With additional diving details from Kevin Heath)
In spring and summer sunshine, the coast of the Lizard, daubed here and there with brilliant yellow gorse, is a lovely place. Yet people sometimes say that they feel a brooding sense of menace despite this glorious scenery. Perhaps old Celtic gods still lurk in the valleys of the well-wooded Lizard East. Or perhaps, in the case of divers, they are simply suffering from a surfeit of wrecks!
The launch site for many of the wrecks off the eastern Lizard is Cadgwith, a village of thatched cottages which has been squeezed into a valley leading down to a shingle cove where fishing boats are beached. Launching is difficult here, suitable more for small inflatables than big RIBs. Take care to keep out of the fishermen's way - everyone who lives in the village seems to be a fisherman! Car parking is on the outskirts of the village, 2 minutes' walk from the cove.
Cadgwith is shellfish country so don't, whatever you do, flaunt any catch or take more than one for yourself. And don't try a shore dive anywhere near the cove. Keep-pots are moored close in.

The nearest shipwreck to Cadgwith is the Bellucia, a 4368-ton British steamer, which was torpedoed by UB-31, 2km out in the Channel east of Bass Point on 7 July, 1917, while homeward bound in a convoy to London with a cargo of flour from Montreal.
The convoy, of which Bellucia, captained by James Kiddie, was part, was aware that U-boats were about, and the convoy commander in the destroyer HMS Lyra brought the ships as close to the Lizard as he dared.
The weather was squally with a rough sea. At 3pm one of the Bellucia's crew shouted that he had seen a periscope about 300 yards off the port beam. His warning came too late. A torpedo struck in the port side in the engine room, killing the third engineer, two firemen and the chief steward. Bellucia did not sink at once and the rest of the crew got clear in boats and rafts and were picked up. The ship was blown in and finally grounded, tipped over on her port side and sank, leaving her starboard side just above water. Later, holes were cut in the exposed side of the hull and tons of flour salvaged.
The wreck today is owned by Dick Larn. You will find her at 49 58 39; 05 10 39W. She is well broken and spread over a wide area, but most of the bottom of the hull can be seen from the area of the torpedo strike forward. Her bows are clear and more or less intact, as are her three boilers. The engine and propeller of the Bellucia have been salvaged.
Another wreck close to Cadgwith - 1km to the south-west - is much more modern. Divers will find the 779-ton motor vessel Citrine broken in 21m and upside down at 49 59 17; 05 09 35W. She foundered with a cargo of limestone when waves smashed in her fore hatch on 2 January, 1956, in a gale. All ten of her crew were saved by the Coverack and Lizard lifeboats, but one died later.
Map of Eastern Lizard wreck sites- south. Kennack Sands is really two beaches of firm silver sand, divided by rock outcrop. It provides excellent launching, but it becomes packed with holidaymakers in the summer, and divers must take great care not to cause problems with gear or boats.
Divers should also take care when launching here, particularly in any southerly wind which brings up a big surf. You'll know when not to launch - surfers appear with their boards!
A narrow lane runs down to the sands and a not-very-big public car park - so you should consider making an early start. Ahead of you as you approach you will see a BSAC-supplied notice board, which states the simple rules for divers: use the car park; no trailers to be left on the road or the beach; keep the slipway clear at all times; observe the 5-knot speed limit near the beach.
Most of the Lizard sites can be dived from Kennack, which may well have its own treasure wreck, so far undiscovered by divers. The evidence for this is the recent find by a local man using a metal detector on the sands. He found a 600-year-old Belgian gold coin, called a mouton and struck between 1355 and 1383. It is valued at £1000.
Two of the most popular known wrecks close by are the Carmarthen and the Gunvor.
The 4262-ton steamer Carmarthen sank on 26 July, 1917 after being torpedoed by UC-50. Kapitanleutnant R. Seuffer had laid all his mines when he spotted the Welsh steamer rounding the Lizard riding high in ballast from Genoa for the Tees. His torpedo hit her close to the engine room, and though her engines continued working, she started taking in water fast.
Captain Griffith Roberts, who thought he had been mined, ordered his crew to abandon ship. However, Commander J.A. Collett of the patrol trawler St. Hubert was soon alongside and disagreed with abandoning the steamer. He felt that they might be able to beach her. Soon tugs had the steamer in tow. They made some headway, but at 8pm Carmarthen grounded at 50 00 07; 05 07 27W in Eagle Cove a mile to the west of Black Head, and became a total loss.
Today the wreck of the Carmarthen is a pleasant dive with much marine life around her in 20m. Most of the broken wreckage stands 3m proud, though her boilers are a good 5m from the sand/shingle seabed. She has been well salvaged. Her 12-pdr Japanese gun is gone, but there is some ammunition for it buried under the sand.
The Gunvor is nearby at 50 00 19; 05 06 07W. This 1500-ton Norwegian three-masted steel barque became a victim of fog on 6 April, 1912, when she ran bow on into the cliffs of Black Head during a return voyage from Chile. She hit so hard that her masts bent like bananas and she swung as though trying to make her stern touch her bow. She ended up parallel to the rock face. Fortunately, her bowsprit now stretched out over dry rocks, and the crew used this wooden pathway and a rope-ladder to get safely to shore.
Today, the Gunvor is well broken with her bow driven in under rocks in 5m of water. The seabed here is a sheer wall into deep water, which makes the rocks a popular rod fishing site in calm weather. Close in to the wall is an anchor, then her masts stretch out to seaward.
This is a scenic second dive, with large sections of plating and ribs standing up from the kelp and shingle. At the stern, where the depth is about 10m, care must be taken on the flood when the tide can run nearly 2 knots. She is worth a good rummage - one recent dive uncovered the ship's inclinometer and a porthole.
Not far away, cannon lying almost right beneath the coastguard lookout on Black Head mark the site of one of the ships in a hideous double tragedy on 22 January, 1809.
The cannon are from the Admiralty transport Dispatch, homeward bound from the Peninsular War with the men and horses of the Seventh Dragoons. The other ship lost that night, HMS Primrose, sank just 2 hours later a little over 1.5km away on the Manacles (see below).
The Dispatch, a requisitioned ship, was driven in under the cliffs by huge winds laden with snow, which cut visibility to almost nil. She was carrying 75 men, of whom only seven survived. The rest were later buried at St Keverne.
Apart from the cannon there is little to be seen, though small finds thought to be parts of horse harnesses have been reported.

Map of Eastern Lizard wreck sites-north. Coverack fishing village is part of a small cove with a sand bottom which makes the sea look crystal-clear. Though much photographed, with its thatched cottages and narrow streets, be warned that there is little parking. The stone pier and disused lifeboat station are at the southern end of the harbour, which is controlled by harbourmaster Mr Vivian Carey, whose office is in the square near the harbour (01326 280583). There is no diving in the cove itself.
At one time there was a fishermen's ban on all divers using the cove. Today, divers are, if not welcome, at least tolerated, and can launch down the concrete slip on to sand at all states of the tide, with much discretion and the harbourmaster's permission. There is a speed limit of 3 knots in the harbour and a launching charge.
One of the largest sailing ship wrecks on the Lizard is not far away. The 2512-ton Pindos was a steel four-masted barque built for a London firm at Workington in 1890, but later sold to the Hamburg-based Wencke shipping company. In February, 1912, the Pindos was pinned in Falmouth on her way home to Hamburg from South America with a cargo of nitrates by a succession of contrary winds. The German company sent their tug to haul her home, but the captain of the tug found to his surprise that his ship was not capable of towing the Pindos against the south-easterly wind. In fact, once they cleared Falmouth both ships were being blown down Channel. Finally, the tug had to slip the tow.
The Pindos was in trouble immediately. The great weight of the towing hawser made steering impossible, and she crashed broadside on to the Guthen Rocks. All 28 of the crew were landed safely by a combined rescue operation between the Coastguard and the Coverack lifeboat. The Pindos stayed above surface for another day or two, but the next storm broke her up completely.
Her wreck today is at 50 00 58; 05 05 14W on the seaward side of the Guthens, which are in turn just seaward of Chynhalls Point. Local fishermen call Chynhalls "Mears Point", and refer to the Guthens as "The Three Sisters", because of the three main rocks on the reef. Some small bits of the Pindos can be found in the shallows inside the Guthens, but the real wreckage lies on the outside of the reef. Her bow is to the south-east and stern to the north-west. Depth to the broken wreckage is 12m. She should only be dived from low water to flood, as on an ebb tide the tide boils over the site. A great deal of plating and some of her ribs are still there, though they tend to be heavily weeded in the summer.
Not far away - on the southern side of Chynhalls Point - is more wreckage, but this is from the small iron Irish steamer Rose, which ran ashore on 10 July, 1866, while on her way from London to Limerick.
Not far off Coverack is a good deep dive on the wreck of the 235ft steamer Veritas. This 1133-ton Norwegian ship was on her way from Gothenburg to Bristol with a cargo of pit props in August 1807, when she was involved in a collision. She went into Portland for temporary repairs, then resumed her voyage. But she started leaking badly when off Black Head. Soon the water put out the boiler fires. Her 15 crew abandoned her, rowed into Coverack and called for tugs. Three Falmouth-based tugs took her in tow, but in Coverack Bay her bows dipped and all the water in her rushed forward. Her bow hit the bottom in 36m. Her stern stayed on the surface - but only for two days.
The wreck today, at 50 01 10; 05 05 10W is owned by John Ellis of Seaways Diving in Falmouth, and lies upside down on a sand and shingle bottom at 39m. Her bow is to the north, and her remains are well scattered to seaward. Her iron propeller is still there, and part of the stern is intact. Her two boilers are clear.
Each year, Easter, however early, is the start of the divers' pilgrimage to the Manacles. Then they pack the beach at Porthoustock. When the sun shines it is wonderful, but anyone who has been in a dive boat off the Manacles in any kind of rough weather and has looked back at the land will have seen the kind of shore that great oil painters used to depict the Gates of Hell. This was the last view that many an old-time sailor saw. Take care that it is not yours. The Manacles need diving with great care.
St Keverne has two main attractions for divers in its little square. One is the church with its many gravestones and memorials to those lost in wrecks on the Manacles. The other is the divers' pub, the Three Tuns, with its wreck relics and air compressor at the rear. The Three Tuns (01326 280949) has 8 rooms, offers special rates for divers, and dinners and breakfasts to suit divers' appetites! The White Hart in the square also does bed and breakfast.
Porthoustock, and next-door Porthkerris, are the beaches from which to tackle the wrecks of the Manacles. Porthoustock has suffered badly from diver congestion, particularly on Bank Holidays.

This is another place where the BSAC has cooperated with the fishermen and residents to work out a way to avoid friction. On the grey shingle beach you will find a large notice, setting out two simple rules:

"1. Do not park cars, trailers, boats or yourselves on the left-hand side of the beach as you face the sea. This is reserved for Porthoustock fishermen to launch and winch up their boats;

2. Do not run compressors on the beach."

Since this noticeboard was installed there have been few problems.
Porthkerris Cove is a short distance to the north of Porthoustock and is approached by two steep roads, one of which has been specially cut from the radar station on top of the cliff through the fields to the beach to ease the launching of big RIBs. There is parking for 1,000 cars on the beach! There is a charge of £1 per car for those not using the facilities of Porthkerris Diving, whose dive shop and restaurant are on the right hand side of the beach.
The Manacles reef lies 1.6km offshore and almost directly in the line of the approach to Falmouth from the south. It is not surprising therefore that there are records of nearly 200 shipwrecks on these deadly rocks.
Each of the Manacle rocks has its own name. All of them are covered at high spring tides, except for Carn-du which always shows at least a metre above the water.
Diving here is totally governed by the tide. Speeds of over 3 knots are common during springs, and even on neaps the tides are still strong. The sea can get up very quickly and there are strange currents underwater in tidal eddies. Slack water is the only time to dive, and generally speaking slack water will be later than on the beach. Divers have died on the Manacles. It is not diving for beginners.
The Manacles, too, are a place for very careful boat handling. Many rocks lie just under the surface and are no respecters of inflatables. There are channels through the rocks for quite big ships, including one which follows the coastline inside the Manacles; but you need to take advice from local fishermen before trying them out.
At the northern end of the Manacles is the rock known as Shark's Fin, site of the wreck of the Andola.
The Andola , a 2093-ton, 275ft three-masted sailing ship, encountered storm after storm on her way home with 2000 tons of wheat from Seattle. It took her 185 days to reach Falmouth. But there was to be no rest for Captain Passmore and his crew as they anchored there on 29 January, 1895. For they were ordered to sail again for Hull as soon as they had taken aboard fresh water and food. They cleared Falmouth on the evening tide, and ran straight into more contrary winds as they tried to head up Channel. The tacks of the Andola grew larger and larger and soon they were crossing the entire Channel from side to side. And when they spotted the Lizard light close by they realised they were actually going backwards! Then it started to snow.
However, it was only when they heard the Manacle Bell tolling mournfully very close that Captain Passmore tried to alter course. He was too late and shortly afterwards the Andola struck the thin slate outcrop aptly named Shark's Fin.
The striking had been seen and the Porthoustock lifeboat was launched. But Captain Passmore didn't know this and ordered the firing of distress signals. However, the flares only fizzled, and the ship's boy was ordered to get some rockets from the stores. As he did so, he managed somehow to drop one of the fizzing flares into the locker among the rockets. In a panic, he slammed the lid of the locker down. One of the exploding rockets slammed shrapnel into his thigh, then the whole charthouse roared into flame. Even so, the Porthoustock lifeboat was quickly beside her and managed to save all 28 aboard.
Today she is shallow, but interesting. Her wreckage is at 50 03 18; 05 03 30W, inside the Shark's Fin. Maximum depth is 10m. Her bow is to the south and is marked by great lengths of anchor chain. Broken plates and ribs are all around. Some sections of her double bottom are hidden under the thick weed of summer, which is why some say she is best in the spring. She can be dived by boat, but it is possible to carry dive gear to the sandy strip just opposite her below Manacle Point. From here, she's so close, less than 40m, that there's no need even to bother to snorkel out.
Perhaps the greatest attraction of the Andola to today's divers is the fact that she carried her name on both sides of her bow in brass letters nearly 30cm high, each weighing close to 2kg. Some of these letters have never been found. You can see a sample of what you are looking for in the Five Pilchards Inn at Porthallow, where the letter "A" is on display. The "N" has been recovered and is in a private collection. "D" is at the Charlestown Shipwreck Museum. That leaves "O", "L" and another "A", plus the whole name from one side, to be uncovered.
The nearest wreck to the Andola is the Lady Dalhousie, a 285ft Scottish steamer of 1800 tons which lies on the shore side of the rock named Maen Chynoweth (often called The Morah), which dries a little over 1m at low. She was seen from the shore on the Saturday evening of 13 April, 1884 to steam straight in among the rocks despite the bright moonlight. She was travelling from London for Newport in ballast and with a crew of 30. She seemed to have scraped right over one set of rocks, but was so badly holed that Captain Murchie turned in to beach her. It was then that she became firmly impaled on Maen Chynoweth. Tugs tried to pull her off, but she was stuck fast and soon became a total loss. The wreck is usually heavily weeded and lies with her bows to the north. Some fine portholes have been recovered.
The most seaward of all the Manacles and the nearest rock on the inside of the Manacle Bell Buoy, whose chain reaches down 61m to the seabed, is the Vase Rock. The Vase is a beautiful scenic reef dive with shelves and gullies dropping down from the top of the nearby Penwin Rock (at 50 02 58;05 03 21), which is just awash at low springs, to the seabed on the seaward side at over 50m.
Of all the wrecks that divers explore among the Manacles, the best known is that of the Mohegan, a 7000-ton, 482ft, liner, which hit the Vase or Penwin at her top speed of nearly 14 knots on 14 October, 1898 at 6.50pm. The impact tore off her massive steel rudder (which is still embedded in the Penwin). Then, as she careered on out of control, she hit the three peaks of the Maen Voes (The Voices), ripping out a great section of her starboard side.
On board, most of the 53 first-class passengers had just sat down to dinner when a steward shouted, "All on deck to save yourselves!". And as the last passenger left the dining room, the sea cascaded into the engine room and rose at least 4m to drown the dynamos and put the ship's lights out. In the darkness the liner listed to port.
Lifeboats jammed or overturned in big seas. At 7.05pm she gave a great lurch and sank down by the stern, taking her master, Captain Griffiths, with her. It was all over in 12 minutes. A few of the passengers and crew got into the rigging, which stayed above water, but despite the efforts of the lifeboat and other boats from Porthoustock, 106 people died.
Even before the funeral of the Mohegan's victims, there had been major salvage of her cargo. Linoleum, jute, tin, furniture, lace and church ornaments were raised, together with a bell. After that, she was worked by a local hard-hat diver, who in 1904 raised the ship's condenser, weighing over 16 tons.
Today the Mohegan, at 50 02 38; 05 02 26W, is still a fascinating dive.
You'll find that her hull has collapsed towards the open sea, but her huge boilers poke up through all the wreckage, which stands 8m proud in places. One of the boilers is split open, and has some pretty pink growths inside. Close to this are lifeboat davits. The boilers, on the west of the wreckage, are one of the shallowest parts at 20m. Her bow is slightly shallower at 18m . The forepart lies to the south and is supported by rocks, so you can swim underneath. From the boilers to the north is the prop shaft. The north-east is the deepest part, dropping down to over 30m, where layers of steel plate lie amid the sand-floored gullies.
Today, most of the discoveries are being made on the Mohegan in what is apparently the accommodation area, some 10m south of the boilers. It was in this spot that five portholes were recently found. (One can be seen in the Three Tuns at St Keverne.) Plates bearing the crest of the original owners, the Wilson Line, wine bottles, silver teapots, and spoons and forks, have also been recovered from the area. Elsewhere a few tin ingots, left after the original salvage, have been brought up; so have a few silver dollars.
Diving the wreck is only sensible at slack. Slack on the Mohegan is 2 hours later than at Porthoustock beach. Take care when moving in the wreckage; the metal may be thin, but it is also razor-sharp.
Not far from the remains of the Mohegan are those of the Spyridion Vagliano at 50 02 48; 05 02 41W. This 1708-ton steamer, laden with grain from the Black Sea for Falmouth, hit the Voices in the dark on 8 February, 1890, ripped a hole in her 258ft-long hull, and then bounced off to the north. Her crew abandoned her at once. Her captain was drowned when his boat overturned at midnight on Godrevy Cove beach. Another boat with 13 on board was never seen again. The wreck makes a pretty dive. There is much plating and some ribs still standing in 18m, where her small single boiler is in full view. Her big spare iron prop lies flat inshore of the wreck in slightly deeper water. It is difficult to spot.
The greatest loss of life in a single shipwreck on the Manacles occurred when the John, a barque of 465 tons packed with 263 emigrants outward bound for Canada, sank on the Maen Land rocks in May, 1855.
The John left Plymouth on May 3 and cleared Rame Head by 3pm. But by the time she was off Falmouth it was clear that she was too close in. At 10pm she struck the Middle Manacles, probably Maen Garrick or the Gwinges. The impact ripped off her rudder; then the wind took her and blew her inshore. The ship was now nearly full of water and all the emigrants had been forced on deck. An anchor was dropped to stop her headlong rush. When it bit she swung round on to Maen Land. Then the water washed over her decks. Huge seas came out of the dark and tore whole families of people overboard. The crew climbed into the rigging and left the passengers without help. When boats finally fought their way out to her from Porthoustock, the sun rose on only 86 people - including the Captain and his entire crew - still alive.
The Captain was condemned by the Board of Trade enquiry for "ignorance or gross culpable negligence", but when later tried for manslaughter was acquitted.
The Maen Land rocks lie off Dean Quarries and are a reef with four pinnacles. The tops of these only show at low water springs. General depth is 12m in the rock gullies.
Today, the remains of the John are spread far and wide, but the main wreckage is in the middle of the four peaks and is easy to spot as there is a pile of anchors from her deck stowage and a big winch. One of the biggest of the anchors has been raised by local diver Kevin Heath and is on display outside the Three Tuns in St Keverne square. In the gullies, divers from Newman Sport Diving Club, a BSAC special branch, who are working the wreck as a branch project, have found a big sounding lead, and bronze pins, as well as blue and white crockery dated 1840.
The whole area around Maen Land is littered with wreckage. Big timbers trawled up from the sand to the east of the rocks are probably part of the John. Closer inshore are the remains of the 2155-ton Norwegian steamer Forde, sunk on 4 March, 1919, after running aground in fog.
Running the John close in the horror stakes is HMS Primrose, a 384-ton sloop of 18 guns, whose remains are spread out near The Minstrel rocks. From this Manacles wreck of 22 January, 1809, only 17-year-old John Meaghen survived from the 126 aboard. On the night of January 22, the wind blew with near hurricane force and carried snow on its back. The Primrose, outward bound for Spain, struck at about 5am. They said that the cries of those aboard - 120 officers and men and 6 passengers - could be heard on the shore during lulls in the storm. She stayed upright for some hours, but at noon "fell over". Six Porthoustock fishermen fought huge seas to get to the spot and managed to save Meaghen, who had tied himself to the stump of a mast. The Admiralty gave each of those fishermen a reward of 10 guineas.
Northampton BSAC have raised four of the Primrose's 28pdr carronades, one of which can be seen in St Keverne churchyard. The rest of her guns are very concreted into the rocks. A small bronze signal gun, which may have come from her, though it was dated 1809, was raised in the early 60s by the late Reg Dunton of Bromley BSAC. He found it when he drifted off the wreck of the Mohegan towards Carn-du rocks.
The well-spread wreckage of the 176ft Juno, a small Norwegian steamer of 611 tons which hit Carn-du in fog on 3 July, 1915, lies just to the south-west of the rock at 50 02 36; 05 02 58W. She was heading for the Mersey from Le Treport, in France, in ballast, and stayed afloat for some time before sinking by the bow. Depth 20m. Her big anchor, winches and propeller are clear, though she becomes heavily kelped in summer. She can be dived on most of the ebb tide as Carn-du provides shelter.
More than 20 small stone anchors have been found by the BSAC Three Tuns Divers around a rock pinnacle rising from the seabed at 22m to 14m to the south of Carn-du. However, this is not likely to be the site of a really ancient shipwreck, and is probably the grave of a smuggling boat of Napoleonic times. The smugglers often used small stone anchors to pin down their casks of brandy under water inshore until a colleague could hook them up with a grapnel when the coast was clear!
Those who don't fancy wreck diving will generally find that getting away from shipwrecks on the Manacles is no easy matter. However, the Raglan Rocks, which provide one of the best scenic dives in Britain, appear to have no wreckage around them. The Raglans (at 50 02 35;05 02 27W) come to within a metre of the surface and drop down first to 32m, then down again to 44m on the seaward side. The rose-coral growths, sea urchins and anemones on these walls are superb. And there are many fish, including large numbers of bass. But dive only at slack.
Porthallow is a nice old village . Its Five Pilchards Inn is much used by divers because of its "wrecky" atmosphere - old photos and items from wrecks are all over the place. However, due to the bad behaviour of one or two large groups of divers in the past, all diving activity, including the launching of dive boats, is totally banned at Porthallow Beach, which is private land. This ban is a shame, even though it was well deserved, as Porthallow was a good launching site for several wrecks, such as the Bay of Panama and the Volnay.
The Bay of Panama was a victim of the Great Blizzard of March 1891. One of the finest sailing ships of her time, she was a steel square-rigged four-master of 2365 tons, 294ft long with a beam of 42ft. She was a highly successful ship too, completing many voyages in record times. Her last voyage sent her to Calcutta to pick up bales of jute, which she was to deliver to Dundee. As she approached the Cornish coast, at 4pm on 9 March, 1891, the blizzard hit her. Great winds came from the south-east. Despite this, and the ice and snow on her sails, the hands went aloft and furled what sails were out. But their efforts were in vain. Her bare poles were enough for the wind to grip her and force her inshore.
Somehow, she missed the Lizard, missed the Manacles (which claimed four ships in that storm), and her captain was able to aim her in the general direction of the Helford River. She didn't make it, however. In the dark and the snow, she ran straight into the cliffs just south of Nare Point.
She struck hard, swung violently so that her bows pointed back out to sea, and ended up with her port side jammed against the rocks and listing hard to starboard. Seconds later, waves like moving mountains hit her, and one tore the deckhouse right off the ship. Inside were Captain Wright, his wife, the ship's steward, the ship's cook and four young apprentices. All died as the deckhouse shattered in the trough of another giant wave. The mate ordered the rest of the crew into the rigging. During the night, six men froze solid and their bodies hung from the rigging like icicles. Others could not hold on and slid down to their deaths.
It wasn't until the arrival of a local farmer, trying to find his sheep the next day, that the ship was spotted. A rocket crew got a line across the ship, and brought 17 men out of her crew of 40, alive, though literally frozen stiff, to shore.
Today, the Bay of Panama is at 50 04 18; 05 04 31W. Her jute was salvaged and her bell given to the chapel in Helford, where it can be seen today. Though the wreck is only about 20m from the shore, directly under a prominent white rock, this is a boat dive. Steel plates and her ribs are clear, though weed grows fast over her keel each spring. Depth is 7m. Her rudder is still there and small items turn up each year, so she is worth a rummage. A bronze hawse plate from her can be seen in the Five Pilchards at Porthallow.
Eighteen-pounder brass shellcases mark the grave of the Volnay. They lie mostly under the silt in 20m at 50 04 15; 05 04 02. Some are close to the two big boilers which dominate the site, with a third smaller boiler nearby. Others hide under the bollards, steel plates and larger sections of the wreck of this 4609-ton schooner-rigged steamer sunk by a German mine on 14 December, 1917. Her bow section can be identified by the anchor winches and chain, but the stern section has been torn away from the main wreckage during extensive salvage. It now lies about 20m away across a mud field to the north.
She was loaded with ammunition in Montreal, mostly 18pdr shells with explosive heads, each packed with hundreds of lead balls designed for air-burst over the trenches of France. There are thousands of these lead balls on site, and divers should take care as the timing of the burst was set by brass nose cones still containing live detonators, which are easy to find. The shellcases are marked on the base with a broad arrow surrounded by a big "C" for Canadian War Department. They are dated 1917. Beware also the percussion caps in the shellcases. They, too, are live.
The crew of the 385ft Volnay was fortunate that, when the mine exploded on her starboard side and blew a great hole in No.1 hold, the shells there did not detonate. In fact, Captain Henry Plough had time to try and beach her after the mine exploded some 2 miles east-by-south of the Manacles. He nearly made it, but his ship finally foundered in Porthallow Bay, and most of her non-military cargo - butter, meat and jam and thousands of cartons of cigarettes - washed up on the beach at Porthallow itself.
The Volnay lies in a silty spot, and bad buoyancy control will ensure that the usual good viz disappears almost at once. There are boxes of some waxy substance in the bow area. Don't touch - this may be phosphorus.
At Gweek boats can be launched from the concrete slipway of the Gweek Quay Boatyard (01326 221657) for 2 hours either side of high tide. There is a charge. Gweek became the port for Helston when Loe Bar blocked the western entrance. Today, 250-ton coasters do sometimes bring coal cargos up to the village. There is a good pub near the famous seal sanctuary.
Gillan Creek or Harbour provides good shelter except in an easterly. Speed limit: six knots.
St Anthony is on the south bank of the entrance to the Helford river. There is reasonable launching here into Gillan Creek, but it is banned to dive boats.
Lizard Essentials

Dive boats:
Air supplies and equipment:
Local BSAC branches:
Accommodation:
Helston Tourist Centre (tel. 01326 565431) will provide lists of hotels, guest houses and bed-and-breakfasts for the whole of the Lizard.

Weather forecasts:
Marinecall (tel. 0891 500458) gives sea weather for whole of Cornwall. It includes the Isles of Scilly, and contains a forecast for the forthcoming 3 days. Marinecall Fax gives 2-day forecasts and longer forecasts with charts. For 2-day forecast for Cornish waters - 0336 400458. For detailed list of all fax forecasts - 0336 400401.

Maps and Charts:
Admiralty Charts -

Further reading:
Dive South Cornwall by Richard Larn - a completely revised edition will be published shortly by Underwater World Publications.

Diving Restrictions:
Appeared in DIVER February 1996.
Back to Wrecks