SS Dunvegan

Last Updated on Saturday, 22 May 2010 11:51

1916 – The SS Dunvegan was the wreck which caused  the Port Eynon Lifeboat disaster.   The vessel was reported in trouble and dragging her anchor in terrible conditions in Oxwich Bay towards Pennard.    The lifeboat, the Janet - still just a rowing boat in those days - put out from Port Eynon but found, when they reached  the vessel through heavy seas and a gale, that she did not require their assistance as the rocket team had arrived.   The Janet went to head for home but as she  turned into the teeth of the wind the boat was struck by a great wave and capsized.   Men struggled back on board only to find that two of the crew, the second coxswain William Eynon and lifeboatman George Harris, were missing.   Before they could gain control of the vessel, the boat was thrown over again.   When what was left of the crew fought their way back into the boat once more, they found that Coxswain Gibbs had been swept away.   The Mumbles lifeboat, which had also been called, passed by, but in the the howling gale the crew were not aware of the tragedy that was unfolding.   Ten men, the desperate remnants of the lifeboat crew, having lost most of the oars from the boat, drifted with the wind and, 30 hours after they had set out, they arrived at Mumbles, suffering from exhaustion and exposure.   A memorial of the terrible event (a statue of the Coxswain Billy Gibbs) stands in Port Eynon Churchyard.   It was 50 years later that the Inshore Rescue Lifeboat was established  in Horton. (Ref: 075)