Eliza and the stripping of wrecks

Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 February 2011 14:40

1865 - The Eliza was a notorious local wreck. The following is an account by Jack Bevan in his Reminiscences of pre-war Gower: "The Eliza was wrecked in the Sound in 1865, and before the customs officers could arrive from Swansea the cargo had been plundered and carried away by the natives. It created a local scandal and a piece of poetry was written about it and handed down to this day.

The Eliza struck the Wormshead Sound
A cask of port was quickly found.
Dick Turpin and his crew were there
The biggest rogues I do declare.
They searched the ship from stem to stern
And then got drunk on rum and gin.
Tom Bowling he went up the Slent
And straight through Kinmoor Lane he went
To report the progress was his intent.
But thought 'twas useless as he went
For Dick Turpin and his roguish crew
Would rob the ship of bolt and screw.
So he returned and had his share
Of what the rogues could see to spare."

The names are aliases of well-known local characters.

The stripping of wrecks (if not the causing of them) is a tradition. Among the local wrecks there have been many over the years that provided anything from wood, coal or provisions, to silver dollars and even oranges. And when the Prince Ivanhoe ran ashore at Horton in 1981 there were few local houses and gardens that didn't benefit from.the event. (More recently the whole country watched on television the stripping of the MSC Napoli, wrecked on the beach at Branscombe.) It makes the full recovery of the cargo of the wreck of the Bounty Hall all the more remarkable.

It is appropriate at this stage to recall an old Gower prayer: "LORD, on this night of tempest and storm remember and protect the poor sailors on the sea, and guide their ships to safe haven. But LORD, if in thy infinite wisdom it doth please Thee to wreck a ship, wreck her on the shore at HORTON, and not among the sinners in the parish of RHOSSILI further down the coast. Amen." (the names of the villages are interchangeable!)

See also the MCGA directive on the Receiver of Wrecks