Penmon On Solid Ground

Penmon On Solid Ground

Friday at Last!!!!!

this will be my last from Penmon for this season, I have to get back to The Peaks starting next week for my heather collection plus I will be producing my Wales 2011 Pictures to Music vid and a couple of commissions so this will take up most of the next week or two.

I would like to thank those who have bought from my site lately the Penmon series has proved to be a winner as it were, hopefully this will do likewise and grace a living room wall and bring back wonderful memories of  such a beautiful peaceful place for someone.

The lighthouse at Penmon Point was built after the tragic disaster of the steam ship Rothesay Castle in 1831. When a day trip from Liverpool turned to tragedy with the loss of passengers and crew, it was decided that a lighthouse and accompanying Lifeboat Station was needed. Today, the lighthouse watches over the treacherous waters between Penmon Point and Puffin Island

 

Disaster unfolds

At around midday on August 17, 1831, she left Liverpool carrying 150 passengers. She had been intended to leave at 10 a.m. but was delayed by the weather and the late arrival of a passenger.

On leaving the Mersey estuary, she encountered a strong NNW wind and a rough sea. One of the passengers went to see the captain, a Captain Atkinson, to ask him to return to port, but he found Atkinson drunk and unwilling to consider turning back. By 10 p.m. the ship had still only reached the Great Orme and the ship was found to have two feet of water in the stokehold. The pumps were found not to work, there was not even a bucket available for bailing, and the single lifeboat had a hole in the bottom and had no oars. At around 1 a.m. on August 18 the Rothsay Castle ran aground on Dutchman Bank and after a while broke up, the captain and the two mates being swept to their death when the funnel collapsed. A total of 23 passengers were rescued in the morning.

Bodies were washed up over a wide area of Anglesey and the Welsh mainland. An inquest was held at Beaumaris and the jury concluded:

had the Rothsay Castle been a seaworthy vessel and properly manned, this awful calamity might have been averted. They therefore cannot disguise their indignation at the conduct of those who could place such a vessel on this station …

As a result of this man made disaster, a lifeboatwas established at Penmonon the SE tip of Anglesey in 1832 and a lighthouse built there in 1837.

And with this I’ll leave you and wish you all a great weekend, off to swap out pictures at Barnsley Central Library for my Seascapes

Adrian

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