Chapel Rock and the Wreckers’ Coast

Photography © Harry Shutler, Berthon UK. Taken with a 1970s Hasselblad 503CW medium format camera.

Every year we debate which image should appear on the front of the Berthon Book. In-house photographer, Harry Shutler, always has the best ideas, and of course it is he who will be scooped up in a RIB and maybe forced to swim to get exactly the right shot; or like this year, to walk for miles to get this incredible image of Chapel Rock. An iconic coastal feature, it is found on the Southwest Coastal path close to Hartland and Hartland Quay.

Of the hundreds of images at different angles, in differing lights and of different style, we have chosen the image you see. To Harry it resembled a broken mast and torn sail battered by the violent edge of the Atlantic. It is on its own. For literally centuries it has marked the threshold of where the land ends and unforgiving seas begin.

The north Devon and Cornwall coasts are harsh, with few places where mariners can run for safety. Its history is one of ships wrecked along its length, smuggling and worse, for this coast is known as Wreckers’ Coast. It is easy to see how Daphne du Maurier imagined the perils for seamen that awaited in heavy weather here, thanks to the landlord of Jamaica Inn.

This short stretch of coastline has over 150 recorded wrecks, and of course it is likely that there will be more, unrecorded and forgotten. One such casualty was the SS ROSALIA. In 1904 she was swallowed by a storm and did not survive. She was left to rust on this harsh coastline. Her iron bones can still be seen at low tide, a decaying memorial of her time and to the men who sailed aboard her.

^ Chris Alan Wilton / Alamy stock photo

The tales of wreckers in these parts are part of the UK’s narrative, and of course it makes for a rattling good tale, of locals who lured ships close to the shore using lanterns tied to donkeys which were walked along cliff paths to imitate the lights of a safe harbour. Logically, it is unlikely that these lanterns could have been powerful enough or high enough to be seen by nearby ships, particularly in very bad weather or fog, but perhaps there is some truth in these myths. The stories go that the wreckers would use their lanterns to drive ships ever closer to the shores, and once floundering on local, well-known rocks, they would swarm down to collect their booty, leaving the bodies of those unfortunate sailors who washed up to be taken away by the tide, and dispatching any who made it ashore alive.

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For sure, in the eighteenth century, smuggling was at its zenith in this area, with goods such as brandy, tea, tobacco and silk attracting heavy taxes and creating an industry in which in some cases, whole local communities had a hand, from the farm boy to the Squire. Goods were dropped off by passing ships at night and hidden, eventually finding their way onto the black market. There were serious consequences for smugglers if caught by His Majesty’s Customs officers, including imprisonment, impressment into the Royal Navy, transportation to the Colonies, and in some cases execution.

Of course, wreckers or not, these are treacherous waters and ships came to grief, still do, with locals salvaging the cargoes that came ashore. At Hartland, tales are told of villagers scaling cliffs in the pitch dark or launching boats to save sailors from stricken ships; and Hartland Lifeboat Station, once active here, played its part in later times.

The roll call of ships that foundered in the 1800s is long for such a short stretch of coastline as you can see, and there will be those that didn’t make the list –

Today, this coastline remains perilous, with ships coming to grief as recently as 1982.

Here are a few of them

In 1882, SS HOCHE, a French steamship ran aground in dense fog on the 1st July en route from Rouen to Cardiff. She was a total loss, although happily all twenty-three crew were rescued. Her boiler, anchor and rudder can still be seen at low tide.

SS ROSALIA, whose bones are visible at low tide, was an Italian steam cargo ship which came ashore on May 27, 1904. En route from Genoa to Newport, Monmouthshire, she ran aground in dense fog. Attempts to tow her to safety failed and she was lost. Photographs taken at the time, show her heeling to port on the rocks with her boat davits lowered and empty. At low tide, the foot of her stem could be seen jammed into the rocks.

^ SS ROSALIA | Photo Credit Hartland Quay Hotel

In 1962 RFA GREEN RANGER had the same fate, hitting Gunpath Rock on the Hartland peninsula. She had been torpedoed in September 1946 whilst in Portland Harbour. Although holed below the waterline, she remained afloat, but it was only in 1962 whilst on tow to be refitted in Cardiff, she broke free of her tug and met her end. There was a skeleton crew of seven aboard, all rescued by the Hartland Lifesaving Company with their Breeches Buoy, a rope based piece of kit which resembles a round personal flotation device with a leg harness – rather like a zip line. Deployed using a mortar rocket, the crew had to be rescued one at a time, each one pulled to safety. GREEN RANGER is still just visible at low tide.

In 1982, MS JOHANNA was lost on 31st December. A Dutch owned cargo ship, en route from Rotterdam to Barry in South Wales, she carried a cargo of wheat. In foul weather she was driven onto the rocks less than 400 metres from Hartland Point lighthouse. There she broke up with four crew airlifted by a helicopter from RAF Chivenor, and her three officers being taken off by the Clovelly RNLI lifeboat. A local landmark along the Southwest coastal path for years, in the storms of 2014, much of the wreck broke up leaving only small bits of rusting metal to be seen today.

We hope that you enjoy the image of Chapel Rock. Of course, seen from the sea in a stiff gale and on a lee shore, it doubtless looks rather less romantic.

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