Cliffs from Hella Point to Treryn Dinas, barely showing.
Off The Runnelstone Buoy.
Penwith's cliffs from Hella Point to Treryn Dinas;
to the land side of the buoy, sits two giant peaks of rock, which extend from the sea bed like two giant tower blocks
named The Runnelstone.
Despite appearances, the 1888 Navigational Map of the Admiralty shows a shelf between the Runnelstone and the cliffs.
Here there is 25 fathoms of water, the Runnelstone rises through 20 fathoms;
the sea bed between the Runnelstone and the coast is around 5 fathoms.
Three miles out from the Runnelstone is another stack, the head rising to 14 fathoms from the seabed of 35 fathoms.
Sea current here runs at over 2.5 knots.
The Runnelstone used to stand with its peak above water,
but since 1923, when the City of Westminster struck, it now sits just below water line.
Any ship that wanders between the buoy and the cliff is heading into lethal waters.
There are over 30 recorded steamer wrecks at this place between 1880 to 1923, scattered in a pile
around the Runnelstone and her companion.
Add that to the yearly losses of brigs and schooners of earlier years.
The sea bed is the last resting place of many a mariner and passenger of those grim days.
1806 HMS Caroline of Portsmouth struck and was lost, but the crew saved;
1810 sloop Wild Boar of Falmouth struck (12 of 76 men were saved); 1821 brig Birmingham,
just two young lads were saved of the crew and Captain
Rotherhaugh and his wife and daughter were never found.
The roll of lost ships continued; Polyblank, Maid of the Mist, Xarrie, Louisa, Providence, Plymouth Packet, Galeed, Emily,
and many others, a great deal of them unidentified.
In 1877 the Granite State, a great Yankee windjammer, struck the Runnelstone, holed she limped into Porthcurno,
that is a separate story in itself.
Schooner Margaret Jane, Three masted steamship Acklington sank in ten minutes and the crew managed to row into Penzance.
1891, Steamer Primrose struck the Runnelstone in a storm and sank later at Tol Pedn - the crew reached Mousehole safely.
Steamer Harley sank 1892; steamer Benwick was lost in 1903, sank near Porthcurno;
the Spanish steamer Sardinero struck the rock and sank in seconds, the crew were saved by a Bergen vessel.
Steamer Jose de Arambura in 1915 was trying to avoid U-boats,
and headed straight onto the Le Ore, inner companion to the Runnelstone.
Schooner rigged steamer Febero was 1,863 tons; in February 1910 she was headed from Bilbao to Newport,
with 28 crew and four passengers.
Running in bad weather, at 10 pm on 20th, just two days out of port, a crash was heard.
The cook rushed on deck, the crew were attempting to launch the three boats, the ship was taking water fast, and seas were swamping the decks ...
the cook (Roque Triarte) jumped and swam as hard as he could as the ship went down, to avoid being sucked down with her.
He clung to a hatch door, and managed to land himself in Nanjizel Bay, where he dried his clothes and was found by a farmer.
Roque was the sole survivor.
Other ships had the fortune to be holed yet were able to steam to safe port.
But French barque Alice Marie barely made it into the Bay and sank near St Michael's Mount.
1920 saw the loss of RFA Moorview, just months off her launching, she sank immediately on striking Le Ore,
crew safely got away in the ship's boats.
Months later the Chicago steamer Lake Grafton was lost.
All of this despite the fact of their being a buoy emplaced at the Runnelstone since 1826 ...
it had been cast adrift many a time by the seas, the area
surrounded by fog, and heavy rain, driving winds and currents, all conspire to drive ships on to these rocks.
Then, in 1923, the Runnelstone was changed for the first time since it was formed millions of years ago.
These undersea towers, stretching up from the seabed, similar to that at Wolf Rock,
are testament to the fact of land being at near a level of the seas that now surround our coast.
The steamer City of Westminster was a captured vessel from WWI
originally the Rudelsburg (one of the ships built by Flensburg Schiff)
and came under British Shipping Controller's dictates, she had then been allocated to the Ellerman line.
On 8th October 1923, she was under way from Belfast to Rotterdam; at 3 pm in thick rain and a strong south westerly
she struck the Runnelstone;
the sea was being swept over the decks by the wind.
Attended by the Sennen lifeboat Newbons and the Penlee lifeboat The Brothers, in horrendous conditions,
the Sennen lifeboat being damaged in the process,
the crew of 70, captain and his wife and daughter, and a lady passenger were all safely brought to Newlyn,
with the help of a tow from steam drifter Pioneer of Penzance.
The force with which the great steamer had struck the rock was sufficient to remove the top twenty feet of the Runnelstone.
Raymond Forward
