Kodima.  Whitsand Bay and Plymouth Sound  Shipwrecks. by Neil Mawdsley

Diary: A walk on the cliffs at Tregantle in early February 2001.

What a Day!

The wind was howling, pushing me backwards against the gorse. The sky was dark grey with needles of rain. A white sea stretched beneath me, surging and foaming and thundering against the cliffs. It held in its grasp a stricken cargo ship: The Kodima.  All along the cliff-line great planks of wood were buffeting back and forth like match-sticks creaking and moaning in the wind. Men with ropes were hauling them, up the cliffs, onto lorries or trucks and stealing away, as was, and is, always the tradition, before the Custom and Excise man arrives!

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So I sketched, and photographed the scene, before the raw wind and rain drove me back into my car. It was exhilarating, but numbingly cold.

The “Kodima” was a Maltese registered cargo ship of 6395 dwt with a Russian crew, on passage from Sweden to Libya with a cargo of timber, some of which was stowed on deck. There was no loss of life.

With a south-westerly gale behind them, many a ship, mistook Whitsand Bay for Plymouth Sound, perhaps guided on by false lights on the cliffs. They were soon swept into Cawsand Bay and wrecked. There are many stories of loss of life but heroic rescues too. With time, the rescue services became more organised.

The seas around Plymouth can get very rough.  The drama, the spectacle of nature at its most magnificent and dangerous has been a fascination to a generation of artists both English and Continental.

There is much that is hidden beneath the waves of Whitsand Bay and the deep canyons of Plymouth Sound. Ask any diver.

Several years ago I researched and illustrated two historical maps about the shipwrecks here. What interested me as an artist was putting together scenes from the sketchy information available.  Names and dates give a glimpse of the centuries past.  I found, as expected perhaps, the winter storm months of November, December and January, accounted for most wrecks. Of course, smugglers and wreckers have always played their part.

Shipwrecks are dramatic, distressing events. Whitsand Bay and Plymouth Sound have had there share of tragedies over the centuries.

Names from the past echo an era that is very different than today. The ‘Josiah and Betty’ in 1721, wrecked  near  Rame Head, but fifteen chests of silver saved. In 1901 the fully rigged ship ‘Gypsy of Nantes’ sailed all the way from Chile, with nitrates, only to be wrecked at Downderry. My posters outline and illustrate hundreds of such wrecks.

Early accounts of wrecks describe near typhoon conditions sweeping away whole fishing fleets at Looe. Whole families were devastated and starved. In the Second World War, a German U boat  torpedoed the  Liberty ship; ‘James Egan Lane’ from the USA. After a defiant struggle, the great iron ship sank to the sandy bottom of Whitsand Bay. This wreck became very popular with divers and now largely rusted away, only to be replaced by the newly wrecked  HMS Scylla,  only a short distance away. This new artificial reef, opens a new exciting chapter of mystery beneath the waves of Whitsand Bay.

At Tregantle, when the weather is kinder, I love the way the sunlight sometimes search-lights sunbeams on a shimmering blue sea below. It is a magnificent view, but a long way up and down the cliffs to reach that wonderful beach!

Whitsand Bay Wrecks Poster. 

Plymouth Sound Wrecks Poster.