For the Maritime Archaeology Trust’s Metal-Hulled Sailing Vessels project, generously funded by Historic England, volunteers are investigating the potential and significance of the collection of metal-hulled  sailing vessels located within English territorial waters. One of these vessels is the Pindos, a steel-hulled ship, which MAT volunteer Jane Thakker explores in greater detail. 

On 10th February 1912 the German barque, Pindos, was wrecked on the south coast of Cornwall not far from the Lizard. The Pindos was a steel hulled, four masted sailing ship with a gross tonnage of 2512 tons, a waterline length of 304 ft and a beam of 42 ft. It began life as the Eusemere, built in 1890 in Workington, by R Williamson and Son for Fisher and Sprott of London and was one of a group of six, four-masted barques known as the Workington Sisters constructed at the Williamson shipyard. The other ships were the Andelana built in 1889, the Pendragon Castle and the Vortigern built in 1891, and the Caradoc and Conishead in 1892.

Sometime between 1896 and 1897, the Eusemere’s ownership transferred to B Wencke & Co of Hamburg, the port’s second largest shipping company, and it was renamed the Pindos. When Friedrich Wencke died in 1906 the Wencke company was to have been dissolved, but the company and its sixteen ships were acquired by Rhederei Actien-Gesellschaft who, having only been established in 1896, were looking to expand their fleet. There is little information available about the Pindos’s voyages until 1912, when on the vessel’s last passage from Mejillones in Chile to Hamburg, carrying a cargo of Nitrates the ship was stranded during a gale.

The Pindos, under the command of the Master, Willem Peters, and his crew of twenty-eight had put into Falmouth for orders and then departed port shortly after midday on the 10th February 1912 in the tow of the German tug, Ancona. As a strong south-easterly was blowing and the weather was becoming increasingly rough, the Pindos and its tug were kept under close observation.

Shortly after 9pm on the 10th, signals were reported coming from the barque and the crew of the Coverack lifeboat were assembled. Initially, it was not certain whether the signals were communication between the barque and its tug, but at 9.45pm further rockets were seen and the lifeboat, Constance Melanie, was promptly launched into a very heavy sea.

Figure 1: Postcard of a Coverack lifeboat launching, Source: Mark Crombie, Wikimedia Commons. 

Having been blown down channel by the the south-easterly gale, the Pindos had parted company with its tow after the towing hawser was cut by the tug captain, which resulted in loss of steerage for the ship, and it was then blown onto the rocks about 400 yds from shore, listing at 45 degrees to port. Contemporary accounts say that the Pindos struck at Mear Point to the Southwest of Coverack, which is how Chynhalls Point is known locally. The lifeboat initially succeeded in rescuing four of the crew but the increasing south-easterly gales caused the lines between the lifeboat and the wreck to break. Working in darkness, but assisted by a powerful new acetylene lamp donated by the RNLI, the coxswain and his crew renewed their rescue efforts. By means of a breeches buoy the rest of the crew were transferred safely into the lifeboat and the shipwrecked men were then landed ashore where, along with the lifeboat crew they were provided with food and dry clothing. John Corin, the lifeboat coxswain, was awarded the RNLI silver medal in recognition of his skill in handling the lifeboat and in cognizance of the fact that, despite the gale force conditions, not one sailor was seriously hurt. John Corin and each crew member of the lifeboat were also awarded a monetary reward by the RNLI, in addition to the ‘pecuniary reward’ made by the German government to each of the men who manned the lifeboat.

On Thursday 15th February 1912, Mr Gerard E Mandle, secretary of the Shipwrecked Mariners Society, wrote to the Westminster Gazette to assure the Society’s supporters that a cheque for £13 3s 5d had been sent to the agent in Coverack, and a cheque for £75 19s 7d to the representative in Falmouth, to contribute towards costs and that the crew, having been thoroughly cared for, were now with the German Vice Consul in Plymouth.

The Pindos’s master, Willem Peters, went on to captain the four masted barque, Olympia, for the same shipping company, Rhederi Actien-Gesellschaft, until 1914 and the outbreak of the First World War.

The wreck of the Pindos was sold for £225 but was later broken up by gales. There has been salvage work over the years but the Pindos now lies severely broken on a rocky seabed, consisting only of a heap of scattered steel plates in a depth of 6 – 7 metres, just to the east of two rocks known as The Oxen, in coastal waters off Chynhalls Point.

Figure 2: The Pindos wrecked at Coverack, Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Pindos is just one of the vessels researched for the Metal-Hulled Sailing Vessels project, showcasing the numerous stories hidden within the waves.