SS Taycraig on Gear Rock 26th January 1936

Not seen this particular picture before. I have two others, which I have passed on, with the story. Sea Life can be fearful. I have added notes above for you.

Thanks for the notes, treeve. I have this from a collection of pictures inherited from an old seafarer. Unfortunately most of the others I have are either postcard, unnamed or not relevant to Penwith. Good to have this information, thanks again.

My Uncle Frank was a cabin boy on this vessel. I remember he told me that they (the crew), went to the foc sle and burned their mattresses to raise the alarm. It was his first trip and the experience left a lasting impression. The next time a ship went down under him was off St Ives during WW2 when a dive bomber dropped a bomb down the funnel of his vessel. He won a gallantry award for his heroic rescue of the captain of that vessel. My uncle was called Frank Gilbert, from the Hayle Gilberts. He went on to become Commodore of an inshore tanker company whose vessels all ending with the word man such as : Oarsman etc. He ended his working days as Chief Harbour Pilot at Newhaven, Sussex. Treeve, I would love to read any more info on this wreck. laugh# laugh#

The above was all I have yet gleaned, there is an ongoing search by a few of us for more, and I am hoping to be able to get more when funds permit; as far as the St Ives wreck is concerned, please let me have some idea of date; have you ever acquired your uncle s CRS10?

have you ever acquired your uncle s CRS10? What is that? laugh# laugh# Also, in Rloand Morris s book Island Treasure he describes an incident whereby he was salvaging the hull and was trapped under a slab of the hull for quite some time. laugh# laugh#

CRS10 is the official name for the Seaman s Pouch, which contained all the ships worked on and voyages made; it all depends on a number of factors as to where the record is kept, in the main it will be at the NRA, and is freely available on visiting the Archive, or at a Fee for digital copies to be supplied; you can do a search on the NRA website for your uncle s name, if you like, send details to me in a PM and I can do the search for you, and let you know what is possible and what to do.

I was very pleased to find this photo as looking at my grandfather's old certificates of discharge I see he was last on this ship 10 years before the sinking in Feb 1926. No date for his engagement (at St Ives) on her, but the master at the time he was on it was T Bowden.

I remember replying to Duffy's comments some time ago, but they seem to have disappeared. The Frank Gilbert that he mentions was my late father and that makes duffy my cousin, but I don't know which one! Possibly one of the ones from the USA? To correct a few errors in his post, if I may:

Taycraig was not my Dad's first ship, he was an AB by the time he was on Taycraig. The later incident where he was bombed and sunk was the Rossmore, near Godrevy Lighthouse in March 1941. He did not receive his gallantry award for that incident and he did not rescue the ship's captain. Duffy is mixing this up with when Dad was awarded the Royal Humane Society's Bronze Medal for rescuing a drowning soldier at Newhaven earlier in the war when he was a member of the Auxiliary Fire Service. (He should also really have got a 'gong' for his actions when the tanker Shelbrit 2 was arriving at Shoreham later in the war - he was the ship's Bosun and climbed down the ship's anchor chain to free a cable that had snagged it, only to find that it was attached to a mine! The powers that be awarded a medal, but it went to the most senior officer on board that night. That was the Chief Engineer, who was asleep in his bunk the whole time!)

The tanker company with the ships ending in 'man' was Rowbotham Tankships. He wasn't Commodore, but Senior Relief Master. His last Rowbotham Tanker was the Quarterman, leaving her to come ashore for a few years in 1959. He'd served on most of their ships, like Guidesman (on the Exeter Canal run), Tillerman, Chartsman, Leadsman and Steersman, to name a few.

He did indeed finish his seafaring career at Newhaven, and had been living there since the mid 1950s, when I was born. Not Chief Harbour Pilot, but Master of the port's tug, Meeching, from the early 1960s until he retired in 1979. He also returned to that position each year to cover annual leave until he said "Enough is enough" on reaching the age of 70 in 1984.

Being rescued twice by the RNLI left him with an enduring respect for the lifeboats and their crews, and he would work closely with the RNLI when Meeching attended incidents alongside the local lifeboats. He was greatly affected by the loss of the Solomon Browne, probably the saddest that I ever saw him.