The storms of the winter, coupled with unusually low tides, have exposed the remains of three ships wrecked on the same Cornish beach.
The last time any of the wrecks of the iron steamships Cintra, Vulture and Bessie were exposed was back in January 2021, but not nearly to the extent that has been seen over the last week in Carbis Bay, in West Cornwall.
The jagged fragments of the steam collier Bessie are a familiar sight on the beach between St Ives and Hayle, but locals have been telling Cornwall Live that they’ve never seen so much of the wreck exposed - alongside two other ships that went down on the same night 130 years ago.
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It was a violent storm on Saturday, November 18, 1893 that wrecked a number of ships on the north coast of Cornwall. The storm came to be known as the ‘Cintra Gale’, named after the Cintra, the first ship to crash into the beach. Five of the Cintra’s crew were rescued from the crashing waves by a breeches buoy that had been fired from the shore by those attempting to rescue the crew, but seven others on board drowned.
As the Cintra was wrecked, another steamer with a cargo of coal, the 345-tonne Vulture, was breaking up just 100m away, and thankfully all 12 on board managed to make it ashore.
The Bessie also broke up on the beach during the raging storm that night, and some of its remains are a regular sight at low tide. The wrecks were soon covered in sand, which was washed away by a couple of big winter storms over the Christmas period, and now at low tide, the wreck hulls of the ships have been exposed more than ever.
Cornwall Live’s Greg Martin said: “Many locals have commented in the last few days that they cannot remember ever seeing so much of the wreck exposed, as well as the skeletal remains of the Vulture alongside it.
“Further along the beach at Carbis Bay, on the days when the spring tides dropped to their lowest, the wreck of the third ship, Cintra, could also be seen up close. The last time any significant remains of these shipwrecks were exposed was two years ago in January 2021, but not nearly to the extent that has been seen over the last week,” he added.
For more stunning photos of the three shipwrecks at Carbis Bay, view the full gallery.
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