A port quarter view of the three-masted schooner Voorspoed (1893) aground on Perranporth Beach, Cornwall

A port quarter view of the Dutch three-masted schooner Voorspoed (1893) aground on Perranporth Beach, Cornwall. Around thirty men are on deck, including some policemen (judging from the helmet style). On the beach are a number of groups of people, the largest being right off the port side along with some horse and carts. A small group of women and childen are standing watching from the starboard side near the rudder.

The Voorspoed was on passage from Cardiff to Bahia, Brazil, but encountered heavy weather in the Channel. The ship was heavily laden with coal and machinery and had taken on water from seas breaking over it. Voorspoed was blown inshore into Perran (or Ligger) Bay and beached in the morning of 7 March 1901. The rocket brigade rescued the seven crew and one cabin boy (from Newcastle upon Tyne). The captain was reluctant to leave but did so eventually. The cargo was salvaged during the afternoon although some thought it more looting, as the captain is reputed to have said afterwards: 'I have been wrecked in different parts of the globe, even in the Fiji Islands, but never among such savages as those of Perranporth.' The ship was refloated on the next tide.

Object Details

ID: G14120
Collection: Historic Photographs
Type: Glass plate negative
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Gibson & Sons of Scilly
Vessels: Voorspoed (1893)
Date made: 7 March 1901
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Gibson's of Scilly Shipwreck Collection
Measurements: Overall: 254 mm x 304 mm