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In the afternoon of
Thursday 3rd of May 1855, the 465 gross tons british barque
John, Capt. Edward Rawle, was leaving the Sound of
Plymouth bound for Quebec with 282 people on board. The crew was accounting for 19 men
while among the passengers totalling 263, were 98 children and 16
babies, most of them being emigrants coming from
Cornwall and Devon.
At about
9.30 pm,
William Goodwin the first officer being on the watch in a misty weather, sighted St. Anthony's light near Falmouth but
failed to see the
Lizard's one which normally should have been seen shortly
afterward. When Captain came up to the bridge he reported him
the situation suggesting that the vessel was too close from the coast and that
it was the reason why the Lizard LH could not be seen but Rawle
did not pay attention to his mate and declined to alter the course.
Thirty minutes later, the John was hitting the Manacles a few
seconds after the lookout had shouted "Fishing
boats ahead !" What he had thought to be fishermen were actually
the pinnacles of the Manacles. At full speed the vessel carrying
all sails ran over the outside
reefs and was immediately after washed towards those further in
where she stopped. An attempt was made to straighten her up by
letting go an anchor but she started to roll heavily on the
rocks. The confusion on board was so great that the first boat
was launched without neither plugs nor thole-pins. In spite of
that, the 4 seamen on board managed to reach the shore and alert
the Coastguards but strongly refused to return to the ship. The
dangerous shore preventing the coastguard boats from going out,
nothing could be done before dawn.
In the meantime the
crew on board had found alcoholic beverages and together with
the Captain had become intoxicated, leaving helpless the
unfortunate emigrants although three more boats were available.
Some passengers tried to launch the cutter but she soon broke
open and sank. As stranding had occured during the end of the
ebb time and although full of water, the decks were still out of
the sea but Captain Rawle assuring that there was no danger
ignored the requests and even the tide refusing that the two
remaining boats were launched. His mistake became evident when
finally the flow began to break over the wreck smashing the
boats against the hull. At daybreak, help finally arrived from
the shore but the boats were immediately stormed in confusion by
the crew leaving the terrified wrecked people to shift for
themselves. All those unworthy men were saved but shamefully 196
passengers, men, women and children were drowned.
Following the inquest
by the Board of Trade, Captain Rawle was trialed on the 28th of
July in front of the Court and found guilty of ignorance and
carelessness but was discharged from the accusation of
manslaughter.
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