Another fabulous Bude maritime history article by Julie Satchell: Barnabas Stanlake Shazell & the Joseph and Thomas During a weekend wander round the graveyard of St Michaels and All Angels Church, looking for gravestones of shipwrecked sailors, an unusual name caught my eye. ‘Barnabas Stanlake Shazell’ drowned at Saunton in […]

We’ve all read about the wreckage of the Bencoolen in 1862. Indeed, there are many reminders around Bude, such as the Bencoolen Bridge, the Bencoolen Inn, and even the Bencoolen Wreckers. The Bencoolen is the most famous of all the Bude shipwrecks. It would have been a  dramatic sight in […]

The Bencoolen is a name etched into the annals of Bude history. We have Bencoolen Road, the Bencoolen Bridge,  the Bencoolen Inn, and even the shanty singers, the Bencoolen Wreckers. Information about the Bencoolen wreck, from which all this emanates, is in the Castle Heritage Centre, Bude, originally built by […]

The last sad remains of the Bencoolen, wrecked under Summerleaze cliffs in 1862, with much loss of life, rest at low water mark, beyond Barrel Rock.

The Summerleaze beach foreshore is littered with debris from the wreck of the Bencoolen, which broke up under the cliffs there in a storm in 1862. The wire which, for many years, marked the boundary of the river bank along the Strand is said to have come from amongst it.

The schooner Elizabeth Scown, grounded at the end of the breakwater in 1877, whilst bringing in a cargo of stone for an extension to St Michael’s church. The stone was recovered; the ship, less lucky, became a total loss.

Wreckage on Summerleaze beach but I am not sure from which vessel they originated; there were many wrecks in this area.

Not, strictly speaking, a wreck, since she was later refloated, the Woodbridge – a freighter carrying iron ore – ran aground in fog at Northcott Mouth on Easter Sunday in 1915. She was refloated three weeks later, with the use of tugs.

Another shot of SS Woodbridge, a freighter which ran aground in fog on 4th April 1915. She was later refloated, with the use of tugs.

A large crowd watches the refloating of the Woodbridge on 29th April 1915; she ran aground in fog at Northcott Mouth three weeks earlier.