Hello Everyone
With kind permission from the Llanelli Star (and surrounding districts) I
would like to quote from 'The Story behind a famous Cefn Sidan shipwreck'
Naomi Snelling reports on an anniversary with a fascinating link to Napoleon.
Cefn Sidan Sands have proved fatal to many a mariner and November 21 marks
the anniversary of one of the most notable wrecks ever to occur in these
treacherous waters - a wreck which saw Napoleon's young niece meet a watery
grave and merciless plundering by local wreckers.
The year was 1828 and a large French vessel, La Jeune Emma, was on her way
back to Havre with a cargo of sugar, sherry, spices, coffee, cotton, rum and
ginger from Martinique in the West Indies.
Among the passengers were Colonel Coquellin of the French Mariners, his
daughter Adeline, niece to Josephine Buonaparte the Empress of France, and
their two servants. On leaving Martinique the vessel was struck so violently
by a wave that all hands were compelled to man the pumps. This severe
weather was only the taste of what was to come. Battling against fierce
storms and gales, La Jeune Emma sighted land on November 21. Thick fog had
made it impossible for the Captain to take a single observation and his
reckoning was increasingly uncertain. By now the ship was way off course and
in a navigational error that was to have tragic consequences, her Captain
mistook Lundy Island lights for those on the French coast of Ushant.
The Carmarthen Journal reported that the vessel 'came over Carmarthen Bar
late on Friday night and had reached the inner buoy, when she struck upon the
Cefn and a scene of consternation and horror ensued which baffles every
attempt at description.
"The whole of the crew and passengers which were below rushed up onto the
deck, over which the sea broke frightfully and before daylight it appeared 13
souls had been swept away by the continual breaking of the sea and met a
watery grave"
A few sailor managed to crawl up the rigging of the ship's sails. At low
tide the ship was left partly dry and the remaining crew used all their
efforts to bind a few spars and fragments of the wreck into a raft by which
they might reach land. They launched it in darkness at 11 o'clock and just
as they had set off a wave crashed over them and only six men succeeded in
getting on the raft again. Four of the crew by clinging to the makeshift
raft, succeeded in reaching the shore alive but in a state of dreadful
exhaustion. They reached the shore and were met by what was described as "the
most hospitable reception from the inhabitants". The brave efforts of local
men to rescue the sailors from the peril were recorded in the local papers.
At dawn the vessel was still holding together by the Theophilus Thomas, a
tenant of the Rev Picton, who with a degree of humanity that does credit to
him, swam his horse to the wreck and rescued one of the crew. Shortly after
Joshua Griffiths son of Rev Mr Griffiths Vicar of St Ishmale's brought a lad
ashore who was benumbed with cold and fatigue that no sign of life appeared,
carried to the vicarage.....he did recover.
At noon on Saturday news of the disaster had reached the town of Carmarthen,
the Militia marched to the spot to protect the cargo, but they were a little
late. A company of wreckers with little regard for their own safety had
plundered the vessel almost before the tide had sufficiently receded and
carried off everything they could lay their hands on. Their actions were
reported as being such a set of barbarians; they are worse than brute
creation, or even the wild savages of America; they are a disgrace to their
fellow creatures.
Of the 19 people on board La Jeune Emma, thirteen were drowned. The dead
bodies of the captain, four of the crew and of a lieutenant colonal and his
daughter were found among the rocks on the Sunday morning following the
shipwreck and were buried in Pembrey. Among the vast numbers of mourners to
this tragic burial were the French Consul, Mr Neville and all the principal
inhabitants of Pembrey, some of whom acted as pall bearers to the Colonel and
Captain, the others proceeded the coffins, two abreast. When 12 year old
Adeline Coquellin was interred, 14 young women from Pembrey donned deepest
mourning clothes and carried her small coffin to the grave where she was
buried with her father.
Sunday morning La Jeune Emma finally heaved her last and the coast was
littered with parts of the wreck. Three hundred gallons of rum was the only
portion of the cargo that was waved. A bag of letters was forwarded to its
destination.
If that had been the end of the story of La Jeune Emma, maybe the sad affair
would not have become such an iconic shipwreck. The twist to the tale
involved the macabre resurrection men of Laugharne, the eye catching
newspaper headline of an article about grave robbing. When a few of the
drowned sailors were buried in Laugharne, the grave was observed to have sunk
about a foot. A few days later when another body from the wreck was found
and interred in the same grave as his shipmates, one of the coffins was found
to have been disturbed - the body was missing and all that remained was a
blue shirt.
La Jeune Emma was neither the first nor the last ship to be wrecked on the
shifting Cefn Sidan Sands.
****************
Pauline James
web page for Llanelli star is:
http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/llanellistar