More information : On voyage from Batavia to Amsterdam when she disappeared in a strong SSW gale on 25.03.1867. Later the same day wreckage was washed ashore confirming identification of the wreck. (1)(2)
The barque disappeared in a strong SSW gale. Distress rockets rose from Mullion Cliffs and wreckage was found in Poldhu Cove. Dawn came and more wreckage including the entire poop were found south of Poldhu, and the bodies of two women, one about 40, the other about 25, along with a three-day-old baby, were washed ashore. A bedraggled sailor was discovered on the rocks but could not speak English. At an inquest at Mullion through an interpreter the Greek sailor (Georgio Buffani) identified the wreck as the KOSMOPOLIET. However, shortly after, two Dutch sea captains gave the opinion that she was the JONKHEER MEESTER. Finally, Lambert's masonic diploma, along with cargo, was washed ashore. A box containing gold pieces and jewels was found in the poop section and local fishermen, using a waterglass and long tongs, recovered tin ingots at £15 a ton. (2)
'The morning following the wreck, a large barque having been seen dangerously near the cliffs at 3am, the sole survivor, a Greek sailor, was found clambering about the rocks under a high cliff, so bruised and benumbed that at the time he could give no intelligible account of the wreck and could speak little English. Shortly after the stern of the vessel was found washed in between two ledges of rocks on the southern side of the cove and near it the bodies of two females. Later another female body and later a sailor and an infant were recovered...she carried a cargo of coffee, spice, sugar and tin...the full name of the vessel being the JONKHEER MEESTER VAN DE WALL VAN PUTTERSHOEK...the value of the ship and cargo between 40-50,000...tons of coffee has been collected, and Messrs. Jackson and Jones of Penberth Cove were engaged to recover the sunken tin, which they did by means of water-glasses and long tongs found in six fathoms of water...' (3)(5)
Date of loss stated as 25-MAR-1867. (4)
'During the after part of Monday, a large vessel was observed...attempting to cross the bay. The wind was blowing very hard from the SW...About midnight a large ship was driven ashore near Mullion and became a total wreck. The captain, his wife, some members of his family and the entire crew except one, met with a watery grave...One report says that she was a Brazilian, another that she was a Greek vessel...It appears that the ship...belonged to Dordrecht, and last sailed from Samarang and Batavia for Rotterdam. She had on board 850 tons of cargo...before she struck the rocks she had lost all her sails, except the maintopsail; she had also lost bulwarks and stanchions, and was making a great deal of water...at 4am she was bodily hove ashore near Poldhu Cove...she went to pieces in half an hour after she struck...' (5)
'On Friday afternoon (29th March) a soiled parchment document was washed ashore from the lost East Indiaman at Mullion, which, being immediately delivered to Mr. Broad, the Netherlands consul, he deciphered it to be a masonic diploma of Klass Lammerts, thereby proving, without further doubt, the unfortunate ship to be the JONKHEER M VAN DER WAL VAN PUTTERSHOEK, of Dordrecht, himself captain. No more bodies have been found, and the vessel is literally in shreds; few of her materials have been washed up, but a considerable quantity of coffee mixed with sand has been saved.' (7)
'In May 1969, Peter McBride, a Royal Naval Sub-Lieutenant, undertook to search the area for wreck sites, having first carried out considerable preliminary research into local records. During this month he discovered the remains of the BOYNE...This was quickly followed by the location of the JONKHEER MEESTER VAN PUTTERSTOCK [sic], a Dutch East Indiaman wrecked in March 1867, whilst carrying a valuable cargo of sugar, coffe, spices and Banca tin, valued at £50,000.' (8)
This stretch of Angrouse Cliffs has a number of recorded losses here, including a Dutch East Indiaman, JONKHEER MEESTER VAN DE WALL DE PUTTESHOCK, wrecked on 24-MAR-1867. (4)
JONKHEER MEESTER VAN DE WALL DE PUTTERSHOCK at 50 02.22N 005 16.15W. Registered in Amsterdam, and came to grief on the night of 24-MAR-1867, homeward-bound with passengers and a cargo of coffee, arrowroot and tin worth £50,000. A Mousehole pilot boat had seen her tacking between the Lizard and Gunwalloe that afternoon, but had assumed she did not require assistance. Nothing more was heard of her until 2am, when distress rockets were heard and a coastguard on cliff watch then found the wreckage and bodies. (9)(10)
Name confirmed as JONKHEER MEESTER VAN DE WALL VAN PUTTERSHOEK and vessel described as a barque, in advertisement from 1863. (11)
NB: "Van Puttershoek" means "of Puttershoek", which lies close to Dordrecht, said to be the vessel's home port. With this in mind she may in fact have been registered in Puttershoek and this has accordingly been indexed, together with Amsterdam and Dordrecht.
Built: 1854 (5)
Master: Lambert (2); Klass von Lammert (1)(4)(5), possibly for Klass van Lammert, ["van" being Dutch, "von" German]; Klass Lammerts (6)
Crew: 19 (5)
Passengers: 7 (5)
Crew Lost: 18 (5)
Passengers Lost: 7 (5)
Date of Loss Qualifier: Actual date of loss
Additional sources cited in Shipwreck Index of the British Isles:
RCG.16.05.1867(Thu)(R) (not found) |