The 1908 Great Storm

The Evening Express, 1^st September 1908, writes in an article entitled “Channel Gale”.  The unnamed journalist writes.

“For the first time for several months the centre of a deep Atlantic cyclone advanced directly over the United Kingdom yesterday.”

“The fall of the barometer was unusually rapid, amounting between ten a.m. and eight p.m. to .45 ins – the most marked decline noted since the storms of April.”

“There are a sixty-mile-an-hour hurricane from the south-south-west over the English Channel last night, and heavy seas were running on all our coasts.  The rainfall by eight p.m. exceeded half and inch over quite half the kingdom.”

“Terrible weather was experienced in the Bristol Channel.  The force gale which raged along the coast, accompanied by heavy peals of thunder and a continuous downpour of rain, reached its height about five or six in the morning.  A large amount of shipping which lay sheltered in Barry and Penarth Roads was badly beaten about, and many ships dragged their anchors, the storm being the most severe experienced in the Channel for a couple of years.”

Two notable ships, that were to be affected by the storm were the Amazon and Trebiskin

Amazon

The Amazon, left Port Talbot under the command of Captain Garrick, on the 31^st August for a journey to Chile with a cargo of coal.  Leaving Port Talbot, she was accompanied by two tugs.  Having reaching Mumbles, the Captain, decided to anchor in the Outer Roads.  By the following morning, 1^st September she was driver ashore back to Margam Sands.  The ship’s boat was destroyed as it was being launched, the masts collapsed.  Six of the crew made it ashore.  When the Mumbles lifeboat finally reached them, the Mate and one seaman were still alive.  20 of the crew, including the Master had lost their lives. 

Meanwhile, on the 31^st August, the ketch Trebiskin of Padstow, Cornwall, became standard on Cardiff Grounds and the Barry lifeboat was launched to assist.  The change in the winds, allowed the 3 men crew of the Trebiskin to re float the boat.

A decade later, 1918, that the Trebiskin was one of the last boats to be lost at the end of the First World War.  Harold Smith, from Newfoundland, the gunner lost his life and he was buried at Danygraig Cemetery.