Sully Island Wreck: A tale of a Pilot and his Pilot Cutter?
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The Wreck - Several possible identities
Research being undertaken by the Royal Commission into shipwrecks around the coast of Wales suggests several possible identities; including a wooden ketch called the Friendship which was carrying a cargo of coal when it stranded at Sully island on 30 January 1902; a smack called the Robert which was carrying a cargo of stone when it became stranded on 27 November 1882; and a barge called the Eliza that was built at Chepstow and used in the sand and gravel trade.
Intriguingly, the documentary losses in the vicinity also include references to a type of vessel which remains iconic nearly 90 years after the last was sold out of service; the Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter.
Piloting
A pilot is a mariner who guides ships through dangerous or congested waters, such as harbours or river mouths, and were most often drawn from local coastal communities where there was accumulated knowledge of coastal waters from centuries of fishing and sailing. The pilot would join the crew for the period that the ship would need that additional knowledge and experience.
In the 17th century, the port of Bristol was given overall control of pilotage services in the Severn estuary and Bristol Channel. This remained the case for the majority of the south Wales ports until 1861, when Cardiff, Newport and Gloucester Town Councils succeeded in getting parliament to pass a Bristol Channel Pilotage Bill giving each council the power to appoint its own Pilotage Board and pilots. Each pilot was then responsible for acquiring and maintaining his own boat. Over time, a unique hull shape and sailing rig evolved to meet the need for craft which work could keep working in bad weather, and win the race to be the first to reach the inbound vessels attracting the highest pilotage fees.
Piloting was a very risky job involving boarding a larger ship from the punt (a small rowing boat stowed on the deck of the cutter). The usual method was to request the master of the ship to position his vessel across the seas, making a shelter or lee for the cutter from the wind. The cutter would sail under the ship’s lee, out the punt with the pilot and boy/apprentice on board, who would row across to the ladder on the ship’s side. The cutter would sail on into the wind again and turn to come back under the lee of the ship to pick up the punt and the boy/apprentice. Such manoeuvres required a great deal of skill and judgment. The NMRW contains shipwreck records for 66 sailing pilot cutters, of which 37 were lost following a collision, 6 foundered, 16 were wrecked or stranded, and 6 where no cause of loss is known. These statistics confirm the riskiness of the venture – that is, being a small sailing vessel deliberately putting itself in close proximity to much larger ships.
In January 1882, the Cardiff Pilotage Board gave its fleet of around 65 cutters permission to use the small anchorage behind Sully Island in ‘an easterly wind during an ebb tide’. References to pilot cutters becoming stranded here include the LOTTIE on the 15 October 1886; the pilot boat belonging to Charles Rowles in July 1893; and the BARATANACH which sank at its moorings to the north of Sully Island on 27 March 1916. The BARATANACH was owned by three Cardiff pilots during its service life – Thomas Rosser, Edward Parry and William S Williams – but at time of loss it had passed into the ownership of the Binding family for use in coastal trade.
Could the Sully Island Wreck be one of these cutters?
See the report: http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/309865/digitalSULLY+ISLAND+WRECK%2C+SWANBRIDGE+BAY/ - the tape measure reveals all...