The Caledonia (brig)

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Cover of the book, The Wreck at Sharpnose Point: A Victorian Mystery by Jeremy Seal, which tells the story behind the Caledonia's figurhead that now marks a gravesite at Morwenstow Churchyard, Cornwall.

The Caledonia was a brig of some two hundred tons, built in Arbroath, Scotland and wrecked on September 7, 1843.

The Caledonia was wrecked off Sharpnose Point, near Morwenstow, Cornwall while on journey from Constantinople to Bristol. The crew were washed overboard and only one, Edward La Daine from the Channel Islands, survived. He was taken to the local Rectory where the Reverend Robert Stephen Hawker ensured that he was cared for and nursed back to health. The bodies of the other seamen eventually washed up on the beach and were buried in Morwenstow Churchyard. The figurehead of the brig is today preserved in the churchyard as the headstone of the ship's captain. It is preserved by countless layers of white paint.

Remarkably, in 1957 a message in a bottle from one of the seamen was washed ashore between Babbacombe and Peppercombe in Devon. The letter, dated August 15, 1843 read:

"Dear Brother, Please e God i be with y against Michaelmas. Prepare y search Lundy for y Jenny ivories. Adiue William, Odessa".

The bottle and letter are on display at the Portledge Hotel at Fairy Cross, in Devon, England. The Jenny was a three-masted schooner wrecked on Lundy (at a place thereafter called Jenny's Cove) on February 20, 1797. The ivory was recovered some years later but bags supposed to contain gold were never found.

[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

Seal, Jeremy. Treachery at Sharpnose Point: The Final Voyage of the Caledonia, Harcourt, 2001 ISBN 0-15-100524-9
Seal, Jeremy. The Wreck at Sharpnose Point: A Victorian Mystery, Picador, 2003, ISBN 0-330-37465-6