Between the January and October of 1929 John Trevelyan and his wife Margot rented a small cottage near Portleven
The poet kept a detailed diary of his visit which often included short poems and other observations
The Unnamed Sailors
The unnamed sailors
Rest in the long grasses
Not far from the cliff face
A short distance below
The tides come and go
As they always have
Although many years discontinued it was not unknown for drowned sailors to be buried in mass graves without Christian ceremony. The last recorded instance of this nature of burial that I can find occurred after the wreck of the James and Rebecca in 1807
The Wreck of the St Mawr
In January 1815 the St Mawr bound for London from Batavia ran into a terrible storm in Mounts Bay and was driven ashore near Portleven.
Within minutes of the ship being beached the crew found themselves being attacked by tinners and many others who stripped the ship of anything of the remotest value
Captain Muller who was badly hurt during the attack found time to record two lines in his pocket diary which was handed back to him some months later
Here come the cannibals
Do pray for the unfortunates
La Stromboli Prende il Congedo
I looked on to the tip of the
Gew-Graze-Gaze
And watched her sleep
As the heavy swell broke her heart
Into many pieces
In 1878 the 734-ton steamer Stromboli late of the Mediterranean service sailed too close to The Lizard and struck the Maenheere Rock. The stricken ship was later beached on the north-west tip of Gew Graze. I found very little trace of the ship on my visit apart from the remains of a boiler and some iron plating
JT 8th June 1929