Ship wrecks in St. Ives Bay

Just after 9 pm on Sunday 12th March 1989, the Captain of the Panama registered ship sent out a May Day Distress call. His ship was North of St.Ives Head and the cargo of timber had shifted causing the vessel to list dangerously.

There was a fierce storm raging, the West North West Force 10 winds had created mountainous seas and waves of 30 to 40 feet. Falmouth Coastguard advised the Captain to seek shelter in St.Ives bay and after dropping anchor he shut down the engine. Shortly after the anchors started to drag and the ship was now drifting towards Godrevy, the ship’s engineers were not able to start the engines and eventually the anchor chains parted leaving the SECIL JAPAN at the mercy of the wind and waves.

The St.Ives Lifeboat FRANK PENFOLD MARSHALL was launched just before 10 pm and after making her way across the bay she stood by the stricken vessel. A Royal Navy search and rescue helicopter was also on scene and they were trying to get the crew of the SECIL JAPAN to abandon the stricken vessel, initially the crew refused to leave their ship. The ship was now getting dangerously close to the rocks and the helicopter managed to rescue four crewmen before the ship struck the rocks at Dead Man’s Cove near Hells Mouth.

The remaining twelve crew were in the bridge of the ship when it struck the rocks and massive waves were now breaking right over the ship. The helicopter pilot used great skill to manoeuvre into position which was now much harder because they were only several meters from the cliff face. Eventually they managed to rescue all but one of the sixteen crew, unfortunately one sailor slipped through the harness as he lifted his arms when he neared the helicopter door.

The St.Ives Lifeboat returned to the harbour at 3.30 am on Monday, after having sustained serious damage when she was struck by multiple huge waves on the way home, many of the Lifeboat crew said it was the worst conditions they had ever seen. It turned out that the damage to the Lifeboat was so bad that she was retired from service.

At first light on Monday it was clear that the SECIL JAPAN had become a complete wreck and had already broken in two. The cargo of wood was now scattered all along the coast and being collected by the “Cornish Wreckers”

The FRANK PENFOLD MARSHALL served as the St.Ives Lifeboat from 1968 to 1989, during her time she was launched on service a total of 226 times and saved a total of 81 lives.