Wreck of the Grosvenor
- For the unrelated 1877 novel of the same name see The Wreck of the Grosvenor
The Wreck of the Grosvenor, an East Indiaman, occurred on Sunday 4 August 1782 on the Pondoland coast of South Africa, north of the Umzimvubu River mouth. The shipwreck was close to the place where the Portuguese ship, São João, had gone down more than two centuries earlier on 8 June 1552. [1] The Grosvenor was a three-masted ship of 729 tons on her return voyage to England when she was wrecked, carrying a crew of 132 and 18 passengers (12 adults and 6 children), and a cargo valued at £75 000. Of the 123 survivors only 18 reached Cape Town and were repatriated, the remainder dying of their privations and being killed by, or forced to live with Bantu tribes. [2] Four survivors eventually got back to England - Robert Price, Thomas Lewis, John Warmington, and Barney Larey. [3]
History
The Grosvenor had left Madras in March 1782 under the command of Captain Coxon, falling in with Admiral Hughes' fleet. On 13 June 1782 she set sail for England from Trincomalee [4] in Ceylon.
Sailing west near the Cape coast at 1 a.m. and while adjusting the sails to ride out a gale, the crew noticed lights to the west, but dismissed them as something akin to the Northern Lights. When the lights presently disappeared, they were given no further thought. As it turned out, the lights were grassfires burning on a headland directly on their course, and their disappearance was due to their being hidden by the brow of the hill. At four a.m. Thomas Lewis reported that he thought he could see land, but the idea was rejected by the commanding officer of the watch, a Mr. Beale, as everyone on board was certain that they were at least 200 miles out to sea. The quartermaster Mixon after some hesitation, alerted the captain, who instantly came on deck and tried to bring the ship about. During this change of tack, the ship ran aground on the rocks. In the darkness the crew firmly believed that as they were a long way from land, they had struck an uncharted island or reef. With a change in the wind direction, the captain felt that they could refloat the Grosvenor and run her aground in some more convenient place. However, as soon as the ship twisted around, its freed bows started taking on water and it became clear to all that she would have been better off left on the rocks.
Port Grosvenor & Sidney Turner
The first attempt at salvage was reported on 20 May 1880 by the paper Natal Mercury in an article stating that Captain Sidney Turner and a friend, Lieut Beddoes, of the Durban Volunteer Artillery, had set off for Port St Johns in the vessel Adonis, had proceeded to the wreck and commenced blasting the rocks with dynamite, retrieving Indian coins and Venetian ducats as well as several ship's cannon, two of which were later displayed at the Local History Museum in Durban. In 1867 Turner and his father-in-law, Walter Compton, had bought 600 acres of undeveloped Crown Land on the Natal South Coast between Umkomaas and the present village of Clansthal, and called the property Ellingham.
From the profits of his salvage Turner in 1881 floated a company and commissioned the construction of a small coastal steamer, the Lady Wood, built in Greenwich. Another investor was George Hall Rennie, son of shipping magnate John T Rennie & Sons, who came into possession of one of the Grosvenor's cannon. Turner also had a local silversmith produce a goblet from recovered silver rupees, an item which also found its way to the Local History Museum.
By the beginning of 1885, a local chief Mqikela, who had become disaffected with the British government and wanted to develop his own harbour, concluded an agreement with Turner, in which Turner was granted 20 000 acres of land, including the coastline on which the Grosvenor had foundered. In return for this Turner was to select a suitable site for a harbour and undertake the necessary construction work. The site chosen for this new venture was at the mouth of the Mkweni River, close to the site of the Grosvenor wreck. Turner named it Port Grosvenor.
As Port Captain and harbourmaster, Turner collected customs dues and managed the harbour and pilotage. Turner was obliged by his financial circumstances to resign himself to this situation as he, by 1884, had a family of seven children and a wife to support. Despite objections from the Cape Government the port was officially opened.
The Cape Government later declared Turner's concession illegal under tribal law, and he forfeited the land, his home and his position. The family moved to Port St Johns and Port Grosvenor faded into obscurity, the last ship calling there in January 1886 being the London-built coaster SS Somtseu, named for Theophilus Shepstone. [5][6]
References
- ^ Portuguese Ship São João Wrecked off the KwaZulu Coast
- ^ Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa
- ^ National Library of Australia
- ^ "A Source Book on the Wreck of the Grosvenor East Indiaman" - Percival Robson Kirby
- ^ Shipwrecks on the Wild Coast
- ^ Portrait of a Pioneer - Daphne Child, 1980 Macmillan SA
External links
Bibliography
- Caliban's Shore: The Wreck of the Grosvenor and the Strange Fate of Her Survivors - Stephen Taylor (2004) ISBN 9780393050851
- A Source Book on the Wreck of the Grosvenor East Indiaman" - Percival Robson Kirby