Goodwick Beach -"After the Storm"

This picture of Goodwick beach titled “After the Storm” shows several beached boats.  In the foreground can be seen the slipway which led to the lifeboat shed

The vessels on the beach are coastal traders rather than fishing craft.

The two mast craft (furthest from camera) is a ketch;  the two mast vessel with yards on foremast is a topsail schooner;

The smaller single mast vessels are sloops/’smacks’. They carried bulk cargoes to beaches or harbours of coastal settlements (especially coal or ‘culm’ and limestone).

The date of the storm was almost certainly 24/25 March, 1898.

The South Wales Echo for Saturday 26 March reported that as a result of the gale

“Goodwick Beach has suddenly assumed the appearance of a small harbour, for it now shows five vessels, with seven masts, stranded together, four of them at the highest water mark”.

Two other vessels were in the bay at the time, the ketch “John and Ann”, “now sunk deep and a total wreck, with only the “points of the masts”..”emerging from the surf”; and the ketch “Progress”, “still bravely at anchor, the sole survivor of a fleet of seven vessels which on Thursday morning were all well”.

However, as reported in the ‘Evening Express” on 29 March the “Progress” also foundered later. All the crews of the ships were rescued as a result of the efforts of the volunteers of Fishguard No 2 lifeboat, an open ‘pulling/sailing ‘ craft.

Shipping casualty reports in contemporary newspapers list the stranded vessels and this permits their details to be traced:                                                                                                             1) Topsail schooner-two masts; yards crossed on foremast: “Unicorn”, 70 tons; built Caernarvon 1848 ; Registered at Ayr; Amlwch owners.                                                                      2) Ketch – two masts ‘fore and aft’ rig: “Dolphin”, 50 tons;built Jersey 1862; Registered at Bideford; Appledore owners.                                                                                                                      3) Smack- single mast: “Martha Jane”, 40 tons; built Aberaeron 1862; Registered at Aberystwyth; Aberaeron owners.                                                                                                              4) Smack-single mast: “Fawn”, 34 tons; built Pembroke Dock 1873; Registered Cardigan; Owners Vaughan Davies, West St, Fishguard.                                                                                        5) Smack-single mast; built Milford 1866; Registered Milford; Owners William Phillips, Wallis St, Fishguard. Remarkably, all five vessels survived to see further service.

Many thanks to Rob Willatts for his expertise in identifying the various vessel types and the story of the storm