My connection to the Flying Enterprise is deeply personal. During my early years in the fishing industry, the wreck of this famous vessel featured regularly in my working life. The story of the Flying Enterprise – which captivated Cornwall and the entire nation in 1952 – always felt close at hand, not just as a…Continue Reading “The Last Voyage of the Flying Enterprise: Fact, Fiction, and Mystery”
This is a captivating Cornish Story of a group of treacherous rocks that have sunk over a thousand ships. It weaves together stories of shipwrecks, engineering failures, and remarkable triumphs, focusing on the challenges faced in constructing the four iconic Eddystone lighthouses, the last of which still stands as a beacon against the unforgiving sea….Continue Reading “The Eddystone Lighthouses”
This is a Cornish Story, a story of the old wooden ships and the iron men who sailed them. It is also a story of a small fleet of Cornish ships from Fowey and of my own family’s maritime heritage. We have all seen those captivating old Victorian images of Cornwall featuring harbour scenes with…Continue Reading “Wooden Ships and Iron Men”
Charlestown Port Polmear, picturesque, sitting at the head of the bay, Unchanged till Charles Rashleigh came along one day, he built a harbour, a gun battery, and the port leat, massive engineering, was no easy feat. Vessels sit at anchor, serene in the bay, berthing tomorrow to load copper and clay, copper…Continue Reading “Charlestown Port”
I suppose it’s safe to say, that over the years I have written a fair bit about the premier port of St Austell Bay, the port of Charlestown. The name ‘Porth-Meur’ or ‘Great Cove’ had been used for several hundred years, evolving through time, to become Porthmear, later Polmear, and later again, West Polmear. This…Continue Reading “The Port of Charlestown”
Someone once said, “If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.” Honestly, I don’t think we, as a society, know what hardship is. When I was a child we had little money, even though both my parents worked and had relatively good jobs. My father was an alcoholic and…Continue Reading “It’s a hard-knock life”