April 1920: ‘The best traditions of The Mumbles Lifeboatmen’ by Kate Jones
April 1920: ‘The best traditions of The Mumbles Lifeboatmen’
by Kate Jones
The grounding of the Fleur de France, 2 April 1920
It was approaching midnight on Maundy Thursday, 1 April 1920, when the French schooner from Le Havre neared the entrance to Swansea Bay. The Bristol Channel was smooth; a light northerly breeze chilled the night air. The 3-masted Fleur de France of Fécamp was American built and newly equipped with ‘all modern appliances’. Her master Captain Boutichier had seen action during the Great War and (according to the Mumbles News) had recently been decorated by the French government for a ‘plucky’ five hour ‘fight’ with a German U-boat. But for now his task was relatively straight forward; to discharge his cargo of scrap metal at Briton Ferry.
Then disaster struck! The Fleur de France lost her rudder and went aground on the south side of the hazardous Mixon sandbank. In the crew’s efforts to save their vessel the anchors were also lost. The badly damaged hull was rapidly taking in water, so Captain Boutichier fired distress rockets. Then he and his crew took to their own boat. It was cold and dark; the coastline rocky, the currents treacherous.
Fortunately, the Fleur de France’s plight was seen by the Coastguard who alerted the Mumbles Lifeboat coxswain. Maroons were fired and at 1.15.a.m. (it was now Good Friday) Coxswain William Edwin Davies and the crew of The Mumbles Lifeboat, Charlie Medland, launched down the slipway on the north side of Mumbles Pier. Using sails and their oars the 14-man crew rounded Mumbles Head and came upon the Swansea Harbour Trust Pilot Cutter, Beaufort, which had picked up the French sailors. Coxswain Davies and the master of the Beaufort agreed to try and save the schooner as well.
Crew from the lifeboat and the schooner were put aboard the Fleur de France. A tow rope was thrown to the Beaufort and, with Charlie Medland standing-by, the water-logged schooner was dragged off the Mixon, towed into Swansea Bay and beached on sands opposite the Mermaid Hotel. By 7am Charlie Medland had been brought back up her slipway, cleaned and covered with a tarpaulin (there was no boathouse until 1922). Coxswain and crew walked back along the pier to their homes.
The Fleur de France crew were brought ashore and taken to the Swansea Seamen’s Mission. They and their schooner (eventually a salvage job) were captured on film by the Mumbles photographer, Melville Clare and were a source of much interest in the village over Easter.
The crew of the French schooner Fleur de France photographed by M.A. Clare
Easter 1920 in Mumbles: The Great War had been over for 18 months, the influenza pandemic was over and people looked forward to a few pleasurable days off work. But Good Friday was wet. It rained all day and the number of visitors to Mumbles was far fewer than had been expected. Railway staff had an easy time, reported the Mumbles Press and the Western Mail reflected that the weather ‘was not conducive to either comfort or pleasure.’ Many sought shelter in the Mumbles Cinema [later the Tivoli] which had continuous showings every evening [prices 6d, 9d and 1/3] of ‘Hell Morgan’s Girl’, a stirring drama starring Dorothy Phillips, and the next thrilling instalment of the adventures of ‘Elmo the Mighty’.
On Mumbles Pier (admittance 2d, children 1d) the skating rink was open every day. Hanney’s Popular Military Band gave concerts in the bandstand on Easter Saturday and Sunday. On Easter Monday there was dancing in the pier pavilion to Mr S.W. Cooper’s Orchestra - entry 2/-.
Down by the Mermaid Inn, 50 yards off shore, was another (and unexpected) tourist attraction. The half-submerged Fleur de France delighted residents and visitors, many of whom did their best to scramble aboard at low tide when the watchman wasn’t looking! Fortunately, everything of value had been safely removed on Good Friday morning.
The beached Fleur de France photographed by M.A. Clare
The Bayonnaise rescue, 20 April 1920
Three weeks after the beaching of the Fleur de France at Southend the Coxswain and crew of Charlie Medland were called out to another French vessel in distress. On Tuesday 20 April a north-westerly gale and exceptionally high tides caused flooding and damage. A small (84-ton) schooner Bayonnaise of Binic, Brittany, had left Swansea two days earlier bound for Nantes. After picking up coal at Port Talbot she developed problems with her sails, so her captain attempted to put back to Swansea for repairs. Caught in the gale Bayonnaise was soon in distress - floundering in very heavy seas off the Kings Dock breakwater.
Lifeboat Charlie Medland launching, photograph by M.A. Clare
Eye-witnesses described how Coxswain Davies and the lifeboat crew launched ‘smartly’ at 5pm into an exceptionally high tide and ‘sailed before the wind across the bay at a wonderful rate.’ Here they found a small boat with Bayonnaise’s crew of five, including a boy, making a desperate attempt to row ashore in tremendous seas that threatened to swamp and capsize them.
The very difficult task of transferring the terrified sailors from their tiny boat into the lifeboat was successfully accomplished by the great daring and expert seamanship of the coxswain and crew. In the teeth of the storm, Charlie Medland’s crew battled their way back to Mumbles where they were greeted by hearty cheers from the crowd watching on the foreshore. The shipwrecked men were safely landed near the old breakwater off Cornwall Place and taken in charge by Mumbles Piermaster Captain Twomey (representing the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society), a coastguard officer and two policemen who took them to the Antelope Hotel. Here landlady Mrs Lambert provided hot drinks and dry clothes with one of Captain Twomey’s sons, Lieutenant Wilfrid Twomey, acting as interpreter. One poor sailor was delirious after his dreadful experience so he and the boy, who was only 13, were put to bed.
Amongst those watching the Bayonnaise rescue were several experienced Swansea and Mumbles seamen. They were loud in their praise of the skilful way in which the lifeboat was handled by Coxswain Davies in such bad weather. It was, they said, only the fine seamanship of the coxswain that had averted another tragedy at sea. Such a daring rescue maintained the best tradition of The Mumbles Lifeboat.
Responding by letter in the Mumbles Press, Coxswain Davies thanked those who had congratulated him. “It has always been the chief aim of the lifeboatmen to save life and the good opinion of our fellow men cheers us. But the knowledge … that the crew of the little craft are today alive and well is our greatest reward.”
When William Edwin Davies had become coxswain the previous October on the retirement of his much respected father (also William Davies) everyone had hoped the son would be as good as the father. These hopes were now fulfilled, particularly as that day’s gallantry was not quite over. Half an hour after returning from the Bayonnaise rescue, Charlie Medland went out to another vessel in trouble. The schooner Harbinger of Fécamp had lost her boats and sails in the gale. Coxswain Davies and crew stood by for three hours in rough seas off Mumbles Head whilst Harbinger, rolling badly, sought shelter in Mumbles Roads. It was 10pm before lifeboat and crew were safely back at Mumbles Pier.
Aftermath:
April 1920 was a very wet month and the storm of 20 April caused much damage at Langland where 8 out of the 9 erected canvas tents were washed away and the floors of several others laid in readiness were swept out to sea. Mr Howell only had the skeleton of his tea sheds up and so escaped loss, but Mrs Kift’s tea sheds at Rotherslade were flattened.
Fleur de France’s cargo was discharged on 15 April. On 27 May two tugs pulled her off the beach at Southend and towed her into Swansea’s South Dock.
The Bayonnaise, grounded at the back of the East Pier, was a total wreck.
The Mumbles Press of Thursday 29 April carried an advertisement warning about ‘the influenza menace [which] has invaded the confines of Swansea.’ The public were urged to undergo preventative inoculation: ‘which while not a complete protection … is claimed to materially reduce the liability of complications and fatal issue.’ People were urged to use handkerchiefs, avoid people with colds, affected homes and places where people gathered. They should walk to work, rather than using a tram, and to gargle with Condy’s Fluid (a disinfectant solution that could be used internally).
In December The Mumbles lifeboat crew were invited by the RNLI to a special dinner at the George Hotel. After speeches and musical entertainment Commander Harold Innes, RNLI Inspector of Lifeboats and Lifeboat Stations, presented Coxswain Davies with a framed Certificate of Service. It was generally felt that: ‘The new coxswain is a worthy son of a grand old sire.’ William Edwin Davies remained coxswain until June 1940. His successor was William John Gammon.
[Photo: Coxswain William Edwin Davies in the 1930s]
Charlie Medland was the last pulling and sailing lifeboat stationed at The Mumbles. She was replaced in May 1924 by the station’s first motor lifeboat – Edward, Prince of Wales.
Acknowledgements: RNLI Lifeboat Log Book, 1920; Wreck and Rescue in the Bristol Channel, Grahame Farr; the Mumbles Press, Western Mail, and South Wales Gazette; photograph of Coxswain Davies, RNLI/The Mumbles, other photographs by M.A. Clare, film posters from Wikipedia.
© Kate Jones, May 2020