DAVID GIBBONS: It was night time when it happens. Many of the men
were actually asleep. They were caught in a change of wind, a
westerly wind.
Within minutes, it had keeled over and started to split. It
broke in two.
That intensity of emotion of people who suddenly realise that
their lives are about to end.
HELEN ANTROBUS: The Lizard Point in Cornwall is known for its
hidden coves and blue seas. You'd have no idea that
underneath these waves lies a notorious graveyard of ships.
And there's one disaster that's especially remembered here
because of the scale of lives lost and the strange aftermath.
The Royal Anne Galley.
Our history is all around us, and I'm transporting you back
for the inside story of the people, places, and moments that
made us.
I'm Helen Antrobus. Lean in for a tale from time. Back When.
The British Isles are steeped in maritime history. Over the
centuries, shipwrecks were part of life and remain imprinted in
our culture.
DAVID GIBBONS: The UK has 50,000 plus shipwrecks around it. There
are stretches of coast in the southwest of England which are
literally carpeted with shipwrecks from the last 2,000
plus years.
HELEN ANTROBUS: David Gibbons is a marine archaeologist, diver
and author of the book A History of the World in 12 Shipwrecks.
David lives in Cornwall, not far from the Lizard Peninsula.
The Lizard Point is a beauty spot, but the geology that makes
it distinctive has also been the cause of dozens of disasters.
But there's one wreck that keeps David up at night.
The Royal Anne Galley has lain on the seafloor for 300 years
and is still shrouded in mystery.
It's story lets us glimpse into 18th century life at sea and a
doomed voyage.
DAVID GIBBONS: The Royal Anne set off in early November 1721,
heading towards the Caribbean.
She has on board her crew, Captain Willis, who's a
typically experienced mariner of that period. She also had on
board Lord Belhaven, who was a Scottish peer.
He'd just been appointed as governor of Barbados, which at
the time was one of the more prosperous of the island
colonies in the Caribbean, prospering because of the sugar
trade and unfortunately on the back of slavery.
What we know about the crew, we know their names, we know their
ages. Sailors did often come from poor working-class
backgrounds.
Most of them would have been English, but they were probably
a smattering of people from other nations as well.
There are wills of the men on the ship that were taken out
before they left Portsmouth, which are typical sailors'
wills. And they often did that because of the expectation of
risk and danger on long voyages.
There's one man called Thomas Whaley, and he takes out a will
where he talks of his expectation of getting back to
the woman he loves and how she's the love of his life. And it's
all terribly poignant because you know what's going to happen
to him.
HELEN ANTROBUS: So Captain Francis Willis, Lord Belhaven, a
handful of dignitaries and the crew, around 210 people on board
in total, are ready to set sail for the Caribbean.
They're expecting a voyage of around six weeks to cover the
4,000 miles across the Atlantic. On board, Captain Willis is
under pressure. He has been set a daunting task by the
Admiralty.
After Willis makes the journey, taking his passengers to
Barbados, he and his crew are to hunt down some of the most
dangerous outlaws on the seas, the pirates of the Caribbean.
DAVID GIBBONS: These were the orders for his final voyage.
You are to inform yourself whether any piratical ships or
vessels are hovering about that government, and if so, you are
to proceed in quest of such pirates, and use your utmost
endeavours to take, sink, burn or otherwise destroy them.
And this is extraordinary because this is right at the
time of the height of the pirates of the Caribbean.
HELEN ANTROBUS: But the Royal Anne Galley would not meet her
fate fighting pirates.
Captain Willis and his crew are unaware the true dangers of
their voyage lurk much closer to home.
In fact, they'd barely left port when problems started.
In the 18th century, shipwrecks are all too common. Galleys like
the Royal Anne look like how you might imagine a pirate ship.
They're made of wood, propelled with a wind sail and rowed with
oars. But even if galleys are solidly built, disaster isn't
far away. Before modern technological safety
advancements, sailors depend on their knowledge of the seas.
In this era, people navigate by the stars and use basic
compasses.
And ships are very vulnerable to human error, hidden rocks, and
weather.
On the night of the 10th of November, 1721, the Royal Anne
Galley has set sail and begins her passage through Lizard
Point.
DAVID GIBBONS: The Lizard Peninsula is like a great sort
of slumbering giant prehistoric creature and the rocks off the
end are like the kind of decayed teeth sticking out of the sea.
The tides at a certain point come at the same time so you get
the ebb and the flow hitting each other and causing eddies
and whirlpools you know just absolutely lethal water
conditions.
HELEN ANTROBUS: Unfortunately for the crew of the Royal Anne
as they pass Lizard Point a storm is blowing in.
DAVID GIBBONS: It was night time when it happens many of the men
were actually asleep.
They were caught in a change of wind, a westerly wind.
HELEN ANTROBUS: The crew realized they need to turn back,
but it's too late.
DAVID GIBBONS: The ship was blown into this terrifying rock
called Man O' War, which juts out from the southwest side of
the rocks off the peninsula.
Within minutes, it had keeled over and started to split, it
broke in two, and very, very quickly dispersed as flotsam and
jetsam, and most of the crew as well, very few of whom probably
would have been able to swim and even if you had been able to
swim, the chances of survival would be very small.
HELEN ANTROBUS: As the Royal Anne crashes violently, hundreds
of men are trapped, dragged underwater, or tossed against
jagged rocks. Their homeland is in their sights, but out of
reach.
DAVID GIBBONS: They were a stone's throw from the wreck
site to the shore.
HELEN ANTROBUS: In just a few hours, the Royal Anne Galley is
catastrophically smashed against rocks and sinks just metres from
the shore.
By the morning light, of around 210 people on board, there are
only three survivors, all local men.
One of them clinging to a rock all night.
Everyone else, Captain Willis, the dignitaries and crew, are
all dead.
After a shipwreck in the 18th century, communities lament the
tragedy. People are especially affected by the idea of lost
souls or unknown bodies washed up who can't be buried properly
in church grounds.
And then there are the practicalities after a wreck.
Wreckers are scavengers who loot a lost ship.
Local builders might use wood from shipwrecks to build houses
and other members of the community, like the clergy,
might be expected to pick bodies and even body parts along the
coast.
In the case of the Royal Anne, it's the aftermath of the wreck,
where things take a strange and eerie turn.
DAVID GIBBONS: There's a local legend that many of the bodies
were brought up and buried in mass graves in a place called
Pistil Meadow.
HELEN ANTROBUS: Pistil Meadow is today enjoyed as a beauty spot
along the coastal path. But for many years, people avoided going
there at night, reporting strange happenings.
There are sightings of a ghostly figure in a three-point sailor's
hat roaming the coastline, and reports of dogs acting
strangely. Linked to a gruesome belief that dogs had savaged
some of the bodies that washed ashore.
DAVID GIBBONS: If you do the coast path walk at Lizard Point,
it's a slightly haunting place to be in, especially at night
when it's misty.
Even now on the Lizard, you speak to fishermen and people
whose families have been here for generations and they
remember all this.
HELEN ANTROBUS: The 300-year-old mystery of whether Pistil Meadow
is the spot where hundreds of bodies from the Royal Anne are
buried in unmarked graves, isn't just a fisherman's tale.
Some experts are so convinced by the legend that in 2015, the
National Trust and the Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust helped
organise an excavation of the meadow to try and find the
missing bodies.
DAVID GIBBONS: And no bodies were found, but the excavation
was only possible in a fairly limited part of the meadow. It
is actually still very possible that there are bodies there, but
they were never discovered.
So what was already a kind of mystery continues to be so.
HELEN ANTROBUS: David Gibbons is one of the few people to have
visited the Royal Anne wreck. He has to wait for the perfect
conditions, as it's still a treacherous stretch of water for
divers.
DAVID GIBBONS: My most memorable dive on the Royal Anne was the
very first one I did. I decided to take the plunge, went down
and pulled myself down through this kelp and got into a gully
and didn't see anything for a little while and then saw
something orange and rusty.
And this was a cannonball. And I realized this was just the right
size.
It was a nine pounder ball for the cannon that we knew the
Royal Anne was carrying.
And the Royal Anne is one of the richest wrecks of Cornwall.
A lot of gold was found and this is to be expected on a ship that
was carrying so many wealthy men off to Barbados.
Those finds really add to the colour and move it a bit beyond
archaeology into the excitement of treasure hunting as well.
What I think when I look out at Lizard Point is that I've been
underwater there and I know what it looks like.
I've seen this swept underwater seascape of rock and kelp and
wreckage sticking up out of it.
And it's exciting and frightening and brings with
great vividness to life the final moments of so many of
those people who were wrecked against those rocks over the
centuries and so it's like a great book of history.
HELEN ANTROBUS: So next time you're by the sea, look beyond
the waves and take a moment to consider the vessels, lives and
stories that lie beneath the surface.
Thank you for joining me for this episode of Back When.
If you'd like to find out more about the Lizard's history head
to the National Trust website and do follow, rate and review
us on your favourite podcast app.
If you like the sea, land and stories about people and
wildlife why not check out Wild Tales from National Trust
Podcasts, I am sure you'll enjoy it.
See you next time.
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