Salcombe

Having sailed back across the English Channel yesterday we decided to take the shortest route, which lands in the beautiful little port of Salcombe. As a port it is fairly under developed being completely without any Marina facilities, though as a high priced toured destination I suspect that the golden sands and private coves have had just about as much money wrung out of them as is possible. There is not much in the way of historical interest in this particular port; just a small, ruined, Tudor block house that used to guard the mouth of the estuary. Not that the estuary needs much guarding, the reputation of the sand bar across it is generally enough to do it. This bar lies only a meter or two beneath the surface at low water, and during rough seas can have a meter of swell running over it. This means that if you get things wrong the sea will simply pick your boat up, then slam it down again breaking the vessel's back. This is exactly what happened to the collier Ensign on January 30th 1915 when they decided to try navigating over the bar without a local pilot and got it wrong. The ship sank instantly leaving just it's rigging above water. The reputation of the bar is also the reason for Salcombe Life Boat, operated by the RNLI. Over the century that it has been operating they have saved many lives in the most dangerous sea conditions, but not without tragedy for themselves.

On October 27 1916, the Salcombe lifeboat, William and Emma, was launched to go to the aid of a stricken Plymouth schooner Western Lass that was aground at Lannacombe Bay.

Fifteen men took her out in the teeth of a furious southwesterly gale. When they got to the ship the cox'n, Samuel Distin, could see the rocket line hanging off the schooner and in the pale light of dawn realised that there was no one left to save as they had already been rescued by the Prawle Rocket Company.

There was nothing left but to get safely back, though that was easier said than done with all the lifeboats crew were by now soaked right through and freezing cold. As they approached the Bar with its huge turbulent breakers they streamed a sea anchor from the stern and took in most of the sail, exactly as they had been trained to do. Just as these preparations were complete a massive wave hit the stern of the boat throwing it broadside to the waves. All the crew were thrown in a great heap to the other side of the boat so when the next wave hit, it just turned the boat over and threw all the men into the sea. Several of the men managed to hang on to the upturned hull of the boat for a while, but in the end all but two were swept away. 'Eddie' Distin and William Johnson were the only two to still be alive when the wreckage of the lifeboat was washed up under Rickham.

Not that this stopped the brave volunteers of the RNLI. Within months a new lifeboat was found and with it a new crew. The Cox'n was one of the survivors, 'Eddie' Distin.

There is not much military history in Salcombe, through it was used as one of the muster points for the US Army before D-Day. The only bit of Royal Navy history here is a rather more embarrassing story that happened just a few years ago. Britannia Royal Naval College has amongst it's stock of boats a number of Contessa yachts. These are mainly used for teaching the cadets about handling small craft and getting them used to the sea. However the cadets are also allowed to take them out during their free time for some leisure sailing. A group of cadets in several yachts decided one weekend to go to Salcombe. They navigated the bar and spent a pleasant evening in some of Salcombe's other bars before retiring to their boats for the evening. The next morning they must have decided to give the boats a bit of a scrub down using the hose pipes on the town quay before heading for home. The town quay has a channel beside it that is well dredged, and well marked: however just beyond the markers it goes very shallow very quickly. The young gentleman navigating one of the boats must not have known this and tried to cut the corner. His boat shuddered to a halt as it dug it's keel into the sand. They tried to used the engine to wiggle it free, but they were stuck fast so they had to wait, stuck in the sand, in front of the entire town for the next six hours for the tide to recluse them. The boat was undamaged, and there was no harm to any of the cadets; except perhaps a bit of bruised pride.