SHIPWRECKS I The Gibsons of Scilly. Isles of Scilly, off Cornwall, England

Four generations of one family photograph shipwrecks

mildred shipwreck gibsons of scilly cornwall

The Mildred – Sailing from Newport to London with slag, it got stuck in dense fog and hit rocks at Gurnard’s Head, 1912. The crew of two Irishmen, one Welshman and a Mexican rowed into St. Ives, whilst their ship was broken to pieces by the waves

There’s something inescapably romantic about the word shipwreck that partially obscures the terrible death and destruction they often result in. When you see old photographs with dozens of magnificent ships at sail it’s easy to forget that, underneath the dark sea, there can be dozens of sunken ships decaying on the sea floor. Much more transport and travel was done by ship but there were no satellites to tell them where they were in relation to the land.

The Isles of Scilly include five beautiful inhabited islands 28 miles off the west coast of Land’s End in Cornwall but they also consist of 140 smaller uninhabited rocks, islands and skerries. The mere names of some of them struck fear in many a 19th century sailor: Retarrier Ledges, Gilstone, The Wolf. As the author Bella Bathurst describes, ‘the daily helicopter shuttle from Penzance to St Mary’s passes over some of the prettiest death traps in the world’. In his history of the islands E.L Bowley says they have ‘probably more trans-ocean traffic around the islands than at any other point on the globe’. The perfect storm for multiple shipwrecks, in one night alone 2000 men died in 1707. It was also the most perfect spot in the world for photographers’ of shipwrecks.

The Glenbervie – Crashed onto rocks near Coverack, Cornwall in 1901. She was carrying a consignment of grand pianos and fine spirits when she lost her way in a storm and struck The Manacles. All 16 crewmen were rescued by lifeboat.

City of Cardiff – British ship sailing from Le Havre, France, to Wales in 1912. Wrecked in Mill Bay near Land’s End. All of the crew were rescued, many using the breeches buoy to carry them off the ship.

SS Tripolitania – Italian cargo ship run aground in a Westerly gale in 1912. The crew climbed down to the beach by rope but one man was drowned and the body never recovered.

The Gibson family of Scilly were originally seamen but they were also at the forefront of photojournalism due to their location. When the first Gibson picked up a camera in the 1860s, photography was largely the preserve of the wealthy and the equipment was heavy and bulky. Undeterred John Gibson was the instigator of a family business lasting over 130 years and four generations. In the introduction to the classic book on The Gibsons, John Fowles says ‘other men have taken fine shipwreck photographs, but nowhere else in the world can one family have produced such a consistently high and poetic standard of work, or over such a long period’. Many of these images are beyond photojournalism in the true sense of the word, taken on large format cameras for maximum detail, they have been crafted with an eye for terrible beauty. It’s the beauty of a memorial tomb not the more prosaic storytelling of a reportage image. The contrast is also there between the idyll of the islands and the horror of the seas.

The Trifolium – Wrecked at Whitesand Bay in 1914. Four men were washed overboard, two died on deck, five survived.

The last Gibson to manage the archive and work as a photographer was Sandra Gibson. The Gibson business sold prints of the images as well as covering any other events in their area. Local news stories, as many of these wrecks were, would nowadays be covered by a local snapper with a digital camera or even by a member of the public on their camera phone. Thankfully the number of wrecks nowadays has been reduced, by lighthouses, radar and now GPS. The public still seems to have an undiminished fascination with shipwrecks and thankfully the entire Gibson archive has recently been purchased by the National Maritime Museum, who better to preserve it, promote it and remind us all of the battle sometimes fought with the sea.

The Hansy – Norwegian sailing ship wrecked in 1911 on the eastern side of the Lizard. Three men were rescued by lifeboat, all of the other passengers survived by climbing up the rocks.

The Voorspoed – Dutch cargo ship sailing from Newfoundland, Canada to Perranporth, Cornwall in 1901. The horses were used to take away the general cargo on board. The same ship went down with all hands on her next voyage.