100 and fifty years in the past Ready Seaman Thomas Lewis grew to become the hero of one of the grisly shipwrecks in British maritime historical past – which included drowning, fireplace and even cannibalism.
Within the autumn of 1874 Twm Pen-Stryd, as he was identified regionally, from Moelfre on Anglesey, was serving onboard the Cospatrick, transporting emigrant labourers and cargo to New Zealand.
On the night time of 17 November, off the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa, an uncontrollable fireplace broke out on the wood crusing ship, leading to all however three of the 479 passengers and crew dropping their lives.
But had it not been for Twm’s expertise – together with urging them to drink the blood of those that had already died – not even these survivors would have made it again to Britain to inform the story after ten days adrift in a lifeboat.
{A photograph} of the Cospatrick taken at Gravesend earlier than it set sail for New Zealand in September 1874 [National Library of New Zealand]
Twm – whose nickname loosely interprets as Tom, Prime of the Avenue – was born right into a fishing and seafaring group in 1828, certainly one of seven kids.
In his 1976 e book, The Survival of Twn Pen-Stryd, RR Williams wrote that Twm’s father was blind, a potential purpose for the need for his son to go to sea and supply earnings for the household.
No matter his motives for leaving, when Twm returned from the Cospatrick catastrophe aged 46 it was stated to be solely his second go to residence in 25 years.
Williams added that little is thought about Twm’s adolescence and sea-going profession, though he did point out serving within the Navy as a younger man.
“It’s hinted, too, in some newspapers of the interval that he had served with Belgian crews in international ships, and that as a Welsh speaker, he had acquired a mix of Welsh and Flemish accents when conversing within the English language,” Williams wrote.
Within the 1870s an agricultural melancholy gripped rural Britain, in-part because of a run of moist summers and poor harvests, but additionally cheaper delivery prices and the dropping of tariffs.
Because of this, enormous portions of grain had been imported from the newly settled North American Prairies and the Steppes of Russia, undercutting Britain’s farmers.
New Zealand grew to become engaging round this time because it was actively encouraging new settlers with assisted or free passage.
In distinction with the convict voyages to Australia, the Cospatrick was comparatively comfy, with an A1 security certificates and good meals and lodging for the passengers.
However Rhodri Clark, the editor of the Welsh historical past web site Historical past Factors who has researched Twm and the catastrophe, believes the Cospatrick could not have been as welcoming because the homeowners wished folks to imagine.
“The Board of Commerce inquiry into the Cospatrick discovered the seemingly explanation for the fireplace was passengers breaking into the maintain at night time seeking booze, lighting their approach with an open candle,” he stated.
“It appears they obtained way over they had been bargaining on, because the cargo additionally contained extremely flammable straw, palm and linseed oil, and supplies like turpentine, paraffin, paint, candles and polish, with tons of coal close by.”
Mr Clark – who has put in a QR code on the positioning of a former store in Moelfre bearing Twm’s title, in addition to an audio description of the story on its web site – added that there have been solely six lifeboats, with a most capability of 187, out there to the just about 500 onboard.
“Extremely Cospatrick was awarded an A1 security certificates as a result of her six lifeboats met the principles of the day, which decided the quantity, not by the quantity of passengers, however by the general tonnage of the ship.”
This rule wouldn’t be modified till the sinking of the Titanic nearly 40 years later, he added.
A drawing of the Cospatrick ablaze [Illustrated London News]
Twm’s heroics started instantly after the fireplace broke out, manning the water pumps and braving the flames and smoke lengthy after lots of his fellow officers had deserted their posts.
He was lastly pressured to flee for his life because the blaze grew to become unmanageable – though his actions had allowed dozens to get away.
Of the six lifeboats, 4 had been destroyed within the fireplace, an overloaded fifth capsized, leaving just one upright and manoeuvrable.
Twm and his two eventual fellow survivors – Second Mate Henry MacDonald and Abnormal Seaman Edward Cotter, simply 18 – swam throughout to proper the upturned boat, serving to the 62 individuals who had made it off.
With out meals, water and with damaged oars, they drifted for 10 days, powerless to reply to the cries for assist from these nonetheless aboard the stricken Cospatrick.
Second Mate MacDonald was glowing in his reward of Twm on the 1875 inquiry.
“Thomas Lewis gave Peter Cope, the ship’s baker, his dungaree over-trousers, as he was almost bare, and that was typical of his conduct all through our ordeal.
“When different males had been floundering, he found the internal energy to do what was obligatory,” he stated.
With only a handful nonetheless alive, Twm was the primary to make the grim suggestion that they needed to drink the blood and eat the livers of those that had already died.
An 1875 illustration of the survivors Henry MacDonald (high centre), Edward Cotter (backside left), Thomas Lewis (backside proper) [Illustrated London News]
Twm informed the inquiry: “I unsheathed my knife, and putting the sharp level on the wrist of one of many lifeless males, I made a deep incision. I rapidly bent low over the bleeding wrist, and drank his blood.”
He stated he additionally urged two others to “observe swimsuit in the event that they had been ever to see residence once more”.
“I then minimize out the livers of the 2 lifeless, and distributed the items to others on board… After this the our bodies had been delivered to the ocean.”
Lastly, on their tenth day adrift, they had been noticed by the British Sceptre, an iron crusing vessel heading to Dundee from Calcutta.
Two of the 5 nonetheless alive at that time died on their solution to St Helena, in the midst of the Atlantic, however Twm, MacDonald and Cotter finally made it again to Britain on New 12 months’s Eve 1874.
Mr Clark stated Twm was already volunteering for the Moelfre lifeboat lower than a month after returning, together with being “concerned in a big rescue” a number of days earlier than going to London for the inquiry.
Thomas Lewis is buried at St Allgo Churchyard in Llanallgo, Anglesey [historypoints.org]
Twm returned to business delivery, however as soon as once more met with misfortune.
Williams wrote that years after the Cospatrick affair Twm was unloading a cargo of slate slabs on the River Thames as a mate on the CS Atkinson, a Bangor-owned boat, when the hoist failed, crushing his leg.
“After lengthy and painful remedy, which ended within the amputation of his leg, he lastly ‘swallowed the anchor’ and handed the rest of his life sharing the parental residence along with his married sister at Pen-Stryd,” Williams wrote.
“He grew to become a proverbial determine regionally, throwing his wood leg in a dramatic sweep as he peg-legged his approach across the village.
“Bearded and weather-beaten, this retired old-salt sported a seamen’s peak cap, blue jersey, and bell bottomed trousers till his loss of life in his 66th yr in 1894 .”
