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The steamship Constance crashed into the Shagstone rock on the east side of Plymouth Sound in thick fog.

Type

Cargo steamship

History

The Constance was an iron-hulled screw steamship built by A. & J. Inglis Ltd., of Glasgow for Samuel S. Malcolm & Co. in London and launched on 9th September 1871.  Constance was bought by the Bristol Steam Navigation Company in 1873 for trading between Dutch ports, Antwerp and Bristol stopping at Plymouth.

The Shagstone in Plymouth Sound, where the Constance was wrecked.

Constance arrived in Antwerp from Bristol on the 16th January 1888, and took on board 550 tons of cargo including hides and 13 tons of iron girders in the hold.  They also loaded 3 tons of iron girders on the main deck just 20 feet from the bridge steering compass. Constance  left Antwerp bound for Plymouth and Bristol on Thursday 19th, the weather was moderate, it was cold and frosty and there were fog banks to contend with.  The master, Captain Henry Farquhar Holt, was steering by compass; he believed his steering compass to be absolutely correct and ignored the magnetic effect of the tons of iron on deck.  The master used the engine revolutions to estimate the distance travelled.  The engine telegraph was known to be faulty, they had asked for a new one but the request was refused, and often the engineer had to send a boy to find out what the actual engine speed should be.

The Constance proceeded on course, it was hazy and foggy over the land but clearer offshore, with a gentle breeze from the west-south-west.  Having checked his position the course was set to west-north-west and the ship proceeded at full speed for Plymouth.  At midnight on Saturday 21st, the chief officer James Callaway relieved the second mate in charge of the deck. There were three other hands on watch, seaman William Wylds was at the wheel, Edward Seavell was acting as look-out man on the forecastle and the carpenter James Mahoney who was on deck.  The visibility was poor on the way to Plymouth but they saw the loom of Prawle Point light and the lights of several fishing boats, but they alerted their presence with occasional blasts on the steam whistle.  Coming into Plymouth Sound in the dark, the master saw the Breakwater Light off the starboard bow about five miles away.  At 3.15 the master stopped the ship and they found that they were in 9 fathoms (16m) depth, so he sent the Callaway forward to get the anchor ready for letting go.  The ship was short handed so the lookout had to leave his post to help with the anchor.

The master thought he saw the Breakwater Light bearing north-east, gave the order to steer north-east, and to proceed ahead slow.  Unfortunately the message received in the engine room by chief engineer Thomas Rees on the broken telegraph was ‘full speed ahead’, the engine revolutions were increased and the vessel surged forward through the fog.  The chief officer on the forecastle looked through the fog and saw a rock close to the port bow, he yelled ‘helm a port!’, but almost immediately the ship ran onto the Shagstone with a terrific crash, tearing her bottom open.  The master gave the order to launch the boats carried by the Constance, the port and starboard lifeboats and the jolly boat, then remained on the bridge.  With the bottom of the ship torn away the engineroom started to flood so Thomas Rees and his son, also Thomas, ran on deck and helped the rest of the crew with the boats.

The ship had a list to starboard so they could not launch the port side lifeboat, so all hands tried to get the starboard lifeboat clear.  Second mate William Baker woke when the ship hit the Shagstone, he hurried on deck and joined in.  The crew had trouble with the starboard lifeboat, the keel of the boat had jammed in the after chock and the blocks and tackle were not working properly.  They also found that there were no rowlocks or thole pins in the lifeboat so they could not row once it had been launched.  The ship lurched sideways in the swell, the boat shot free of the chocks and went over the side, taking Baker with it.  Baker held on to the tackle aas the boat hit the sea, he went underwater, but managed to pull himself back into the boat while it was still hanging on its davits.  Fireman Rees, Seavill and Wylds were also thrown overboard when the ship lurched.  Someone shouted ‘man overboard’ and the chief engineer heard his son, who could not swim, cry out for help.  Baker could not help him because he was trying to save himself, seaman Albert Hood did try to get Rees on board but failed.  Seavill and Wylds were wearing seaboots and monkey jackets so would have sunk almost immediately.

The remaining crew manged to launch the jolly boat, the chief engineer got in with the chief mate and the steward Henry Matthew.  Rees found there was no bung in the boat so he kept his thumb over the drain hole to stop the boat flooding.  Someone brought a brandy bottle with them and its cork was used to stop up the drain hole in place of a bung.  In the turmoil, the chief mate shouted ‘every man for himself’.  Fireman Henry Lockett heard the cry and thought that the chief was deserting his shipmates, so he jumped into the sea and swam to the jolly-boat.  In the meantime, the second mate and the remaining crew had lowered the starboard boat and taken her round to the sheltered port side where there was smooth water, and she was soon joined by the jolly boat.  The chaos had lasted just 20 minutes, but three crew had been lost overboard in that time.  Having failed in an attempt to save the ship's papers, the master abandoned ship.  It was still dark and the remaining crew were safe in the boats, so they waited till daylight before rowing to Millbay Pier.

The master returned to the ship that morning in the Great Western steam tender Sir Francis Drake and found the Constance a total wreck.  Constance had ended up on the Shagstone, her funnel lying alongside the beacon that had just been installed on the rock, she had broken in two near the forepart of the bridge and the cargo was washing out of her hold.  A diver called Charles Pascoe was engaged to salvage the ship and recover what he could.  During the salvage work he was working inside the hold moving boxes when he came across the body of Edward Seaval wedged in amongst them, he freed the body and sent it up to the surface on a rope.  It is likely that Seaval had drowned shortly after having fallen overboard and his body had been washed back into the wreck.

The inquiry into the loss of the Constance was held in Bristol in February that year.  The inquiry uncovered several problems with how the vessel was managed and operated; there was no record of maintenance on board and the engine telegraph was known to be faulty but was not repaired or replaced.  There had been problems with the lifeboat gear when the vessel wrecked and the inquiry found that the boats had not been launched for some time, as the master stated, the crew were always too busy.  The Court said that the ship was under-manned, a proper lookout was not kept, and the navigation was unsafe as the master did not know his course or speed accurately.  Despite this series of preventable errors and three lives were lost in the accident, the master’s and chief mate’s certificates were suspended for six months and owners had to pay £100 costs.

In a postscript to the story, later in March the body of the fireman Thomas William Rees was recovered from Bovisand Bay, found on the rocks by coastguard William Cowell.  Having watched his son drown in the accident, the chief engineer now had to identify the body of his only son which had been in the water for seven weeks.  The body of seaman William Wylds was never found.

Location and Access

The Shagstone, on the east side of Plymouth Sound.

The Constance was wrecked on the landward side of the Shagstone and broke in two pieces.  Her anchors and windlass lie close to the Shagstone on the north side and iron hull plating can be found south east of the Shagstone in 5-10 metres of water.  The site has a sandy bottom with kelp-covered rock outcrops, it has good scenery and its depth makes it a good second dive or wreck dive for novices.  Several ships wrecked on the Shagstone and the area was once used for dumping Plymouth’s rubbish, so there is lots to find in the sand under the weed.  The remains of the steam ship Nepaul can also be found in the same area.

Nearby wrecks include the Nepaul , the Fylrix , Yvonne , Vectis and Glen Strathallan

Last updated 18 July 2025

Position GPS: 50° 19.070 N 004° 07.572 W
Depth: 12m

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