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Known locally as the Tile Wreck.

On 8th April 1923, the Unicorn foundered in heavy weather off Rame Head on a voyage from Bridgewater to Jersey with a cargo of bricks and tiles.

Type

Trawler, then cargo steamship

History

The steam trawler Unicorn was launched on 11th February 1895 and completed in March of that year as Yard No. 498. The ship was built by Edwards Brothers in North Shields, a company that amalgamated with the more famous Smith’s Dock in 1899.  This iron-hulled trawler was fitted with a single boiler and a triple-expansion steam engine made by the North-Eastern Marine Engineering Co Ltd. in Sunderland.  The Unicorn was rigged as a ketch with two masts supporting a foresail, a mainsail and a mizzen; she was built as a fishing vessel and used as a drifter and for lining, owned by J. R. MacKrill, operating from the port of Grimsby as GY746.

The Unicorn operated from several ports over the years and had many owners.  In 1907, she was in Lossiemouth as INS249, but in 1915, she was hired by the Admiralty for service during WWI as a net layer (No. 2196) and was fitted with a 3 pdr deck gun.  Unicorn was returned to her owners in 1919, then sold to Sarah Hancock, operating from Milford as M139.  In August 1920, the Lagos & General Shipping Co., in Bristol, converted her to a cargo ship and in October the same year, she was bought by Francis T. Hare, of Tavistock, who transferred her to the Hare Steamship Co. Ltd., Plymouth, in 1922.  Unicorn was well known in Plymouth because she provided a regular cargo service between Plymouth and the Channel Islands.

On Friday, 6th April 1923, Unicorn left Bridgwater in Somerset and headed down the River Parrett for Jersey in the Channel Islands with a full cargo of bricks and tiles.  This time the captain was travelling without his partner; he had recently married and his wife regularly accompanied him to sea, but at the last minute she decided to stay at home.  Heading west down the Bristol Channel towards Land's End, the Unicorn soon met bad weather, and they found it impossible to get round the Longships.  On Saturday, they put in to St Ives Bay for shelter. The weather moderated that evening, so they proceeded on course, rounded the Lizard and headed for Jersey.

The weather was still very bad on Sunday, and heavy seas continually broke across the ship.  Water was getting below decks, and the vessel had to be bailed out with buckets; they couldn’t use the deck pump because the sea was too rough.  When about halfway across the Channel, the weather got much worse, so the Captain decided to run for shelter in Plymouth Sound.  When just off Rame Head, the situation became perilous; the ship was plunging into the waves but taking longer to shake off the sea, and her motion had changed because she had taken on so much water below decks.  The Captain got the crew on deck, and they prepared to abandon ship. The second engineer, Herbert, went below to stop the engines but soon returned.  The Chief Engineer, Prettyman, and the mate, Bisson, tried to launch the small boat without success.  Just before the ship went down, the engineer said “I’m off” to the mate, then jumped over the side, and was never seen again.  The boat freed itself and luckily stayed afloat, so the mate jumped in.  He saw the cook, Barnes, hanging onto a gunwale, so Bisson went alongside and struggled to get him in the boat.  With the sea breaking over the Unicorn, she eventually failed to recover, and she went down bow first, three miles off Rame Head.  It was all over in about three minutes.  The last time Bisson saw his brother, the captain, he was at the wheel of the Unicorn.  Bisson saw the second engineer in the water, but quickly lost sight of him.

The weather was hazy and very windy that day, but Lt Cdr J. P. Burton from HMS Defiance was on the cliffs near Rame Head with a friend.  Being a naval man, Burton kept a weather eye on the sea, and about 3 pm, in a chance glance towards the Eddystone, Burton saw a vessel founder and a small boat drift away.  The pair quickly ran up to the Rame Wireless station and told them what they had seen.  The lifeboat crew were alerted, and they launched just before 5 pm. The sailing lifeboat Brothers Freeman headed to sea under the command of Coxswain Frederick Eagles.  The lifeboat had requisitioned the Government steam tug Atlas, the lifeboat picked up a tow line at the west end of the Breakwater, and both headed out to sea.

The radio station also alerted the steam pilot cutter W. Woolven, who was at sea on her station off Rame Head, telling them that a steamer had foundered three miles to the southwest.  The Pilots headed seaward through a nasty sea and a very strong ESE wind, and soon discovered wreckage and a lifebuoy with the name ‘Unicorn of Milford’, but no trace of the crew was seen.  The Lifeboat reached the scene and met up with the pilot cutter to get a report on the events.  The lifeboat decided to search to westward for the small boat, so she headed off in that direction, being towed by Atlas.  At 6 pm, just 20 minutes before it got dark, the lookout on the tug saw something.  Heading closer, they saw Unicorn’s boat with the mate Bisson at the oars.  The small boat was half full of water, and the two occupants were exhausted; they had left in a hurry, they were not wearing many clothes and were soaked.  The two survivors were first put into the lifeboat and then transferred to the sturdier tug. Barnes was so worn out that he had to be lifted into the lifeboat.  The two survivors had drifted a long way from the sinking position and had given up hope of being saved.  The two men were brought ashore and taken to the Sailors’ Home in Vauxhall Street, where the British and Foreign Sailors’ Society took care of them.  A further search for the three missing crew was made on Monday, but with no success

The mate, C. S. Bisson, of Jersey, 22, single, brother of the captain, and the cook, L. G. Barnes, 18, of Chatham, were saved.  The three men who lost their lives were 26-year-old Captain A. G. Bisson, of St. Helier, Jersey, who was recently married; Chief Engineer J. Prettyman, of Plymouth, 28; and Second Engineer W. Herbert, 45, from Prince Rock in Plymouth.

The rescue of the crew of the Unicorn highlighted the limitations of the sailing lifeboat Brothers Freeman and the urgent need for a new motor lifeboat for the Port of Plymouth.  The Brothers Freeman was a 35ft self-righting lifeboat fitted with sails and 10 oars and carried a crew of 13.  Built in 1904, the vessel was used twice between 1922 and 1926 and was Plymouth’s last sailing lifeboat.  The sailing lifeboat would not have got to the scene of the accident at all if they had not requisitioned the tug Atlas.  The secretary of the Plymouth Lifeboat Committee, Capt. D. J. Crowther, described the sailing lifeboat as a ‘sluggard’ and that she would not go through the water even on a fine breeze.

The pilot cutter involved in the rescue, the W. Woolven , was sunk nearby just two years later when she ran under the stern of the liner Antonia. The Admiralty tug Atlas (W 41) is believed to be the same vessel involved in the salvage of the Liberty ship SS James Eagan Layne .

Diving the Unicorn

Multibeam image of the Unicorn, click the image for a larger version (University of Plymouth)

The Unicorn was found and first dived in 1971. The 28m long vessel lies on a sand and mud seabed in 53m depth, she lies on her starboard side and is aligned north-east to south-west. The hull of the Unicorn was undamaged when first seen, with the deck and superstructure missing, but now the bow has collapsed to the seabed.

The wreck is very broken, standing mostly 2m above the seabed, with the highest points being the tip of the bow and the boiler, 3 to 4m high. Part of the bow has collapsed and lies flat on the seabed along with the anchor windlass and anchor. Further aft, the cargo of red roof tiles forms a mound in the middle of the wreck, and behind this are the small boiler and the remains of the engine room, complete with the steam engine and skylight. At the aft end, the mizzen mast stands 4m high, and behind this, the 3m high stern is broken off with the propeller and rudder still present.

This ship is similar and size and shape to the more well known Elk wreck sunk off Plymouth .

Location and Access

Off Rame Head, Cornwall

Nearby wrecks include the James Eagan Layne , HM Submarine A7 , HMS Scylla and the pilot cutter W. Woolven

Last updated 05 July 2025

Position GPS: 50° 16.937 N, 004° 15.529 W Depth: 53m

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