The Lord Napier
LORD NAPIER
Three quarters of a mile east of the Salcombe Bar and a quarter of a mile out to sea from the now demolished Gara Rock hotel lies two protected wreck sites. One of these sites is known as Moor Sands, Bronze Age weapons were found there in the early 1970’s. The other, known as the Salcombe site, hides two wrecks, a 17th Century Dutch Merchantman or Barbary Pirate vessel, and alongside is the remains of a Bronze Age trader, potentially the oldest in the world if not the most important because it has proved that there was trade 3500 years ago between Europe and the Mediterranean.
Since the discovery of Europe’s largest collection of Islamic gold coins and jewellery on the 17th Century wreck, work continued till 2004 when the first Bronze Age artefact was discovered. Work then stopped on the 17th Century site to enable the divers to concentrate their efforts on these very important finds.
However one thing puzzled the divers for years, why there were so many modern bricks scattered everywhere, lying alongside artefacts from the 17th Century and Bronze Age. In 2006 they about to find out.
Two of the team searching the outer edges of the area found a trail of bricks, they followed them and came across a huge pile of them, swimming over the top of the mound they discovered an anchor and chain, following the chain they discovered a winch, under the winch was a piece of pottery with the broken word ‘mouth’ impressed in the glaze. They had found the ‘Brick Wreck’ as it became known.
Divers from the South West Maritime Archaeological Group have been diving and working together for many years and know they have a responsibility for the discoveries they make and the ‘Brick Wreck was no exception. Within days of the discovery they consulted ‘The Board of Trade Casualty Returns for 1910 / 11’ and discovered that on April 25th 1911 the ‘Lord Napier’ Ketch, sunk whilst carrying a cargo of bricks from Exmouth to Kingsbridge. She was lost off Rackham, exactly where they found her.
Further research discovered that her last owners were the Trout Bros. of Topsham near Exeter, and a chance conversation revealed that the Trout Brothers still traded as a boat yard at Topsham, A phone call soon set up a meeting with two divers of SWMAG and the descendants of the owners of the Lord Napier.
Within half an hour of meeting the Trout family the divers had a full account passed down the family of the sinking of the Lord Napier plus the names of the two surviving crew. They were told that the Ketch loaded a cargo of ‘hot bricks’ from Exmouth Brickworks for delivery to Kingsbridge a days sailing away. Just off Prawle Point one of the crew noticed she was getting low in the water and was getting heavy on the wheel, looking in the hold they saw she was taking in water and that the bricks being hot acted like blotting paper. So they started throwing bricks over the side, eventually they realised that they could not save her so they put down her anchor, jumped into the small dingy they towed astern and rowed to safety in nearby Salcombe harbour. The Lord Napier sank in minutes.
As well as providing the story of the last moments of the Lord Napier the family were able to give the divers a family history booklet that had just been just completed, in it were the names and addresses of the original owners. Also that very day a descendant of one of the survivors Eric Voysey was visiting nearby Topsham museum with members of his family and the divers were able to talk to him about his Grandfather Jim Voysey whose large black and white photograph adorned a wall of the museum.
Research continued into the history of the Ketch, and with the help of the internet found that the Napier was built in Rye, Sussex in 1868 as a Fishing Smack destined for the fishing fleet of Ramsgate. In the 1881 census the Lord Napier was alongside at Sheerness, Kent with a crew of five aboard the youngest being a cook on trial at the age of 14.
Ramsgate had a large fishing fleet during this period up to 168 vessels by the turn of the century, fishing off the Dutch and Belgium coasts for Sole, Brill, Whiting and Skate, the latter becoming more valuable as the demand for fish and chip shops grew.
Having such a large fishing fleet operating from Ramsgate created a particular social problem in as much as the presence of young boys having no fixed abode whilst their boats were alongside. By 1878 there were 200 Smack boys, many of them recruited from Reformatories, Poor Law schools and Training Ships, having no known parents. Local inhabitants were often disturbed by rowdy, cheeky boys in the streets until a local vicar took it upon himself to open a home especially for boys from the Fishing Smacks. Opened in 1881 as the ‘Home for Smack Boys’ it lasted until the decline of the fishing fleet and the start of the First World War, it finally closed its doors in 1915 and is now the Harbour Office for Ramsgate.
By 1898 the Lord Napier now 30 years old was sold to a William Hall of Galmpton, South Devon for the coastal trade. She is not listed by Lloyds, so not insured for valuable goods, that is why we see her trading in timber, sand, concrete, bricks and other heavy material. A local Dartmouth newspaper in 1903 tells of the Lord Napier hitting the Horse Ferry, resulting in spearing a covered wagon with her bow sprite, after taking two hours to free herself she carried on up the River Dart and finished up going aground off Noss, remaining there for a week till the tides freed her. The Skipper was either having a bad day or he was intoxicated, history does not record his eventual fate.
By 1904 it was obvious she was nearing the end of her days, the Trout Brothers of Topsham had a reputation of buying up old vessels cheaply and running them to the ground so to speak, the Lord Napier was no exception. Changing her rig again to a Yawl she plied the South Coast with all manner of heavy goods, Bridport Harbour records several such cargo’s being loaded to Dartmouth, and Exmouth. And so it was on her final voyage with a cargo of bricks, she ended her 43 year career as she slipped beneath the calm waters off Salcombe.
So that was the end of the Lord Napier, but what of her crew and owners, research continued, revealing a fascinating story of the early days of the 20th Century, reopening individual lives in those troubled times.
Samuel Trout one of the final owners of the Lord Napier was a Master Mariner and probably skippered the Lord Napier in her last years, he was born in 1842 and died in 1927. His son and co-shareholder Rupert Henry Trout was born in 1875, he lived in Monmouth Street Topsham and by strange coincidence was killed when HMS Monmouth was sunk with all hands during the 1st World War. The battle one of the first great naval actions was fought off Coronel, South America, known as the Battle of Coronel it resulted in the complete destruction of Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock’s squadron by the German Admiral Spee with his Battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, both HMS Monmouth and Good Hope were lost with all hands. The action resulted in the then 1st Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill sending a fleet south to route the German squadron.
Samuel’s only son Henry joined the Navy between the wars and became a Chief Engine Room Artificer, he was on board the Cruiser HMS Bonadventure when the Italian Submarine ‘Ambra’ torpedoed her off Crete in 1941 with the loss of over 150 lives.
Of the two survivors of the Lord Napier Jim Voysey lived out the rest of his life fishing from Topsham and there is a splendid photograph of him holding a huge fish by the gills in Topsham museum and painted on a gable end of a wall depicting life in Topsham at the turn of the Century. His Grandson Eric Voysey an artist, paints Ketches, and his work can be seen in the art shops of Topsham. Of Reg Chambers the other crew member nothing more is known of him.
On the Topsham’s war memorial are Rupert and his son Henry, killed in the line of duty, a link to the little fishing smack Lord Napier which started her life in 1868, and ended with the crew trying to save her throwing bricks over the side, they were not to know that when the bricks settled on the seabed they joined artefacts from the 17th Century and Bronze Age.
Further research into her life in Ramsgate is being undertaken, who knows what more stories will be told, all this from a pile of bricks.
Ron Howell SWMAG June 2009