Volume Eight - Pre-Victorian to the present day - more aspects - More storms and their effects . . .

I searched for records of her wreck and could find no significant information so she lays where she foundered somewhere off the North Wales coast in the Irish Sea. The loss of the crew members was no doubt particularly difficult for those with dependant loved ones ashore. Probate requires proof of death and without an identified body, the wives and family would have to satisfy the courts that their bread-winner was dead. This situation must have occurred countless times for seamen of all nations. In the case of one member aboard the s.s. 'Gatesgarth' his status was in limbo until the following year as the Evening Express reports.

A Missing Cardiff Man - 'In the Probate Court to-day an application was made for leave to presume the death of Mr. John Rochards, of Cardiff, a donkeyman, on board the steamship Gatesgarth, which sailed on December 3, 1907, form Liverpool for Penarth.

Mr. A. J. David, counsel for the applicant (the widow of the presumed deceased), stated that on the 4th of December, the vessel was seen in Carnarvon Bay, and had not since been heard of. The vessel had been posted at Lloyd's as missing.

Mr. Justice Bargrave Deane gave leave to presume the death on the 4th of December last.'Evening Express [135] [361] 4th May 1908.

• January 1881 - The Great Storm

A great storm battered the coast in January 1881 with sub-zero temperatures and much damage to property throughout South Wales. At sea, and off Penarth in particular, things were quite dodgy to say the least for mariners. The Cardiff Times takes up the report :-

Penarth - Our Penarth correspondent writes:- 'The storm raged at Penarth during Monday night and Tuesday with unexampled severity. During Monday night it blew heavily from the east, and as the day approached it veered to the north-east and increased considerably in violence. In the village, although tiles have been displaced and a chimney or two blown down, the damage done, up to the time of despatching our parcel, had not been so great as might have been expected.