Interior of St. Keverne's church, St. Keverne, Cornwall

Image: © Derek Voller Taken: 25 Sep 2017

An old and interesting church, large by village standards, with a churchyard that contains the bodies of hundreds of sailors, fishermen and strangely of soldiers, all from ships wrecked on the perilous rocks on this the east coast of the Lizard peninsula. Among others there were the 132 man crew of HMS Primrose, of whom only one was saved. This happened on the same stormy night on January 1809 that the transport ship "Dispatch" was wrecked on the Manacle rocks, just off the coast here. She was carrying 104 officers and men of the 7th Hussars returning from the Peninsular War. The "John" was a barque of 486 tons engaged in transporting emigrants from Plymouth to Quebec in Canada. On the night of 3 May 1855, the John had two hundred and eighty-seven passengers and crew on board when she hit the Manacle rocks, and was later driven broadside on to the rocks off Lowland Point. In the rush to get off the ship, the crew fought with the passengers for places on the lifeboats, the Captain being one of the first to leave. In the event one hundred and ninety-three people were drowned, including sixty-six children and sixteen infants. The Captain was later arrested and convicted of manslaughter. Just some of the stories of dire tragedy that are remembered in this churchyard.

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