Loss of MV Darlwyne

Construction

The future Darlwyne was built for the Royal Navy in 1941, designated number 41768, in the Sussex Yacht Works yard at Shoreham-by-Sea. The hull, carvel built from African mahogany and rock elm, was 45 feet (14 m) long, approximately 11 feet (3.4 m) wide, with a draught at the stern of 3 feet (0.91 m). Bulkheads divided the hull into fully watertight compartments, each equipped with a bilge pump. The vessel's original engine power was provided by twin Gardner 6LW diesel engines, each developing 95 horsepower. She was built as a picket boat, mainly to operate in harbours and estuaries transferring personnel between ship and shore, rather than to work in the open sea.

1941–1964

Picket boat no. 41768 remained with the Royal Navy until 1957, when she was sold to the Belsize Boatyard in Southampton. Here, she was converted to a cabin cruiser, during which most of her original watertight bulkheads were removed; the replacements were not watertight. In September 1959 the boatyard sold her to joint owners Messrs Lowe and Gray, who replaced the engines with less powerful twin Perkins P6 units each generating 65 hp. They then moved the boat to Teddington on the Thames, where on 22 April 1960 she was registered as a river cruiser under the name Darlwyne. At this time her gross register tonnage was recorded as 12.35.

In October 1962 the owners decided to transfer Darlwyn to St Mawes, in Falmouth Harbour, Cornwall, and a crew of six was hired to take her there by sea. Although the trip was accomplished without any serious incident, the crew were critical of the boat's performance in certain weather conditions. They found her top-heavy, difficult to steer, and with a tendency to list. Darlwyne remained at St Mawes until September 1963, when her owners decided to sell her as a potential commercial passenger boat. She was taken to Mylor, in the Carrick Roads estuary of the River Fal, where she was inspected by a local marine surveyor, George Corke. He noted that she steered badly—it was impossible, he said, to navigate a straight course—and thought that much work would be necessary before she was fit for commercial operations. On 30 May 1964 Corke acted as agent for Lowe and Gray in the sale of Darlwyne to John Barratt of Penryn, whose main objective was to renovate the vessel with a view to a profitable sale.

In Cornwall

After extensive work and repainting, in September 1965 Barratt sold Darlwyne to Steven Gifford, who took possession and began further adaptations. The sale ultimately fell through, and by the end of the year the vessel was back in Barratt's ownership. In the spring and early summer of 1966, under the supervision of Barrett's daughter, substantial alterations were undertaken, including the removal of the aft cabin to create an open cockpit area. This change, carried out without professional advice, was never fully completed. During this period the boat was in regular use for trips by members of the Barratt family, including a Whitsuntide voyage across Falmouth Bay to the Helford River, where she apparently performed well in strong winds.

At the beginning of July 1966, Darlwyne made several sightseeing trips around Falmouth Harbour during Falmouth's Tall Ships regatta. A passenger on one of these sorties was Brian Michael Bown, a former member of the RAF Marine Rescue Section. Although not formally qualified as a ship's master, Bown had experience in small boat sailing, and had skippered boats on seagoing trips to Fowey and the Isles of Scilly. Subsequently, Bown discussed with Barrett a business proposition whereby Darlwyne would be used as a day trip boat on a commercial basis. Barrett's later said that Bown had agreed to buy the boat outright, but there is no documentation of this supposed deal, nor did Barratt mention it to anyone else. Letters written by Bown at the time suggest a partnership arrangement in which he expected to work as the boat's skipper and to take a share of the profits. Barratt's daughter advised Bown that they were preparing Darlwyne as "a twelve-passenger charter boat"; any number in excess of 12 would mean conforming with Board of Trade regulations, and licensing might prove difficult. Barratt himself asked Bown to assume responsibility for obtaining the necessary licences.

On 20 July 1966, at the request of Barrett's daughter, Darlwyne was again examined by George Corke, who found the boat in generally poor condition. Among the faults listed by Corke were dry rot, a weakening of the hull caused by the removal of various supporting frames, and signs that the hull has been "pushed in" below the waterline. Corke's report reiterated his earlier view that Darlwyne was in need of considerable further expenditure and work before being fit for the open sea. This report was sent not to Barratt but to the family's solicitors, where in the days that followed it lay unread; there is no indication that Barratt was aware of its contents before 31 July.

Plans

On Saturday 30 July Bown and his friend Jeffrey Stock, a qualified engineer, visited the Greatwood Guest House at Mylor Creek. Greatwood's proprietor Robert Rainbird was familiar with Darlwyne, having joined one of the Tall Ships trips earlier in the month. According to Rainbird's later account, two of his guests had raised with him the possibility of organising a sea excursion, and he put them in touch with Bown who, he understood, was now responsible for running the boat. As a result of Bown's visit to Greatwood, enthusiasm for the proposed trip spread to other guests, and an agreement was made to take a large party to Fowey the following day. Different accounts were given later of the financial basis for the proposed hire—whether it was to be a fixed charge or a rate per head is uncertain.

Barratt, the boat's legal owner, was apparently unaware of the arrangements under discussion at Greatwood, believing, he said, that Bown had gone there to discuss with Rainbird future charter work once the necessary licences had been obtained. Although Bown had apparently made enquiries with the Falmouth Harbour Commission, neither he nor Darlwyne as yet possessed any of the licences or permissions needed to carry passengers for profit. Under local regulations, a passenger licence for up to 12 passengers would be given only after examination of the boat by the harbour master, who would also require the person in charge to be a licensed skipper. For vessels carrying more than 12 passengers, as well as a qualified master and marine engineer a Class III Passenger Certificate was required from the Board of Trade. This certificate was granted to vessels in good condition with watertight hull compartments, a two-way radio, a qualified radio operator and a range of safety devices. Darlwyne had no radio, no distress flares, and carried only two lifebelts. According to a later Board of Trade spokeman, had a licence been applied for, it would have been refused.

Voyage, 31 July 1966

In accordance with the arrangement made the previous day, early on Sunday 31 July Bown and Stock brought Darlwyne to Greatwood House. The party for the trip had swelled to 29: 26 Greatwood guests, one member of staff on her day off, and two children of another staff member. Eight of the party were children. Darlwyne anchored offshore, and the passengers were rowed out in two dinghies, one of which was hauled aboard and stored on davits, the other attached by a painter to Darlwyne's stern.

BBC weather forecasts for the Cornwall area, broadcast the previous evening and earlier that morning, were discouraging; all promised increasing winds, up to Force 7, with the probability of rain from mid-day. Such weather conditions could produce heavy seas and poor visibility. Nevertheless, Darlwyne set out from Mylor shortly after 10.00 am in pleasant sunshine, expecting to return before 7.00 pm. The journey to Fowey, which included a slight detour to view Mevagissey harbour, was completed without incident, and the party arrived in Fowey just after 1.00 pm. By this time the weather had deteriorated, and it was raining heavily. Bown did not tie up to the main town quay, telling a local that the vessel was "a bitch to handle", but anchored offshore, and again used the dinghies to bring the party ashore.

After three hours in the town, the party reassembled at the quay to be ferried by dinghy back to Darlwyne. The wind was rising; a bystander heard a local fisherman advise Bown not to leave the harbour until the weather improved, but was told by Bown to "mind his own business". Darlwyne left at approximately 4.10 pm, and headed westward into the worsening weather. For the first few miles the large headland known as Dodman Point provided some shelter; thereafter the vessel would be fully exposed to the force of the winds.

There were several probable sightings of Darlwyne on her homeward voyage. Outside Fowey Harbour in the vicinity of the Cannis Buoy a fisherman watched a vessel towing a dinghy pass by; soon afterwards another fisherman saw a boat off Meanease Point, close to Dodman Point, but did not notice a dinghy being towed astern. At about 5.45 pm a farmer whose land overlooked the sea to the west of Dodman Point saw a launch running close to Hemmick Beach, moving westward. He could see people in the stern area, and there were no evident signs of distress. A short while later an observer in the village of Portloe saw a cabin cruiser somewhere between Dodman Point and Nare Head, moving in the direction of Falmouth. This was the last recorded possible sighting of the vessel. By around 6.00 pm winds had strengthened to Force 6, with waves reaching 2 metres (6.6 ft) amid increasing rain and flying spray.

In the late afternoon a holidaymaker reported seeing four people apparently stranded on Diamond Rock, a semi-submerged reef off Porthluney Cove, west of Dodman Point. The report was given to the police, but at the time Darlwyne was not overdue, and thus there was no reason at the time to connect these people with the boat. This possible sighting of Darlwyne survivors was not picked up in the subsequent searches, or in the later Board of Trade enquiry which fixed the most likely time of sinking much later in the evening.

Raising the alarm

At around 7.00 pm, Barratt's son-in-law Christopher Mitchell noticed that Darlwyne had not returned to its Penryn moorings. Having ascertained that the vessel was not at Greatwood House, Mitchell enquired for news at the Falmouth coastguard station shortly before 7.30. He ascertained from the duty coastguard, Seagar, that there was no record of Darlwyne having left Falmouth that morning, and no indication of her present whereabouts. Seager later claimed that Mitchell advised him that Darlwyne had gone to Fowey, which Mitchell disputed on the grounds that he did not then know the vessel's destination. At this time there was no particular sense of alarm; Seager did not record the enquiry, and Mitchell assumed the boat might be sheltering in a harbour or estuary. He made enquiries among local acquaintances, without result.

Later that evening, Rainbird telephoned the coastguard station and spoke to Seager. As the call was not recorded at the station, its timing is uncertain; it may have been around 8.00, but perhaps as late as 9.30. Rainbird was advised by Seager to contact a number of coastguard stations on the Falmouth–Fowey route, for any news of Darlwyne, and to report back any information obtained. By this means Rainbird discovered from the Polruan station that Darlwyne had left Fowey shortly after 4.00 pm that afternoon. Rainbird claimed that he passed on this information to Falmouth at about 10.15 pm; Seager, however, denied receiving any such call before his duty stint ended at 11.00, and did not mention the concerns about the missing Darlwyne to Coastguard Beard, his relief. Beard heard of the likely emergency for the first time when Rainbird, by then seriously worried, rang the coastguard station at 2.45 am on Monday 1 August. Beard informed his district officer, who immediately authorised a full-scale coastal search for the missing vessel, to begin at daybreak.

Searches

At 5.34 am on Monday 1 August a warning message to shipping in the area was broadcast by the BBC. At 5.37 the Falmouth lifeboat was launched, followed a few minutes later by the Fowey lifeboat. At 6.45 a coastguard helicopter began a coastal search between Fowey and Falmouth, covering a distance of five miles out to sea. It was joined at 9.45 by a Shackleton aircraft supplied by the RAF Search and Rescue Force, which extended the search area further south, west and east. Later, two Royal Navy ships, HMS Fearless and HMS Ark Royal participated in the sea search. At about 1.25 pm the tanker Esso Caernarvon found the dinghy that had been towed by Darlwyne, about 20 miles (32 km) south of Dolman Point and about 9 miles (14 km) from the Eddystone lighthouse. The dinghy, empty but undamaged, was picked up by an RAF launched and brought to Falmouth.

Amid rising anxiety ashore, some held to the hope that Darlwyne remained afloat somewhere. Barratt's daughter believed the vessel to be "completely seaworthy", while Rainbird hoped that, out of fuel, she might have drifted southwards towards the Channel Islands. The coxwain of the Fowey lifeboat said, after 15 hours of searching, that "there was not a thing to suggest that a boat had been wrecked out there". Others were more sceptical: Steve Gifford, who had briefly owned the boat, was appalled that 31 people had been taken aboard a vessel in so poor a condition. He felt that she was simply not strong enough to meet the heavy seas she encountered, and would have in all likelihood have broken up and sank very quickly. George Corke, who had twice surveyed the vessel, felt that she was not seaworthy for the weather conditions that developed while she was out.

Searches by helicopter, Shackleton and lifeboats continued on 2 August, but were called off around mid-day because of poor visibility and weather conditions. At the insistence of Rainbird, who argued that there was as yet no direct evidence that Darlwyne had sunk, the searches were resumed in the evening. They continued into the following day, when they were joined by three Rapide aircraft, privately hired by a friend of one of the missing families. The Rapides covered a sea area of 2,500 square miles (6,500 km²), extending to the Channel Islands, before returning to Cornwall on 4 August without finding any trace of the missing vessel.

Darlwyne's possible fate was raised in the House of Commons on 2 August when members, while expressing the hope that survivors would be found, raised concerns about the apparent lack of enforcement of regulations that had allowed an overloaded, unlicenced craft to put out to sea. On the following day, the Cornish MP Peter Bessell hoped that the vessel was still afloat, but was highly critical of the delay in commencing any search until long after it was clear that Darlwyne was overdue. He also criticised the nature of the search itself, describing it as "totally inadequate". This allegation was strongly refuted by the Air Force minister Merlyn Rees, who maintained that there had been no lack of urgency and that everything possible had been and was still being done.

Victims

On 4 August the first victims from Darlwyne were discovered in the sea about four miles east of Dodman Point. The victims were Albert Russell, his wife Margaret, and two teenage girls: Susan Tassell and Amanda Hicks. The first three were brought ashore by the Falmouth lifeboat, the fourth by the Fowey lifeboat. On 5 August the body of Jean Brock was found in the sea, wearing a lifebelt, six miles west of the Eddystone lighthouse. That same day, light wreckage—planking from the on-board dinghy, an engine cover, a plastic ball and some sun tan lotion—was found on a beach near Polperro on 5 August. On 8 August two more bodies—Margaret Wright and Susan Cowan—were found about eight miles from the Eddystone lighthouse. Patricia Russell and Eileen Tassell were found two days later, off Looe Island and the Mew Stone respectively. The body of nine-year-old Janice Mills was washed ashore at Whitsand Bay on 11 August, and that of her eleven-year-old brother David was discovered at Downderry Beach, between Fowey and Plymouth, on 13 August. The twelfth and final body to be recovered was of Arthur Mills, found in the sea about 10 miles south of Plymouth. The subsequent post-mortems established that all the victims had drowned in deep water, suggesting that they had gone down with the vessel rather than after struggling on the surface. An analysis of the times shown on various watches found on the victims indicated that the sinking had probably taken place around 9.00 pm on 31 July. This indicated that Darlwyne could have remained afloat for around three hours after her last probable sighting.

When the first bodies were brought into Falmouth by the local lifeboat, the quays were lined with hundreds of people who watched in silence as the victims were landed and driven away in hearses. All commercial activity in the harbour was suspended; the royal yacht Britannia, at anchor on a visit to the port, removed its ceremonial bunting and dipped the White Ensign as a mark of respect. The crowds returned to the harbour on 7 August for the annual lifeboat service, this year transformed into a memorial service for Darlwyne's lost party. In the days and weeks that followed, relatives and friends of the victims took the bodies for private burial and collected the abandoned belongings from the Greathead. Meantime the sea search for the Darlwyne wreck continued, through the autumn and into 1967, led by HMS Iveston. This navy minesweeper, equipped with the latest sonar equipment, carried out exhaustive searches in the area around Dodman Point, thought to be the vessel's most likely resting place. Although more than 600 dives were carried out, no sign of Darlwyne was discovered. In December 1966 the navy storeship HMS Maxim investigated the seabed around Looe, after reports that a trawler had lost its nets after they caught on an unidentified object.

Board of Trade enquiry

The formal Board of Trade investigation into the loss of the Darlwyne began at the Old County Hall, Truro on 13 December 1966. The court sat until 6 January 1967, and published its findings in March. It admitted its inability to determine who was responsible for organising the fatal trip, as most of those involved had lost their lives in the disaster. Barratt claimed ignorance, and Rainbird denied any role in the matter beyond introducing Bown to the guests who had asked about a sea trip. In the absence of direct evidence to the contrary, the court assumed that details had probably been finalised in the Greatwood bar, between Bown and the two guests who had initiated the request.

It was established that at the time of the disaster, neither Darlwyne nor Bown were licensed in terms of either Board of Trade or local regulations for passenger-carrying vessels. The court believed that both Barratt and Bown were broadly aware of licencing requirements, but had taken no practical steps towards compliance by 31 July.

Evidence of Darlwyne's history confirmed Barratt as its legal owner. The court noted the various alterations that had been carried out from time to time, and concluded that on 31 July 1966 she was not in a seaworthy state. In particular, the cockpit floor was not watertight and had inadequate scuppers, allowing water that entered the cockpit to drain into the lower hull. The lack of watertight bulkheads would leave the entire hull in danger of flooding. The hull itself showed evidence of dry rot and other external damage. Furthermore, the overloading of the vessel with 31 people meant that she lay low in the water, so that a modest heel of 30 degrees would begin to flood the open cockpit. Poor communication between the various parties concerned with the vessel in the preceding months meant that these various shortcomings were overlooked or ignored.

The court heard details of Darlwyne's departure from Fowey, the prevailing weather conditions on 31 July, and the subsequent possible sightings. It thought it likely that some time after 6.00 pm the engines failed, leaving the vessel to drift helplessly; with no radio or flares, she had been unable to signal her distress. From the evidence of the stopped watches and the pathologist's reports of death by drowning in deep water, the court decided that it was likely that, around 9.00 pm, Darlwyne has been overwhelmed by heavy seas. Because of its structural faults it had filled with water and sunk rapidly, taking the entire complement with her.

Different testimonies were given about the number and timing of phone calls to the Falmouth coastguard station on the evening of 31 July, giving rise to a view that searches could have begun earlier. The court strongly recommended that in future, all messages relating to vessels received by coastguard stations should be recorded and logged. It was, however, satisfied that all searches had been thoroughly carried out. It did not feel that the supposed delay in beginning the searches was significant, as there was no information available that would have justified action before 9.00 pm, by which time the disaster had in all probability already happened.

In determining responsibility for Darlwyne's loss, the court was "satisfied that the major cause of the disaster was the Darlwyne going on a voyage to sea when she was physically unfit to withstand the normal perils which she might expect to meet". Culpability was shared between Bown and Barratt, the former for taking passengers to sea in an unfit boat, the latter for failing to warn his "agent or servant" of the vessel's unfit state. Barratt was severely censured by the court, and ordered to pay £500 towards the cost of the enquiry. Barratt considered the court's findings as related to him were "rather unfair", while Bown's widow defended her late husband as a competent and experienced skipper. Rainbird declared himself vindicated.

Aftermath

On 9 April 1967, at the parish church of St Mylor, the bishop of Truro led a service of dedication for a memorial screen, erected in the church to commemorate the victims of the Darlwyne disaster. The screen, designed by John Phillips and fashioned from oak by local craftsmen, contains the names of all the lost 31.

Shortly after the Board of Trade report was published in June, the coroner reopened the inquests, which had been adjourned pending any recommendations from the enquiry for criminal proceedings. Verdicts of death by misadventure were recorded in each case. The coroner expressed the wish that, as a result of the tragedy, regulations concerning licences would be much more strictly enforced. The report had stated that regulations relating to boat licencing "date from the Victorian era", and were wholly inadequate in modern conditions. The Falmouth harbourmaster told the enquiry that, without further staff, it was impossible to check all the boats in the harbour; furthermore, he said, the £5 maximum fine for operating an unlicensed boat was not a deterrent. In Parliament on 15 March 1967 the trade minister Joseph Mallalieu said that he had no plans to introduce further legislation for the licensing of pleasure boats plying for hire, but proposed to increase the penalties for infringement of existing regulations.

No clues to the fate of the Darlwyne emerged for decades. In July 2016, a BBC team investigating the Darlwyne tragedy some 50 years after the event employed divers to look in locations closer to Dodman Point than the original searches. They relied on local fishermens' knowledge as well as the accounts of the air-sea searches of August 1966. On 31 July, the exact 50th anniversary of the sinking, divers found artefacts—an anchor, a winch, and items of ballast—which a spokesman said were "more than likely" to have come from the Darlwyne wreck. According to the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, these relics were identified "beyond reasonable doubt" as belonging to the Darlwyne. On this basis several media sources reported that the mystery had been "solved".

The lost

The victims, with their ages, are listed by Banks (2014) as follows:

Crew

Passengers