More information : 'About 4 o'clock on Sunday morning, 22nd instant...having on board 3 officers, 72 men and 36 horses - all of the 7th Light Dragoons - was driven upon the rocks near Coverack. All on board perished except 7 private Dragoons. The three unfortunate officers who had survived a disastrous campaign to perish on the English shore were Major Cavendish, Capt. Duckenfield and Lieut. Waldegrave...with a party of Capt. Morris's troops of the 13th Dragoons under Sgt. Conner, from Helston...exerted themselves to rescue the lives and property...about 50 bodies lay scattered along the shore...about 50 coffins were sent from Helston which were decently interred in St. Keverne burying ground.' (1)(2)
Lost during the same night as HMS PRIMROSE, the transport vessel DISPATCH was not driven ashore near Lowland Point as has often been reported, but drove into the high cliffs close to Black Head...The bodies of the dead were indentified by fellow officers due to have been aboard the DISPATCH but who at the last moment changed to the transport BARFLEUR, which arrived home safely. (3)
'The DISPATCH of Shields, a transport, from Corunna, with about 100 of the 7th Regt. of Light Dragoons, was driven on shore near Falmouth on Sunday, and only seven men saved; since floated off and drove into Coverack Bay without any person on board, and nearly full of water.' (5)
'The names of the survivors are John Richardson, Thomas Harries, James Clow, Edmund Hall, Charles Weeks, and John Ravel, the farrier.' (7)
22 January, DISPATCH transport, and PRIMROSE, 18 guns. At 4am the DISPATCH transport of Shields, Captain Botley, with part of the 7th Light Dragoons, amounting in all with the crew to 100 persons, struck on the rocks at Coverack about 1 mile from the Manacles. She left Corunna on the 17th with Major Cavendish, Captain Duncanfield, Lt. Waldegrave, and about 70 men of the 7th, together with 34 horses. When the ship struck the men were all in bed and consequently there were only six known survivors, one of whom was John Ravel, the farrier.
These brave fellows were the same as distinguished themselves so eminently under Lord Paget. (8)
Thought originally to have been lost on Lowland Point or the Manacles but a cannon site under the Coastguard lookout at Black Head has been identified as her remains. (9)
A brass musket trigger guard recovered from a wreck, possibly HMS DISPATCH, Manacles. (Droit A/4598) (10)
'The DISPATCH, transport of Shields, from Corunna, with part of the 7th Regiment of Light Dragoons (with the crew 100 in all) was lost on Tuesday [sic] morning, on the Manacle Rocks, near Falmouth, and only 7 dragoons are saved.' (11)
'January 22nd 1809. On Sunday morning about half past three o'clock the DISPATCH transport (George Fenwick, Master) having three Officers and 70 men of the 7th Dragoons (on her way from Corunna in Spain), was driven on the rocks, near Coverack, and all on board perished - except seven private Dragoons. The three unfortunate Officers who had survived a disastrous campaign to perish on the English Shore, were Major Cavendish, Captain Duckinfield and Lieutenant Waldegrave.' (12)
The dead were interred by the north wall of the churchyard with a commemorative marble tablet, the text of which is given, and which was subsequently removed to the interior of the church. Forty-six years later, the grave site was revealed when another wreck necessitated the digging of another mass grave [presumably the JOHN, SW 82 SW 96, in 1855], and the soldiers were seen to have been buried in uniform. A granite cross was later erected over the site by Sir Arthur Vivian of Bosahan.
A number of horses were washed ashore and buried in a mound, said to be "quite conspicuous" on the Meirs by the Coastguard rocket poles. (13)
'...An express arrived here this evening, stating the loss of his majesty brig PRIMROSE, 18 guns, on the Manacles Rocks, only one boy saved; also of the DISPATCH transport, Captain Barclay, having on board Major Cavendish, Captain Dickenfield, and Lieutenant Waldergrave, and seventy of the 7th Light Dragoons, seven only saved - those vessels were wrecked in a hard gale last night.' (14)
'H.M.S. PRIMROSE, 18, and the DESPATCH, transport, on the Manacles, 22 January, 1809. One man saved from the PRIMROSE, 120 drowned. Altogether 214 bodies were recovered.' (15)
Master: Barclay (6); Botley (8); Fenwick (12) On Board: 100 (8)(11) Lives Lost: 93 (11) Crew: 25 - extracted from combining (1)(2) and (11) Passengers: 73 (12); 75 (1)(2) Passengers Lost: 66 (12); 68 (1)(2)(6)(11); 69 (7)(8)
Date of Loss Qualifier: Actual date of loss |