More information : The first of at least two ships recorded as wrecked below:
'1395. Dec. 3. Westminster. Commission to John Colshull, steward of Cornwall, John Herle, knight, and Henry Ilcombe, escheator in that county, to enquire touching the ships and other vessels with goods and merchandise of great value, which the king is informed have been wrecked on sands near the sea coast of that county, and which ought to be adjudged as wreck to the king, but which have been removed and concealed by the king's lieges.' (1)
Reference to a commission into the theft of wrecked goods in Cornwall in the time of Richard II, of which Henry Ilcombe was said to have been a part. Vessels were wrecked "upon sands off the coast there". Attributed to circa 1377 to 1399, "probably late 1390s"). (2)
NB: The named location of "Sennen Cove" has been selected for recording, since it is not known whether the ships were wrecked on the northern or the southern beaches of Cornwall, or both. This named location represents an approximate mid-point of the potential area of loss along the Cornish coastline, and additionally represents a sandy area, consistent with the place of loss as described.
The fact that the wreckage was reported as concealed may indicate some, although not necessarily all, of the ships were lost some time previously. The tense used in source (1), "have been wrecked", may indicate that at least some of these ships had been wrecked recently. [It is not uncommon in reports from medieval sources such as the Calendar of Patent Rolls for these reports to refer to wrecks which had, in fact, occurred a few years earlier.] In the light of this report, one possible candidate for identification with this group of wrecks may be the 1393 loss of an English cargo vessel at Mousehole [SW 42 NE 87].
Date of Loss Qualifier: Reporting date of loss
Additional sources cited in source (2):
Calendar of Close Rolls, 1405-1409, p285 |