The largest wreck on Loe Bar
was the 1,894 ton full-rigger Chincas bound from Rio de Janiero
with 3,000 tons of cannel coal. Bad weather first
forced the ship into Cork for repairs. After repairs,
the ship headed into a gale. The ship, now badly
leaking, put about for Falmouth, but the gale veered
and drove the Chingas into
Mount's Bay. She scraped past Mullion and anchored
off Loe Bar, but her cables soon parted and, at 5AM
on 7 November 1859, she was in the surf. When the
coastguard found her, the ship was broadside in the
seas, dismasted, and driving slowly into the sands.
The captain and crew waited for a wave to recede and
then jumped into the sea to wade ashore but nine men
were swept away and drowned.
As the tide ebbed,
the bar was crowded with laborers, carts, horses and
hundreds of spectators, as gear and stores were
salvaged. Upon the return of the high tide the ship
was overrun and only a year old, was shattered. Her
cargo of cannel coal was eagerly grabbed up by the
locals who did not realize the high burning qualities
of the coal. Many a stove was burned out that winter.
Coal from the wreck can still be found and still
burns as brightly as ever.
(Larn and
Carter, Cornish Shipwrecks,
pages 150-151.)
