Wooden capstan and iron gear, remnants of the ENTERPRISE on Barafundle beach in 2019.
Shipwrecks for Walkers, HappyFish Publications
Wales SA73 2DX happyfish42@hotmail.com
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About the Author
Tom, enjoys sailing around the islands of Scotland studying Neolithic trading routes. He has written over a dozen books about shipwrecks and has an enormous database of shipwrecks around Wales and the Philippines. He has skippered a dive boat off Myanmar, raced yachts in Thailand, been an RYA Sailing Instructor in UK. Tom has dived in ten different countries and sailed through icebergs in the Arctic to sand cays in the Australian Great Barrier Reef. His SEA GUIDE TO PEMBROKESHIRE is regarded as the best pilot book on West Wales and his Cruising Guide to Philippines, is pne of the most comprehensive ever printed. . During 2017he wrote two books, MARITIME HISTORY OF NEWPORT PEMBROKESHIRE and TY GWYN AND THE BRONZE BELL WRECK. In 2018 DOLLAR SHIP OF SOUTH WALES and SHIPWRECK. MH 370 In 2019, 3000 BC, Death and Rebirth Rituals in Neolithic Wales, and in 2020, WELSH BEACHES, SHIPWRECKS FOR WALKERS and another book ENGLISH SCOTTISH AND IRISH BEACHES, SHIPWRECKS FOR WALKERS.
In 2022 the SEA GUIDE TO PEMBROKESHIRE was reprinted as a new edition by Imray.
In 2019, Tom, growing a long white beard, started writing books about the Megalithic builders and the sea transport of the Neolithic.
Happy Fish Publications Maritime Bookstore at www.tom-bennett-shipwrecks.com
Barafundle Wreck
In January 2019 pieces of wreckage showed up on the beach when sand levels were low. Sand levels were lower in 1985 when I measured and studied the wooden hull, capstan and one bow anchor then to be seen. I concluded it was a heavily built collier of the type built in Newport Pembrokeshire around 1850. Looking through my records I now think it is the schooner ENTERPRISE built at Llansantffraid, south of Aberystwyth in 1830. With just three on board the schooner was caught out in a strong ESE force 6. Dublin registered she was taking coal from Swansea to New Ross. She ran on to Barafundle sands in a gale on 21 December 1907. At high water the surf smashed into the stricken vessel, waves completely covering the wreck. The three men climbed the rigging where one man died of hypothermia. When the tide dropped the other men could climb down on to the sands and go for help.
This is one of the 80 wrecks described in the book SHIPWRECKS FOR WALKERS WELSH BEACHES. A quality A4 book in full colour.